wants only the interest of money (perhaps not a third of the rate of
profit) on very much of what he uses, and therefore an income will
be an ample recompense to the poor man which would starve the rich
man out of the trade. All the common notions about the new
competition of foreign countries with England and its dangersnotions
in which there is in other aspects much truth require to be
reconsidered in relation to this aspect. England has a special
machinery for getting into trade new men who will be content with
low prices, and this machinery will probably secure her success, for
no other country is soon likely to rival it effectually.

There are many other points which might be insisted on, but it would
be tedious and useless to elaborate the picture. The main conclusion
is very plainthat English trade is become essentially a trade on
borrowed capital, and that it is only by this refinement of our
banking system that we are able to do the sort of trade we do, or to
get through the quantity of it.

But in exact proportion to the power of this system is its delicacy
I should hardly say too much if I said its danger. Only our
familiarity blinds us to the marvellous nature of the system. There
never was so much borrowed money collected in the world as is now
collected in London. Of the many millions in Lombard street,
infinitely the greater proportion is held by bankers or others on
short notice or on demand; that is to say, the owners could ask for
it all any day they please: in a panic some of them do ask for some
of it. If any large fraction of that money really was demanded, our
banking system and our industrial system too would be in great
danger.