I have presumed to say that modern trade discloses civilization in its
acutest form. The strict sobriety of this assertion we cannot, perhaps,
appreciate to the full, unless we note the relation of trade during the
last three hundred years to aggressive warfare. There prevails in the
public mind the false notion that somehow peace and trade are akin in
spirit and identical in their interests. This notion has been
assiduously foisted upon the public by kings of industry and some
professors of sociology, who possibly believe that it is true. But the
facts of history prove that every great war during the last three
centuries has been undertaken in the service of foreign traders, who
call upon their government to back their claims. According to Sir John
Seeley, the greatest political historian of the British Empire, foreign
trade and modern war have always been one and the same thing. Some
small nation-state resented the advent and methods of the foreign
traders, and began to prepare for self-defence, asserting that it
wished to be left alone, and that it meant to defend its own sacred
traditions. This the government that backed the traders would not
permit, and a clash of arms ensued. Or two rival sets of foreigners
were jealous of each other in their effort to possess one and the same
market and induced their respective governments to spring at each
other's throats. Under such circumstances war does not always arise,
because the mere show of vastly superior might is often sufficient to
compel immediate submission. Such was the case when the United States
in 1853 exhibited in the harbors of bewildered and terrified Japan a
fleet of great steamships. The threatened nation, having admitted no
foreigners since the Jesuits in the seventeenth century plotted against
its political independence, and not knowing how to use steam to propel
engines, saw that there was no alternative to violent conquest by their
uninvited guests but peaceful submission on their own part.
Such peace, however, is not the holy thing which some persons declare
all peace to be. When a man holds up his hands in answer to the
challenge of a highway robber, bloodshed is avoided; but the outrage is
none the less detestable because perfect quiet prevails. Nor is it the
kind of social calm which the angels meant when they proclaimed peace
on earth to men of good will. On the contrary, it is that stillness of
unchallenged iniquity of which our Lord expressed his menacing hate
when He declared that He came not to bring peace but a sword. Trade
illustrates civilization in its highest degree of intelligence and
elaboration; and foreign trade is only trade in its widest
transactions. But foreign trade being the cause of all war, the only
way to end warfare is to displace civilization by a system of wealth
produced and distributed under communal control. Then commerce will no
longer be inspired by the financial interest of private investors, but
by the total welfare of the whole people of the nation. But I have
touched upon the identity of war and trade only to show their vital
connection with civilization as a whole.