728 REPOKT — 1891. 



wliolly to relinquish agricultural pursuits, and society is separated into the two 

 great classes of capitalists who employ and labourers who earn wages. There 

 thus comes to be a class sympathy between wage-earners in many lands, such as 

 has never existed before in the history of the world ; their difficulties are similar, 

 their voting power is great, and their aspirations are alike ; with many of them 

 the interest of their own class in other lands calls forth more real sympathy than 

 the love of a country which is theirs in common with the classes who employ them. 

 The similarity of the conditions of employment in Western Europe was recognised 

 by the Emperor of Germany when he invited the representatives of various powers 

 to join in conference on the Labour problems. In the world of Labour, as in the 

 investment of capital, national difTerences and peculiarities are ceasing to be of 

 much importance. 



(c) The most striking illustration of the decadence of nationalist economic 

 sentiment is to be found in contrastintr the attitude which is now taken by the 

 mother country towards the colonies with that which was constantly assumed 

 during the eighteenth century. The right of the Crown to tax the colonies was 

 frequently questioned or resisted, but the right to regulate the development of the 

 colony in the interest of the mother country may be said to have passed unchal- 

 lenged tiU the very eve of the War of Independence. In the present day, however, 

 "we are inclined to blame a government which does not administer its colonial 

 affairs solely in the interest of the colony itself and its inhabitants, without at- 

 tempting to render it economically subservient to the mother country any farther 

 than purely colonial considerations seem to demand. Our colonies give us prestige 

 and importance in all parts of the globe, they form a ring of settlements that are 

 English in language and habits and customs, but they ai-e not directly subservient 

 to our national economic interests, for they may encourage the commerce of foreign 

 countries and they may come to be our rivals in neutral markets. 



(d) Nor is this all ; the international movements of labour are far more frequent 

 and rapid than they used to be. Till 1825, English artisans were positively for- 

 bidden to emigrate, either to our own colonies or to foreign parts ; it was doubtful 

 if engineers were at liberty to go abroad temporarily to set up machinery they had 



"made. But the legal prohibition has been withdrawn, and the new facilities for 

 travel have entirely altered the habits of the labouring classes. There is, of course, 

 some little hesitation from differences of law and of language in foreign parts ; but 

 the Lancashire man who gets a good offer to go out as a foreman and organise a 

 spinning mill in Bombay is not likely to overestimate the importance of these 

 things. He has got a good opening and he will take his chance about his power 

 of making his orders understood. 



(e) One consideration which helps to reconcile an Englishman to such a life 

 abroad is the frequency of intercommunication, together with the excellence of the 

 postal service all over the world. The very fact that there is such international 

 organisation is in itself a noticeable sign of the tendency of which I am speaking. 

 Postal communication between different parts of the world is far cheaper and 

 easier than it was between different parts of this country sixty years ago. National 

 barriers offer no practical resistance to the passage of news or the driving of 

 bargains ; mail steamers and telegi-aphs have combined to produce many changes 

 in the habits of business men in the present day. 



(/) One more illustration will suffice. For many articles there is now a world- 

 wide market, and it is possible to speculate with the view of engrossing the whole 

 available stock in the world, at any rate so as to be able to rule the market. 

 Corners in cotton may be looked for from time to time. Great trusts like the 

 Standard Oil Company monopolise an article of common consumption, and a 

 Copper Syndicate has run its course. The questions whether such speculations 

 are likely to be profitable or not, and whether they are public dangers, do not 

 concern us now ; I merely wish to point out that in actual commerce in the 

 present day we find what may be termed cosmopolitan speculation, which disregards 

 all national differences and takes account of the world as a whole. 



These symptoms that economic life in the present day is breaking down national 

 tarriers and forming international connections of every kind are very interesting. 



