92 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 



which must be bought from the people of food-producing 

 countries. That is to say, we have to offer them the 

 things which they want in exchange for the things we 

 want. And the things they want and which we can pro- 

 duce better than they are mainly manufactures indus- 

 trial products. 



The insolent reproach of the first Napoleon had a 

 very solid foundation. We not only are, but, under 

 penalty of starvation, we are bound to be, a nation of 

 shopkeepers. But other nations also lie under the same 

 necessity of keeping shop, and some of them deal in the 

 same goods as ourselves. Our customers naturally seek 

 to get the most and the best in exchange for their prod- 

 uce. If our goods are inferior to those of our competi- 

 tors, there is no ground, compatible with the sanity of 

 the buyers, which can be alleged, why they should not 

 prefer the latter. And, if that result should ever take 

 place on a large and general scale, five or six millions of 

 us would soon have nothing to eat. We know what the 

 cotton famine 16 was; and we can therefore form some 

 notion of what a dearth of customers would be. 



Judged by an ethical standard, nothing can be less 

 satisfactory than the position in which we find ourselves. 

 In a real, though incomplete, degree we have attained 

 the condition of peace which is the main object of social 

 organization; and, for argument's sake, it may be as- 

 sumed that we desire nothing but that which is in itself 

 innocent and praiseworthy namely, the enjoyment of 

 the fruits of honest industry. And lo! in spite of our- 

 selves, we are in reality engaged in an internecine strug- 

 gle for existence with our presumably no less peaceful 

 and well-meaning neighbours. We seek peace and we do 



16 During the American Civil War importations of cotton to 

 England were cut off, and thousands of cotton workers were 

 thrown out of work and into destitution. 



