THE MODERN TRUST COMPANY 431 



Roman canals lay across her land, and France displayed to her 

 a working proof of what skill could do. But the lack of capital 

 only time could supply. So, in Scotland, a canal joining the 

 Forth to the Clyde was proposed after the union, but was aban- 

 doned as chimerical until 1768. 



In his Law of Civilization and Decay, Brooks Adams, 

 indeed, finds the principal cause of the industrial revival in 

 the importation of the treasure stolen from India; and while 

 I think his disposition is to overemphasize the material side 

 of history, yet it may be asserted with sufficient confidence 

 that modern industry has been built up and still rests upon 

 that free employment of large masses of capital which then 

 for the first time began. 



The early industrial development of America was similar, 

 but was delayed for more than half a century longer, for want 

 of capital. This difference between the two countries is, of 

 itself, sufficient to show the true origin of the development. 

 Every reader of American history will remember the scarcity 

 of currency and coin which led even to the making of foreign 

 coins legal tender, by an act which was not repealed until 1857. 

 The old forges, for instance, of America, now blown out, have 

 only the same sort of historic interest as those of Surrey, 

 though they were operated to a later period. The development 

 of Pennsylvania, the great iron field of the world, dates from 

 the state systems of transportation inaugurated in the '30's, 

 aud that the great state of Pennsylvania went bankrupt in 

 1842, under a debt of only thirty millions, largely incurred for 

 public works. This was not a permanent default. Sidney 

 Smith sold his bonds too soon; Pennsylvania finally paid every 

 dollar, with interest on interest. If the ecclesiastical humor- 

 ist had possessed his bonds in the patience of hope, a classical 

 piece of literature would have lost forty per cent of its humor, 

 but its author would not have lost sixty per cent of his stock. 

 These prefatory words are truly germane to the subject, 

 because it explains the origin and condition of the movement 

 of which the trust company is the newest exponent; for the 

 functions of a trust company are, in general terms, the conser- 

 vation and employment of capital. 



Lest this statement of the object of trust companies should 



