been due to several intermingled causes.--3. Human action has assisted natural forces; and Free Trade has had a powerful in- fluence.—4. The adoption of Free Trade marked a change in economic opinion.-5. Adam Smith was the father of a new school of thought.-6. He separated the science of Economics from the art of finance.-7. With his name those of Malthus and Ricardo may be joined.-8. He was peculiarly impressed by the evils of restricting “natural liberty.”—9. In spite of different judgments passed upon his "Wealth of Nations," it occupies an unique position.-10. Malthus is known for his Essay on Population.-11. His influence was great, in spite of some uncertainty of view.-12. On general economic matters he adopted a position opposite to that taken by Ricardo.-13. Ricardo's writing was marked by subtle abstract reasoning, due largely to his surroundings.-14. He exerted a great in- fluence both on economic thought and on the economic practice of his day, especially in the adoption of Free Trade.-15. J. S. Mill embraced the approved conclusions of his predecessors in a A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. 12x CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. ECONOMIC HISTORY: ITS OBJECTS AND ITS DIFFICULTIES. 1. The opening of the twentieth century is an important epoch. The influence exerted on the thoughts and conduct of men by the fact that one century is ending, and another is beginning, can hardly be doubted by observers of the "signs of the times." The periods thus distinguished may be artificial divisions, but they impress the imagination, and their close, or opening, may hasten or hinder action. An opportunity is given for review of the past, and for prophecy of the future, which seems to be more appropriate, and more significant, than any afforded in the time between. In the stress and hurry of life actors and spectators may be so continuously occupied as to concern themselves with nothing more than the passing events and interests of the succeeding scenes; but the fall of the curtain on one act, and its rise on another, suggest a study of the plot of the drama, and the occasion is seized by the thoughtful, and forced on the careless. A seriousness and a mystery attach to such moments, which may exalt them above their real importance, but compel attentive notice. 2. An inquiry into the commercial and industrial history of England is suggested. The period, marking the close of the nineteenth, and the opening of the twentieth, century may take a noteworthy place among such epochs. It has produced an abundant crop of meditations and prophecies, and it has been marked by incidents of critical interest.* That the nineteenth century has been one, in which England has attained an Empire wider than any yet recorded by history, is a fact attested by the jealous admissions of opponents waiting opportunity for successful assault. That during the same period she has enjoyed a supreme position in commerce and industry, which some regard as a cause, and others as a consequence, of that worldwide Empire, allows of no more question than the ominous circumstance that the close of the century has witnessed resolute attempts to challenge that supremacy on the part of the thrifty, industrious German, and the alert, inventive American. Whatever, measured by the test of figures, be the success, which has as yet attended those efforts, they have prompted gloomy predictions of the future, which may, or may not, be realised. They suggest examination of the past. They encourage an endeavour to find the causes, to which our industrial E.g., the wars between China and Japan, the United States and Spain, and the English and the Boers, which seem likely to produce consequences of great importance to the future of the world. We are and commercial supremacy has been due. instigated to trace their working, sometimes gradual and sometimes speedy, sometimes obvious and more often obscured by surrounding circumstance. We note the assistance, which they have received, and the obstacles they have encountered. We guess how far they are enduring, and how far they are perishing, in what respects they need, and admit of, internal strengthening or external support, in what directions they are most exposed to menace or danger, on what sides they are likely to prove least infirm or vulnerable in the near or distant future. 3. Such an inquiry belongs to "economic history" -a department of "economic science." This inquiry belongs to what is known as "economic history." An English economist* has recently defined his subject as a "study of man's actions in the ordinary business of life”—as inquiring "how he gets his income, and how he uses it." "Thus," he proceeds, "Political Economy, or Economics, is on the one side a study of wealth, and on the other, and more important, side a part of the study of man. For man's character has been moulded by his every-day work, and by the material resources, which he thereby procures, more than by any other influence, unless it be that of his religious ideals; and the two great forming agencies of the world's history have been the religious and the economic. Here and there the ardour of the military or the artistic spirit has been for a while predominant; but religious and economic influences have nowhere been displaced from the front rank even for a time; and they have * Professor Marshall in his "Principles of Economics," vol. i., book i., chap. i. |