The capital of this country has been computed by a competent authority at about £10,500,000,000, but doubtless these figures are very wide of the mark. Still, the amount of fixed capital invested in the country must be immense. By "fixed" capital, as distinguished from the floating or loanable capital deposited with the banks and kindred institutions, those investments of a more permanent character are implied. A depositor can demand his money back from his banker, but bank shares he would have to sell on the Stock Exchange--therefore the one is "floating" and the other "fixed" capital. It is the same with Consols, railway shares, and with the shares of all companies in which there is a market. When there is not a market, then the capital is fixed indeed; and there would not even be a market for Consols were the Bank of England drained of its gold. Moreover, during normal times the demand for loanable capital at the banks will help to determine the price an investor will receive should he desire to sell any of his fixed investments. It consequently amounts to this: The fixed capital of the country cannot be converted or sold unless the banks maintain large cash reserves; so we may truthfully assert that about £10,000,000,000 of capital is erected on a basis of about £71,000,000 of cash. This cash, in its turn, can only be kept in the country while our workshops are busy; therefore it at once becomes apparent that the national aim should be to increase our trade, for the yield, and consequently the value, of British securities is bound to either increase or diminish in proportion as the trade of the country is either flourishing or the reverse. Even the Government can only meet the interest on Consols while the people are in a position to pay their taxes. Such a statement may come as a shock to those persons who are accustomed to draw their dividends each half-year or year, and to imagine that unless the world came to an end these dividends could not cease; but they would cease were this country to fall hopelessly behind in the race for trade. This is not the old Socialist maxim that "Labour supports the world" put into a new print dress. It is evident that the fixed capital of this country, as represented by stocks and shares, would be mere waste paper unless the banks held sufficient gold to ensure a market for them: and as this gold cannot be kept in the country unless our workshops are able to compete successfully with those of other nations, it follows that the position of those persons who draw incomes from British securities is entirely dependent upon the brains and abilities of the men who direct our industries. How important, then, that the very best talent the nation possesses should be used in trade; and what folly it is on the part of those so-called "superior" persons to sneer at the trader--at him who, without doubt, enables them to draw their incomes regularly!