TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 903 
Tt is true that Ricardo himself, and some of those who worked with him, were 
incapable of supposing that a doctrine can be made more patriotic by being made 
less true ; and, so far as their limits went, they examined the good and evil of any 
proposed course, and weighed the good and evil against one another in that calm 
spirit of submissive interrogation with which the chemist weighs his materials in 
his laboratory. But they were few in number, and their range of inquiry was some- 
what narrow; while many of those Englishmen who were most eager to spread 
Free Trade doctrines abroad had not the pure scientific temper. 
Now at length, however, there seems to be the dawn of a brighter day in the 
growth of large numbers of many-sided students, in England and other countries, 
and notably in America itself, where the problems of Protection can be studied to 
most advantage—students who are not, indeed, without opinions as to what course 
it is most expedient to follow practically, but who are free from party bias, and 
have the true scientific delight in ascertaining a new fact or developing a new 
argument, simply because they believe it to be new and true, and who welcome it 
equally whether it tells for or against the practical conclusion which, on the whole, 
they are inclined to support. 
§ 6. But I must leave the subject of competition from outside a nation, and pass 
to that of competition within. Here the past counts for less; the present and the 
future have to work for themselves without very much direct aid from experi- 
ence. For, rapid as are the changes which the last few years have seen in the 
conditions of foreign trade, those which are taking place in the relations of 
different groups of industry within a country are more rapid still, and more funda- 
mental. The whirligig of Time brings its revenges. It was to Kngland’s sagacity 
and good fortune in seizing hold of those industries in which the Law of Increasing 
Return applies most strongly that she owed in a great measure her leading position 
in commerce and industry. Time’s revenge was that that very Law of Increasing 
Return furnished the chief motive to other countries, and especially America, to 
restrict their commerce with her by Protective duties to home industries. And 
Time’s counter-revenge is found in this—that England’s Free Trade has prevented 
the Law of Increasing Return from strengthening combinations of wealthy manu- 
facturers against the general weal here to the same extent as it has in countries 
in which Protection has prevailed, and notably America. 
The problem of the relations between competition and combination is one in 
which differences of national character and conditions show themselves strongly. 
The Americans are the only great people whose industrial temper is at all like 
that of the English ; and yet even theirs is not very like. Partly because of this differ- 
ence of temper, but more because of the differences in the distribution of wealth 
and in the physical character of the two countries, the individual counts for much 
more in American than in English economic movements. Here, few of those who 
are very rich take a direct part in business; they generally seek safe investments 
for their capital; and again, among those engaged in business the middle class 
predominates, and most of them are more careful to keep what they have, than 
eager to increase it by risky courses. And lastly, tradition and experience are of 
more service and authority in an old country than in one which, like America, has 
not yet even taken stock of a great part of her natural resources, and especially 
those mineral resources, the sudden development of some of which has been the 
chief cause of many recent dislocations of industry. 
In England, therefore, the dominant force is that of the average opinion of 
business-men; and the dominant form of association is that of the joint-stock 
company. But in America the dominant force is the restless energy and the 
versatile enterprise of a comparatively few very rich and able men, who rejoice in 
that power of doing great things by great means that their wealth gives them; and 
who have but partial respect for those who always keep their violins under glass 
cases. The methods of a joint-stock company are not always much to their 
mind ; they prefer combinations that are more mobile, more elastic, more 
adventurous, and often more aggressive. For some purposes they have to put up 
with a joint-stock company; but then they strive to dominate it, not be dominated 
by it. Again, since distances in America are large, many local monopolies are 
