III. The book which Mr. Curtiss has written is unlike any other which has been presented on the subject in its method of treatment, and in its width of range. Most books on the subject have been too much a discussion of what were claimed to be principles, and too little a discussion of facts. No subject which has largely concerned the hopes and fears of mankind has failed to undergo the experience which political economy has undergone. The natural tendency of mankind is to evolve things out of the inner consciousness and to make theories which account for the facts already known, and then strenuously contend for these theories in defiance of the facts which afterwards become known. Another delusion and snare of human reason is that method which for the sake of simplicity leaves out some facts so as to make the reasoning clearer, and forgets that these facts have been left out, and then goes on to declare that what happens in the ideal world where facts are left out will happen just the same in a real world where the facts are always left in. To reason that the actions of an imaginary man who desires wealth and wealth alone will be the same as that of a real man with all his hopes and fears may be an excellent mental gymnastic but can never be much more productive than the swinging of Indian clubs or the putting up of dumb bells. Exercise of the muscles may help and so may mental exercise if it does not mislead. This book while it has a suitable discussion of principles which is well worth reading and very valuable, devotes itself mainly to a recital of facts which tend to show what system of economics leads to the best results in the actual practice of the world. Such a book if faithfully written can not fail to add to the prosperity of the United States for it is true history, which is philosophy teaching by examples. It is in direct contrast with those systems which teach by general statements which comprehend all the facts which the author can conjecture and leave out all the rest. Such statements may be very alluring to the brightest minds because they seem so simple, but they will never do for a practical world. Some time ago in his laboratory a chemist demonstrated that corn could be made into a sugar which tasted like real sugar and could be made at such a price as would drive off the face of the earth the tropical cane and the northern sugar beet. Able men took hold of the invention, put two millions of real money into it and discovered that the new sugar would not make candy or cake. Now a sugar which will make neither candy nor cake has the same relation to real sugar that most books on political economy have to real business. Luckily these men had brains and ability enough to turn the plant to other uses, and so instead of leaving the ruins to remain as a visible monument of the triumph of facts over the wisest theory the money put into the enterprise was saved but the anticipated fortune was lost. Professors of political economy are seldom so fortunate. One of the greatest sources of error in our home discussions of the theories of free trade and protection is found in our ignorance of English economic history. Most people have the strangest ideas of the Cobden movement in England and think it resembled and justified the insurrection which led to the Wilson bill which now adorns our statute book and devastates our land. The calm and careful history in this book of the protection system in England which preceded the Cobden movement, and the history of the Cobden movement itself, will go far to rectify the false ideas which have been so long prevalent, and if it contained nothing else would be worth all the book will cost and all the trouble of understanding the story therein narrated. In 1846 the whole world was carried away by the same false ideas which the Cobden movement made prevalent in England. Everybody was taken with the notion that there were some heaven ordained places where some things must be made, and that whoever tried to make them elsewhere was fighting God and Nature. Fifty years of hard experience have taught us that God and Nature are not to be found out and disclosed by every gentleman of literary tastes who could make a syllogism or reason on facts with half the facts left out. Slowly but steadily the world has found out that this doctrine of letting things take care of themselves is only another name for indolence, which could never understand God or keep the weeds from growing where the sunny gardens were. This book is also the story of how the nations discovered that the best way to be protected and prosperous was not to leave things alone but to use their brains and make things better. Some people in the less advanced parts, even of this country, still think that the sole purpose of government is to keep people from cutting each other's throats, utterly oblivious of the fact that it is under such government that the most throats get cut. France, Germany, Russia, Austria, the United States and even England have tried the experiments and have all suffered. All but England have reformed, and to-day half of England's capital is invested not in England but in lands which have resisted England and shunned her recent example. This book gives the history of experiments tried all over the world of the two systems and the results which have followed. It teaches what the facts teach and nothing more. It does not teach that this law or that law, this rate or that rate, is essential to national success; for rates change with circumstances and laws with conditions; but it teaches that protection whether it be at one rate or another, whether it be by one law or another, so long as it is protection, is the sole essential. Therefore this book does not undertake to urge one law or another. What law there shall be, what rates shall exist, is the province of the statesman whose duty it is to accomplish protection for the country with the minimum of disturbance of preconceived notions and with due regard to the prejudices and the state of knowledge of the nation. Perhaps, as stated by Professor George Gunton in his admirable treatise on Social Economics, the true test of national prosperity is the number of the unemployed. If proper heed were given to this idea fewer people would lose their heads in the labyrinth which is created by the discussion of prices. It used to be a very taking idea to talk about low prices and to picture the happiness which was sure to come when things were cheap. We have had three years of delicious cheapness. Not only are goods cheap but labor has become cheap; not only does the housekeeper buy cheap but the farmer has to sell cheap for it is the same identical transaction, and no method has been discovered on earth in the same transaction to make the purchase cheap and the sale dear. Nor is this all. There are fewer sales and fewer purchases. That means less work; less work means more idle men; idle men do not create wealth, they only consume it. The more idle men the less the wealth of a nation. And that would be equally true if a cent would buy a dollar's worth. Perfection of the prosperity of a nation cannot be reached until all are employed. When all are employed the nation is doing its maximum of work and creating all the wealth which it is capable of creating. Then also takes place what is equally essential-the greatest approximation to a fair and honest distribution of the wealth produced. With the people all at work those who work can dictate their terms subject only to the limitation of proper profit