THE WEALTH STREAM 297 



stream is obstructed. This is one of the perils of 

 war. 



The volume of the wealth current is maintained 

 or augmented by the action and interaction of a 

 large number of factors. First may be mentioned 

 the employment of credit. By credit all the 

 available goods of a community are drawn into 

 the market and used in purchasing. 1 A man may 

 have money, with no desire to expend it. But 

 he will rarely be unwilling to add to his potential 

 satisfactions by lending or investing it at interest, 

 and in this case he contributes to the fund that is 

 employed in purchase in the purchase of goods 

 that are exposed for sale, or in the purchase of 

 goods by an employer from his workmen that takes 

 the form of paying them wages. Credit is based 

 upon the transferability of wealth : but when 

 commercial confidence runs high, goods or land 

 may be pledged several times over, and the 

 industrial fund of the country may enormously 

 exceed the amount of the actual available wealth. 

 But when security is based, not upon wealth, but 

 upon trustfulness, its existence is precarious : 

 if a link is broken, the chain collapses, and such a 

 commercial panic ensues as periodically disorgan- 

 izes industry and throws workmen out of employ. 



Cheapness also increases the volume of pro- 

 duction. There is always a reluctance to part 

 with money. This is lessened if its expenditure 

 will give a substantial return in satisfaction. 

 And the cheaper are goods the greater is the 

 surplus that remains, after procuring them, for 

 the purchase of other varieties of satisfaction. 

 Accordingly cheapness promotes variety of de- 

 mand and stimulates the establishment of new 



1 " Purchase " is used throughout as including the payment of 

 wages by a manufacturer to his workmen in return for the goods 

 they create for him. 



