April 20, 1899] 



NA TURE 



589 



elusions of the conference, and deprecate any attempt to 

 teach the practice of commerce as a part of general 

 education in any of our secondary schools. The language 

 of some of the recommendations in the report of the 

 County Council is perhaps a little misleading, owing to 

 the fact, that where the report speaks of " commercial 

 education,"" what is really intended is "training adapted 

 to commercial life" ; and from the evidence given in the 

 report, and emphasised at the conference, such a training 

 should be general rather than special, and the subjects 

 of instruction should be so taught as to encourage inde- 

 pendence of thought and the power of original in- 

 vestigation. It is the habits that such a training affords 

 rather than any special knowledge, beyond that of foreign 

 Banguages, that have helped the German schoolboy, and 

 cannot fail to prove useful to the future business man 

 It is important, however, that the education should be of 

 a modern type. Physical science, including geography, 

 mathematics and drawing, English composition and 

 modern languages, should form the principal subjects of 

 instruction in our secondary commercial schools ; but the 

 subjects should not be taught with any special view to 

 mercantile practice, but by scientific methods equally 

 applicable to the study of other subjects, and to the in- 

 struction of pupils destined for other occupations. 



It is recognised that in all schools above the primary, 

 dififerent weight may Ise given to different branches of 

 study, and that the teaching, even on the modern side, 

 maybe differentiated without being specialised. But the 

 basis of such an arrangement should be found in the 

 different amount of time given to the different studies, 

 and not in the introduction of any specialised teaching. 

 For instance, whilst the prevalent system of teaching 

 foreign languages to all classes of pupils is generally 

 recognised as susceptible of improvement, it will be 

 readily admitted that pupils on the commercial side of 

 a school might devote more time to the study than those 

 iintended for the medical or engineering professions. It 

 is equally evident that the experimental method of 

 teaching elementary science, as sketched out in the 

 regulations of the Joint Scholarships' Board, are service- 

 able not only, nor indeed especially, to future technical 

 students, but equally to all boys and girls, whatever the 

 ■career they may eventually follow. Indeed, recent in- 

 quiries at home and abroad have shown the desirability 

 not only of improving our methods of school teaching, 

 but also of introducing system into our school organis- 

 ation. It is mainly owing to the absence of any 

 •distinct aim or purpose in the teaching given in so many 

 of our schools, that the secondary education of this country 

 fails to satisfy the requirements of persons training for 

 different careers, or to afford a fitting preparation for the 

 different branches of industrial life. Suggestions with a 

 view to the organisation needed are contained in the 

 County Council's report ; and it is hoped that when the 

 machinery contemplated in the new " Board of Educa- 

 tion Bill " shall be completed and in good working order, 

 our secondary education may be sufficiently elastic to 

 adapt itself to the various wants of industrial life. This 

 is evidently what Prof. Hewins refers to when he says : 

 "The most serious difficulty that has to be dealt with in 

 the organisation of commercial education is to be found 

 in the unsatisfactory state of secondary education in 

 England." 



One thing, recent inquiries will certainly have shown, 

 viz. that in its higher developments the theory of busi- 

 ness is a subject capable of being treated as a branch of 

 higher education ; and those who read the reports of the 

 conference and of the Technical Education Board's 

 Committee will find no difficulty, as regards trade, in 

 agreeing with what Emerson wrote nearly si.xty years 

 ago : " I look on trade and every mechanical craft as 

 education also." 



It is, however, in the University stage of education, if 



NO. 1538, VOL. 59] 



anywhere, that specialisation with a view to a com- 

 mercial career seems to be justified. The conditions of 

 modern trade and commerce show, that for those who 

 are to direct industrial concerns, and equally for those 

 who are to discharge the important functions of consuls 

 in different parts of the empire, the ordinary education 

 of a good public school, even on the modern side, needs 

 to be followed up by a special training in the theory of 

 commercial science. It is well known that for many 

 years excellent schools of this higher type have flourished 

 in France, Belgium and Italy, and more recently in 

 Switzerland. In Paris there are two institutions, one 

 established by the Chamber of Commerce and another 

 by private enterprise, in which commercial education of 

 university grade is given. These institutions are well 

 attended, the age of the students ranging from si.xteen 

 years upwards. It is true that the recognition of these 

 schools by the State, as exempting the students from a 

 part of the obligatory military service, has had an im- 

 portant influence upon the attendance, parents preferring 

 that their sons, destined for a commercial career, should 

 spend two years in a school of commerce than in 

 barrack life. But, apart from this consideration, there is 

 no doubt, that in France and Belgium, the value of a 

 special commercial training for youths over si.xteen 

 years of age, before going into business, is fully recog- 

 nised by merchants and bankers. In Germany, too, the 

 recent establishment of a High School of Commerce 

 in connection with the University of Leipzig, is strong 

 evidence of the importance, which those who may be re- 

 garded as the best educational authorities in Europe 

 attach to such specialised teaching. 



In London, the great success of the School of 

 Economics, under the direction of Prof. Hewins, has 

 shown that studies connected with the business of com- 

 mercial life admit of being treated in such a way as to 

 claim recognition as part of a university education. No 

 one can look through the general course of study pursued 

 in that school, in which there are now over four hundred 

 students, without coming to the conclusion, that the 

 aim of the teaching is distinctly educational and scien- 

 tific, and that the students' work is such as demands the 

 exercise of intelligence and thought, leading up to prac- 

 tice in methods of investigation and research. What 

 was previously regarded as merely possible and advis- 

 able, viz. the treatment of economics in relation to the 

 theory of commerce, as a subject of university training, 

 has been proved to be both practicable and useful. 

 By higher commercial education is now understood a 

 system of education "which provides a scientific training 

 in the structure and organisation of modern industry 

 and commerce, and in the general causes and criteria of 

 prosperity, as they are illustrated or explained in the 

 policy and experience of the British Empire and foreign 

 countries." Among the subjects which such a course of 

 education embraces, and in which fresh investigations 

 are encouraged, are the study of statistics with applica- 

 tion to the machinery of business, including banking, 

 insurance, the theory of exchange ; transport and the 

 means of communication ; industrial law, factory and other 

 legislation, and the principles of international law ; the 

 history of economics and trade ; commercial geography 

 including trade routes ; systems of taxation ; the study of 

 commodities, &c. The machinery of modern commerce 

 offers any number of applications of the general prin- 

 ciples underlying the consideration of such subjects ; and 

 what is usually understood by university education is 

 well exemplified in the serious study of the facts, which 

 the careful investigation of the phenomena bearing iipon 

 these matters helps to elucidate. It is in this spirit of 

 inquiry that the course of instruction at Leipzig and in 

 London has been arranged ; and a glance at the pro- 

 gramme of either of these schools will serve as a suffi- 

 cient reply to those, who are disposed to question the 



