296 MODERN ECONOMICS 



twenty-seven centuries ago. Tokens 1 in the form 

 of miniature hoes, axes, and other implements 

 were in use for some time previously. But we 

 may conclude that the monetary system that now 

 appears essential to social life, has come into 

 existence since the beginning of classical history. 



The life of a community which subsists by 

 hunting, cultivation or the pasturing of cattle 

 is borne, as it were, upon a smooth-flowing 

 stream : when men forsook these pursuits for 

 the manufacture of things, they threw themselves 

 upon a whirlpool, and entrusted their lives to the 

 circulation of its current. Manufacture can con- 

 tinue only if goods are sold : selling and buying 

 must never cease. Political economy used to 

 teach us that a demand for commodities is not a 

 demand for labour : but if a demand for com- 

 modities did not exist, no manufacturing labour 

 would be employed at all. Industrial prosperity 

 depends upon the rapidity with which this current 

 circulates, as well as upon its volume. 



Its rapidity is increased by improvements in 

 communications which lessen the time that is 

 required for the completion of a purchase. It is 

 also increased by the enterprise of retail dealers 

 who by bringing goods to the doors of the custo- 

 mers quicken the current of selling and buying. 

 If, from any cause, rapidity of transit is seriously 

 diminished, the industrial population is thrown 

 into such distress as results from the closing of a 

 market. It is kept alive by such a stream of ex- 

 changes as is supposed to be the nature of the 

 electric current, and its vitality suffers if the 



1 Is it not possible that the miniature, or "pygmy," flint 

 weapons that are a puzzle to archaeologists were used for this 

 purpose ? 



