162 THE BEST POLICY. 



free and open to his often less intelligent but 

 more stniiglitforvvard and trustworthy competi- 

 tors. 



Nothing could better illustrate the way in which 

 this prime necessity for honest dealing between 

 the members of an industrial community produces 

 a general high level of individual honesty than to 

 notice the mode in which a similar feeling is en- 

 gendered by circumstances even among the mem- 

 bers of almost savage and predatory tribes. In the 

 Hudson's Bay Company's territory there are many 

 places where the fur-trade of the company is not 

 sufficiently large to support a resident store-keeper, 

 and where there are absolutely no inhabitants ex- 

 cept the thinly scattered hunting Indians. In 

 such spots the company often erects a store, gen- 

 erally a large shanty, without any custodian ; and 

 the door of this rude building is secured only 

 against the intrusion of bears or panthers, being 

 carefully fastened from outside with a wooden bar 

 or common drop-latch. Thus any person who 

 happens to pass can enter it at any time and help 

 himself to whatever he requires. It is, in fact, a 

 shop without a shopkeeper. Within are stored all 

 the sup[)lies that an Indian is likely at any time 

 to need — blaidvcts, clothing, iirms, powder, shot, 

 and every other object of necessity to the sur- 

 rounding hunters. A tariff of proportionate 

 values is hung up behind the door in simple 



