The control of the world's supplies tends to get into the hands of a
few big producers or operators instead of being in the hands of a vast
number of small ones; and this has come about through ever-expanding
markets and ever-increasing specialization. Even whole nations
specialize more or less; some produce the corn-supply of the world,
some its coal, some its oil, and some do its carrying trade. It is now
a question whether there should not be some limits to this process, and
it is asked whether a nation or empire should not be self-supporting,
irrespective of the economic advantages of expansion and
specialization, and of the fact that the more self-supporting it is,
the less trade can it do with others; for it cannot export unless it
imports, and if each nation makes everything it wants itself it will
neither sell to, nor buy from, other nations.
There have been two periods in English history during which these
general tendencies have been especially marked. One was at the close of
the Middle Ages, and the other during the reign of George III. The
break-up of the manorial system, the growth of a body of mobile labour,
and of capital seeking investment, the discovery of new worlds and new
markets, heralded the advent of the middle class and of the commercial
age. Custom, which had regulated most things in the Middle Ages, gave
way to competition, which defied all regulation; and England became a
nation of privateers, despoiling the church, Spain, Ireland, and often
the commonwealth itself.
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