MONEY AND LABOR. 183 



recognizing the fact that all trade is absolutely de- 

 pendent upon the use and consumption of the pro- 

 ducts of industry, and that the millions are the real 

 consumers ; that their consumption is the source 

 and measure of all trade. Neither do they appear to 

 appreciate the industrial revolution that has changed 

 the whole social and political condition of all Chris- 

 tendom, nor the relations of trade to the conditions 

 of the whole people. About one hundred years ago 

 all trade was substantially confined to, and dependent 

 upon not more than a tenth part of the people. Adam 

 Smith then said foreign trade was " to supply, at as 

 easy a rate as possible, the great men with the con- 

 veniences and luxuries which they wanted." But 

 now it takes in the whole of the masses of civiliza- 

 tion, and all trade is dependent upon their condition. 

 Our political economists have dealt solely with a mat- 

 ter which lies upon the surface of political and social 

 organization with money that which is merely 

 the conventional representative of real values the 

 medium of exchange in place of barter. They have 

 not yet seen, and will not understand, that the real 

 values the fruits of the industries of mankind, their 

 production and consumption are what demand the 

 most careful examination and thorough understanding. 

 We have evidence that money is not the cause of 

 our present distress in the fact that Canada, divided 

 from us by an imaginary line, is suffering the same 

 distress, with no fluctuations in her currency. In 

 England there is the greatest distress, but there has 

 been no change in her financial policy for more than 

 fifty years; but her industrial methods have been 



