8 Minnie Throop England 



to speak of an arm as being a separate organism as to speak of a 

 state being a separate country commercially. A State is to-day 

 an integral part of one commercial whole, just as an arm is an 

 integral part of the body to which it belongs. Trade, when left 

 to itself, takes no more account of Governments than do migra- 

 tory birds and fishes. And why it should, passes my compre- 

 hension." 



But while political relations aside from tariff regulations have 

 no direct influence upon the channels of trade, they do have quite 

 a pronounced indirect bearing on the same, and one may safely 

 say that there is usually some portion of the trade between mother 

 country and colony which would not be in existence if the political 

 ties were different. Whether this portion is a large or a small 

 one is another question. Some of the influences at work to 

 increase the trade between mother country and colony as com- 

 pared with the trade of countries politically separate follow : 



Investment follows a flag, 24 and trade follozus investment. In 

 other words the flag stands for security, which is so essential 

 for the development of a large trade. Security is of two kinds : 

 safety of life and property, and security arising from policies 

 of government or trade which are known to be stable. American 

 politics, for example, give an instability to industry which is 

 unknown in England. The fact that business to-day is carried 

 on almost exclusively by means of credit, the very foundation of 

 which is confidence, lends added importance to security. Enter- 

 prise languishes whenever it is uncertain, or at least whenever 

 there is not a fair prospect that the usual fruits of industry will 

 be enjoyed. This applies to the colony as well as elsewhere. 25 

 The nature of the country which plants the flag is, therefore, of 

 great moment to the commercial world. But there is, undoubt- 

 edly, often a feeling that capital is more secure under the flag 

 of one's own country than under a foreign one. Capital has 

 followed the British flag under the more or less definite belief 

 that the Imperial Legislature could not, or would not, suffer a 



24 Cf. Caldecott, English Colonization and Empire, 186. 



25 Cf. Wakefield, Art of Colonization, 8i. 



184 



