ing and making change-would preclude, absolutely, the large transaction of to-day. By the use of modern devices, the effort involved in this element of business is reduced to a minimum; a transfer of any size may be made by a simple stroke of the pen. Using more primitive methods than at present prevail, the process of accounting necessary to a consolidation such as that above referred to would have employed an army of men for months. Modern financial devices, modern financial institutions, modern systems of accounting, make the transferring of large interests a matter of a few moments. The settlement and adjustment of constantly changing business relations are quickly effected. The process of " clearing," for example, allows the financial interests of the whole continent to be adjusted weekly. By modern financial institutions, and modern methods of communication, the world's business may be brought into daily contact and adjustment, if need be. In New York, business to the amount of $150,000,000 per day is transacted and settled by the actual exchange of about $6,000,000 in coin. Between London and New York, business of something like $3,000,000,000 is kept in constant adjustment with the transfer of only about $150,000,000 in gold, and a large part of this is shipped for manufacturing purposes. Even a country store doing a $20,000 business, by modern economy is able to effect its exchanges, serve its customers, and settle its accounts in various parts of the world with the actual use of only $500. With a metal reserve worth a few billion dollars, held for safe-keeping in the vaults of the large cities-and with this reserve practically undisturbed the commercial world is enabled to do its business without the use of any considerable amount of money-metal. Communities and nations are bound together by financial and commercial ties such that the merchant or the farmer in western Colorado or South Africa may purchase goods in Hongkong, New York, or Amsterdam without offering a grain of gold or silver in exchange, and with no greater inconvenience than that of going to his local financial agent. Whether it be the organization and capitalization of a billiondollar corporation or the purchase of a spool of thread, the same commercial solvent is applied, the same instrument of economy is employed. It is the use of a universal system of credit that marks out the business method of the New World from the Old. CHAPTER V FUNDS OBTAINED BY GIFT AND INHERITANCE IT has been observed by writers that exchange did not exist among the most primitive people. This may not seem strange when we take into account the chief motives to their association. The family, per Primitive economy The family. haps, represents the most primitive group, but its prime purpose is not industrial; its uniting bond is found in the instinct of love; its race purpose is the propagation of kind; its plan of organization is one of cooperation for mutual comfort and in the rearing of children. To the family, industry is incidental rather than an organic principle. Its cooperation is based on the sacrifice of selfinterest, on devotion of the substance and energy of ancestors and adult members in the interest of the young and to the comfort of each other. The necessities of life, as between members of such a group, do not admit of commercial exchange without impairing the bond of sympathy and harmony which draws the members together and holds them in domestic relations. When, within the family, commercialism comes to be a dominant motive, when self-sacrifice and mutual devotion are relegated to a subordinate place, the family group itself breaks down-its component members attach themselves to commercial and industrial concerns instead; the family organization is lost. Within the family, "gift" is the prevailing method of obtaining the means necessary to comfort and enjoyment. |