AND ON THE CONTINENT.

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the industry of other countries. In the German Enquete it wascorrectly perceived that the social standing of trade callings inEngland formed a strong point of the industry there (11). This isa circumstance of economical importance, upon which for thegreatest part depends the strength of private initiative in allbranches of undertakings in England .

But still something else has to be taken into consideration. Inthe first stage of centralised industrial development classdifferences are unavoidable, which are mostly filled with extremebitterness and hatred. These conditions will also influence in anincreasing degree the profits, because they cause many capablepowers, and perhaps not the worst, to avoid the industry, or with-draw from it earlier than necessary. We certainly see how undersuch conditions great employers often belong to the most hatedmen of the nation. Where, on the other hand, social peace isopened out by centralised industrial progress; where the mostenlightened operatives, of their own free will, return their em-ployers to Parliament, for instance, as not seldom happens in theNorth of England , the position of the employer acquires a meaningwhich certainly comes into account as ideal property. For assuch the feeling is certainly to be reckoned, to stand at the headof those who give back to the nation the inner peace.

lie who has been fortunate enough to enter the house of aDavid Dale, which is filled with tokens of remembrances fromoperative societies, arbitration boards, etc., in a field which wasformerly torn by the bitterest class struggles wall value the pointof view just presented.

If thus profits, as far as a sort of wage is concerned, go down,so also in the last respect the rate of interest.

The continual lowering of the rate of interest is also a result ofeconomical progress. Whilst formerly loans were chiefly taken forconsumption purposes, they are in the arena of the economicalsystem of to-day in the first degree devoted to 1 productive objects.Therewith the quantity of capital at hand, and the offer of such, iscontinuously increased (12). But the lending capitalist, differently

11. “Protokolle of the Enquete,” p. 351: “There is here, in Germany, something which has great influence—it is the fact that trade and industrial,pursuits are not honoured. Industry and trade are only taken up as a pursuitfrequently, when no other calling can be found. In England it is otherwise.”

12. Manchester Chamber of Commerce, “Bombay and Lancashire, ” p. 40.