F.— ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 99 



private enterprise and the risks it implied, there was such a tendency to 

 bankruptcy as to show an irrational position. Over the period 1903 to 

 1912, for instance, the statistics of liquidations of Joint Stock Companies 



in England were on the average as follows : — 



Capital involved 

 Companies on Paid-up Capital New in liquidations 



the Register. (1000's). Companies. Liquidations. (1000's). 



40,101 1,862,107 5,028 1,860 54,531 



This was an average rate of liquidation of 4 per cent, of companies, 

 involving 3 per cent, of the capital. It is not an unqualified record of 

 competitive results, because no country was without some extent of 

 combination. But it is the record of prevalently competitive conditions, 

 including those which obtained under partial forms of combination. 



Public and economic opinion had come by stages to tolerate, approve, 

 and recommend labour combination. But the conditions are different, 

 because an individual workman is not related to others, as one business 

 concern is to its competitors. Labour is necessarily employed in groups. 

 In any case, Trade Unions applied to only one factor of production, but 

 combination of businesses applied to the whole product as it came on the 

 market. 



Thus, on the whole, the combination movement was a ' problem.' 

 Books were written under such titles as ' The Trust Problem,' ' Wealth 

 against Commonwealth,' ' Frenzied Finance,' ' Trusts and the State,' 

 * The New Feudalism,' and so forth. To call a certain result a ' problem ' 

 does not mean that it must be stopped, but it implies doubt, refusing to 

 certify the results as rational and inevitable. The United States in 

 particular legislated to break up combines of a certain degree, and to 

 impede their methods of working. 



II. 



The post-war tendency is to change this attitude. The alteration in 

 point of view is very remarkable. Anyone can see this who reads the 

 documents submitted on the subject to the World Economic Conference. 

 One writer confidently states that the right thing to do now is ' to form as 

 many international agreements of producers as possible.' But these 

 international agreements presuppose national combines which are parties 

 to them ; and if world economy requires the combine formed by agreement 

 (the Cartel), then a fortiori of the national economy. 



This change of attitude has been urged both on public opinion and on 

 producers under very high auspices. The Reports of the Reconstruction 

 Committees on British Industries after the War are unanimous in asking 

 for a change of the public attitude toward producers' combinations. The 

 Report of the Balfour Committee on Efficiency puts questions of com- 

 bination in the forefront. It is not easy to appreciate this without 

 considering the future to which such an impulse may lead, in respect of 

 our attitude toward organisation. There are three large conceptions that 

 are related to each other — competition, combination, and public 

 administration. A change equal to that which has taken place in 

 reference to the first two of these would carry us far from the second 

 toward the third. Public industrial administration, in its broad features, 



H 2 



