A SCIENCE OF COMMERCE n 



presented. The chief function of such a course is simply to 

 make men think systematically ; and it is only so far as it 

 succeeds in being systematic that it will deserve the term 

 " science," if we care to give it the name. Business men, in 

 the midst of the pressure of affairs, are too apt — if I judge 

 of them aright — to regard a grave question of policy which 

 comes and confronts them as if it had presented itself for the 

 first time ; whereas, in three cases out of four, conditions 

 substantially similar have arisen again and again. So that the 

 function of the economist is not to dictate to the business world, 

 but to set forth in all its essentials, and thereby to explain, 

 the experience of the business world to itself. And what is 

 within the power of a faculty of commerce is to turn out men 

 who will realise that a commercial career is going to be 

 intellectually interesting, just because it will furnish them with 

 opportunities for the exercise of judgment. 



Is all this woefully "banausic," as Aristotle might say; a 

 mere " bread-and-butter " business ? I think not. We in 

 England have too long aimed at culture, and hoped that utility 

 would appear as a by-product. The result has been that the great 

 body of the English middle-class has left the culture severely 

 alone. Let us now, for a change, not be ashamed to aim at 

 utility, and let us trust that culture will appear as a by-product. 

 It will, if the avowedly utilitarian subjects are taught sensibly. 



Moreover, I am convinced that the introduction into the 

 universities of these new and very practical disciplines will 

 revivify economic studies, and contribute both to knowledge 

 and to social progress. To knowledge — passionless, unselfish 

 knowledge — because English political economy has in some 

 measure lost its attractiveness for men of ability, because it has 

 drifted out of touch with actuality. A mental picture of the 

 Steel Industry may be a lower thing than a Doctrine of Value ; 

 but unless the Doctrine of Value is felt to have a bearing 

 on things like the Steel Industry, men will find it difficult to 

 continue to take an interest in it. And it will conduce no less 

 to social progress. It may seem an odd thing to say at the 

 very time a Labour Party has made its appearance in the 

 House of Commons, but I believe it to be true, nevertheless, 

 that the path to social reform will lie in future as much 

 through the administrative expediencies of business as through 

 humanitarian sentiment. 



