458 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F., 
with class distinctions resting wholly on economic success. In a new country 
not only are traditions weaker, but from the beginning economic success plays 
a larger part. Thus, social prejudices as to the standing or respectability of 
varying occupations are less strong. Again, owing in part to circumstances of 
this order, work of some kind is to a larger extent the normal lot of all, a 
feature which cannot but play a great part in the development of the country. 
The existence of even a small idle class is anomalous. On the other hand, there 
is the inevitable drawback that material success, or, to put the matter bluntly, 
wealth, has less to counterbalance it than in lands where traditional position 
still holds a place. It is quite true that in England the same or a like tendency 
has been marked in recent years. No doubt, too, this danger, and it is a very 
real danger, is best met by the erection of finer ideals and loftier standards of 
conduct and attainment than are furnished by considerations of birth and 
traditional position ; but meantime, and pending their growth, the latter, at any 
rate in old countries, does something to lessen the importance and influence 
attached to wealth as a thing in itself. Even in new lands, such as the United 
States, and no doubt to some extent in Australia, they are not without a certain 
influence, but they are in an alien atmosphere. Hence the particular importance 
of the creation of a real standard of culture and personal excellence. 
Hitherto it has been my task to state and describe the chief economic 
particulars with regard to which countries of various types differ. It is now 
necessary to examine these in other ways and especially as to the influence 
which taken together they exert upon the economic progress of what we have 
called new countries. To do this at all fruitfully necessitates their consideration 
with regard to three matters—namely, the direction of economic development, 
the industrial organisation, and, lastly, the national life and character. 
The first question to put, then, is the special effect of these factors upon the 
economic occupations and interests of such countries. The natural answer which 
will occur to any economist is that countries in close contact and engaged in 
trade tend to develop those industries and occupations in which,as compared with 
others, they enjoy special advantages or stand at the least disadvantage. Such a 
distinction or division of industries, of course, exists between foreign nations 
and is the basis of the theory of international trade. But in the case of young 
countries its features and consequences are accentuated and bear a particular 
significance: with them it means that almost inevitably and before manu- 
factures have been initiated, let alone developed, they will enter upon a course 
complementary, as it were, to the occupations embraced in older countries and 
corresponding to the needs of such countries, the direction of their growth 
being determined by the interaction of external needs and their own natural 
wealth. This is in the main the so-called ‘ infant industries’ argument; but it 
is important to observe in detail the many causes which make up the strength 
of this when applied to the case of young industries in a new country. The 
circumstances of such countries usually offer peculiar advantages in some one or 
other branch of agriculture, sometimes, too, in mining. If the case of agri- 
culture be taken, such countries possess, as compared with older countries, 
abundance of land in proportion to population, while in addition the soil is 
new and often rich. The truth of this may be seen by a reference to Australia, 
Canada, the United States, Chile, and the Argentine. In all these, the agri- 
cultural advantages, and in some those connected with mining, are great. 
Consequently foreign capital is attracted into these directions and suitable 
foreign labour is needed and obtained. Sometimes in the case of settlers the two 
come together. The great strength of agriculture in these instances lies in the 
application of modern scientific methods of farming and the use of machinery 
where land is plentiful. On the other hand, new countries are unfavourably 
situated for the prosecution of manufacture. Not only would they encounter 
the competition of manufactures already long established, highly organised, 
and victorious over the initial difficulties involved in such a development, but 
they are lacking in two great requisites. They lack a population trained to 
manufacture and with some degree of that acquired skill which is 
attained from an industrial environment. Further, manufactures depend to a 
great extent on the degree of general organisation in the country as a whole, 
which includes, not merely skill, but the development of those conditions and 