to those workers who subsist by profit and not by wages; who take the risk while others take the certainties. Somehow or other, times like these are great educators. How very fine used to be the sneer about lifting one's self by the boot straps! How clear used also to seem the demonstration that taxes could create nothing! What a fine, large mouth the consumer had those days, and how puny and unworthy seemed the hands of the producer! Now the unfilled mouth has discovered who owns the hands. This book will show you that this has been the history of nations a hundred times; nay, it has been the history of our own nation half a score of times in our short life. Like the Spanish Grandee in the cemetery, we were well and wanted to be better, took medicine, and here we are. Is it worth while to undergo this death and resurrection again? We shall never do it if we lay fast hold on the facts of the universe. There may be a time come when nations will be no more, when the brotherhood of man may be established, when communication may be so rapid, when we shall be so equally advanced in civilization, that nobody will care where he lives or is buried; when distance shall break no ties, and when the universal language is spoken by everybody without accent; in that time we may lose nationality and become citizens of the world. Then free trade may reign. But such a time will not happen within the hundred years which centre in that week when two English speaking nations were ready to clutch each other by the throat about a boundary thousands of miles away, and the German emperor was ready to fight the kingdom of his grandmother about some people in Africa whose ancestors left the fatherland so long ago that history is not quite sure that they did leave it. Nationality is a fact, brotherhood is a hope. Perhaps if we live up to our fact that may be the best way to arrive at our hope. Thomas B. Reed PART I. OUTLINE OF COMMERCIAL HISTORY TO 1650. CHAPTER I. GENERAL DIVISION OF TRADE, COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES. However The direction of labor the prime eco nomic consideration. It is by the production, distribution and consumption of commodities that the various wants of man are supplied. From increased consumption arises a demand for production. In the earlier stages of man's existence he supplied his own wants by his products, but to-day people are enabled to consume only after they have earned money with which to purchase. Man must either apply himself directly to the soil, and thus supply his own wants, or he must trade his labor and efforts for that commodity called money, which can be exchanged for what he desires. much attention may be given to other branches of the subject, it must be conceded that, under our present social conditions, the question of finding employment for the people, and providing them with the means by which they may exchange their labor, directly or indirectly, for commodities, deserves the highest consideration, and lies at the very base of the science of economics. The true economics must begin here. This is the basis of production, as well as of consumption. The distribution of products is a matter of convenience, and important only as it aids these two necessary elements. The three important branches of production upon which the wealth and prosperity of nations chiefly depend are agriculture, manufacturing and mining. A country blessed with resources by which Division of these three branches of industry can be carried on, is enabled to find employment for the largest number of people, under the most perfect division of labor, and develop to the highest degree the various capabilities and aptitudes of its people. A nation possessed of a variety of soil and climate suited to the growth of all of the cereals, fruits and vegetables of temperate and semi-tropical regions can reach the highest agricultural development. A nation having gold, silver, copper, nickel, lead, iron and coal in abundance is possessed of inestimable mineral resources. With all of these at its command, with a soil and climate suitable to the growth of cotton, flax, hemp, jute and other vegetable fibres, and with pastures for sheep, it possesses in the highest degree, the natural resources and facilities for acquiring every blessing, comfort and luxury attainable. An enterprising and industrious population, inhabiting such a country, with industries. Natural limitations tion. such resources, can practically live within itself, and reach the highest state of prosperity and civilization, without giving any special attention to foreign commerce. Their surplus products can readily be exchanged for those commodities of foreign countries which they are unable to produce, and as they grow in wealth, as their domestic industries increase, as the tastes and wants of the people expand, sufficient legitimate foreign trade will naturally arise to give them importance in this class of commerce. The prosperity of a people so situated is measured by that vast volume of unregistered inland exchanges which is carried on within. its own borders, and not by the comparatively small amount of external trade with other portions of the world, arising from a variation of the products of soil and climate. A clear understanding of the application of economic principles canof produc- not be reached without a study of geographical situation, natural resources and those conditions under which all industrial pursuits must be carried on by the people of different nations. There is no country in the world possessed of all elements by which everything can be produced within its own borders. It is well recognized that one country must confine itself to those pursuits to which, by soil, climate, natural resources and the special aptitude and capabilities of its people, it is suited, and at the same time, leave to other portions of the world the production of those commodities which nature has ordained for them. Tea, coffee, spices, cotton, tropical fruits grow luxuriantly in certain localities, and in no others; while grains, vegetables and coarser products grow in all parts of the world. No one attempts to interfere with the laws of nature, which have selected certain plants and fruits to grow in certain localities. The natural products of a country should not be confounded with the capabilities of man in expending his energies upon raw materials, such as cotton, flax, silk, wool and the metals, or the use he makes of fuel and water power, in converting them into clothing and implements. The growth of those food. products and raw materials which flourish luxuriantly in tropical regions, with little effort on the part of man, have no relation to the production of manufactured articles by the application of labor and skill to raw materials. Because nature has ordained that coffee, tea and raw silk shall be produced only in certain spots on the face of the globe, it does not follow that the raw silk should be woven into cloth in France, instead of in the United States, simply because labor is sixty per cent cheaper in Lyons than in Paterson, N. J. At the outset the reader should mark the distinction between natural products of soil and climate and the products of industry and the handicraft of man. Moreover the limitations imposed by external nature upon production are not so great as might at first thoughts appear. Among agricultural products, the cereals and vegetables which contribute so largely to the support and sustenance of man, grow in abundance in almost every country |