Principles of Political EconomyPerry, Arthur Latham
General
Principles of Political Economy
Perry, Arthur Latham
Economics
If one should take his stand for an hour upon London Bridge, perhaps
the busiest bit of street in the world, and cast his eyes around
intelligently to see what he can see, and begin also to classify the
things coming under his vision, what might he report to himself and to
others? Below the bridge in what is called the "Pool," which was
dredged out for that very purpose by the ancient Romans, there lie at
anchor or move coming and going many merchant-ships of all nations,
carrying out and bringing in to an immense amount in the whole
aggregate tangible articles of all kinds to and from the remote as
well as the near nations of the earth. All this movement of visible
goods, home and foreign, is in the interest and under the impulse of
Buying and Selling. The foreign goods come in simply to buy, that is,
to pay for, the domestic goods taken away; and these latter go out in
effect even if not in appearance to buy, that is, to pay for, the
foreign goods coming in. At the same hour the bridge itself is covered
with land-vehicles of every sort moving in both directions, loaded
with salable articles of every description; artisans of every name are
coming and going; merchants of many nationalities step within the
field of view; and porters and servants and errand-boys are running to
and fro, all in some direct relation to the sale or purchase of those
visible and tangible things called in Political Economy _Commodities_.
Moreover, vast warehouses built in the sole interest of trade on both
sides the river above and below the bridge, built to receive and to
store for a time till their ultimate consumers are found, some of
these thousand things bought and sold among men, lift their roofs
towards heaven in plain sight. Doubtless some few persons, like our
observer himself, may be on the spot for pleasure or instruction, but
for the most part, all that he can see, the persons, the things, the
buildings, even the bridge itself, are where they are in the interest
of _Sales_ of some sort, mostly of Commodities. What is thus true of a
single point in London is true in a degree of every other part of
London, of every part of Paris and of Berlin, and in its measure of
every other city and village and hamlet in the whole world. Wherever
there is a street there is some exchange of commodities upon it, and
wherever there is a market there are buyers and sellers of
commodities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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