completed, and commerce between nation and nation having ceased to be
handled for mere private profit and advantage, the parasitical power in
our midst which preys upon the Commonweal will disappear, the mercantile
classes will become organic with the Community, and one great and
sinister source of wars will also cease.

FOOTNOTES:

[24] See p. 50 above.




XII


COLONIES AND SEAPORTS

There is another point of economics on which there seems to be some
confusion of mind. If mere extension of Trade is the thing sought for,
it really does not matter much, in these days of swift and international
transport, whether the outlying lands with which the Trader deals or the
ports _through_ which he deals are the property of his own nation or of
some other nation. The trade goes on all the same. England certainly has
colonies all over the world; but with her free trade and open ports it
often happens that one of her colonies takes more German or French goods
of a certain class than English goods of the same class; or that it
exports more to Germany and France than it does to England. The bulk,
for instance, of the produce of our West African colonies goes, in
normal times, to Germany. German or French trade does not suffer in