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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 1944)
THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 1944 THE BATTALION PAGE 3 Mercantilism As Basic Established Order is Explained By Dr. F. B. Clark Before eamining the salient fea tures of the social order which has come to be thought of in aca demic circles as mercantilism, a few observations should be made re garding when and where this pe culiar arrangement has taken form. Then, too, the very word used to describe the . order is signficant. Following the collapse of ancient civilization marked by the fall of Rome, the European peoples be came organized along feudalistic lines. It cannot be said ,however, that feudalism came to its own till about the year one thousand A. D. A five hundred year interval of time, therefore elapsed between the fall of Rome and the advent of feudalism, Histroians usually refer to the five hundred year in terval of time immediately follow ing the fall of Rome as “The Dark Ages”. After the Dark Ages came feudalism. Following feudalism came mercantilism. The five hun- LOUPOT’S A Little Place . . . ... A Big Saving! dred year interval of time in each instance is in itself suggestive. If mercantilism is to endure for a full five hundred year period as was the case with the two periods preceding, we still have to wait a while for the final culmination of forces set in motion during the earl years of the 19th century destined to supplant the mercan- cilistic system. It could be that the curent war means that final ly the foundations of mercantilism are being torn out so as to better provide for the other and it may be hoped, more satisfactory ar rangement. If that is the kind of revolutionary change which we are witnessing, it behooves us to understand those things which are being done away with. We can thus better appreciate the kind of soicety into which we are mov ing. The term mercatilism, now al most universally employed to de scribe the kind of society which existed in Europe prior to the dawn of the new era, seems to have had its origin with Adam Smith—the founder of the science of econom ics. It is, of course, built on the concept of a merchant. It means simply the adaptation of the phil osophy of the merchant classes to governmental policy. It does hap pen, however, that several other words are frequently used. In France, for instance, Colbert, an outstanding minister during the reign of Louis XIV, caused the word Colbertism to be used as descriptive of an analogous order in France. Likewise the word Kam- eralism applies to a similar ar rangement in Germany. Although a few differences existed in these countries in the manner of opera tion of the system, in the main, they are similar. Wherever there is an adaptation of a narrowminded merchant psy chology to governmental policy, the term mercantilism appears the best one to employ. We thus are faced with the fourth in our ana lysis of the five different potential social orders viewed from the jur istic point of view—that of rights under the government. The adaptation of the merchant psychology to governmental policy means simply that actions taken by the government are inspired by the motive of furthering monetary gains of the merchant classes. The measure of the monetary gains of the merchant classes is the difference between expenses incurred and gross receipts. When a mercantilistic policy dominates the government the wealth of a nation is assumed to be measured in the same way. A prosperous na tion is thought of as one which drives hard bargains in its deal ings with other nations. One na tion’s gain is measured by losses incurred by other nations. The concept of expenses of production associated with private enterprises becomes adapted to those goods which have to be imported in exchange for exports. Just as in a private business, expenses have to be less than income for a bus- Heij You, Aggies— If you- paid your Student Activity Fees and didn’t get your Batt card—do so at once! Take your yellow receipt to the Student Activities office, Room 3, Ad ministration building and get your card issued. Beginning Thursday, the Batts will be distributed by circulation lists only and unless you are signed up and on the list, you’ll not get your Batt. C’m on gang, let’s get head-out and get this matter of Batts cards cleared up right now, so you wont’ miss a single issue. It’s simple—just take your yellow recepit to the Student Activities office in the Ad building and get your blank Batt card. THE BATTALION iness to prosper, so with a na tion. In public matters imports being thought of as things to be bought, or expenses, and exports as things sold, or income, the imports have to be less in value than exports. To gain a full view of a society organized along mer cantilistic lines it is necessary to call attention to several outstand ing characteristics. If, however, we always keep in mind the one major objective—that of assuring that the volume of sales on the international market must always be greater than the volume of purchases we can better appre ciate the moving cause of whatever is presented as any one of the several things which are almost invariably indicated as salient to mercantilism. The following summary of the principal feature of mercantilism is found in a book entitled “The Development of Economics” by Dr. W. A. Scott, Emeritus Pro fessor of Economics of the Uni versity of Wisconsin: 1. Entrepreneurial theory of gov ernmental action. “In his relation to the nation the sovereign may be compared to a great landlord or the head of a great business. It is his duty to see to it that the nation’s resources are developed to- tliie extent required by the needs of the state, and to this end he must supervise its various in dustries, checking this one and promoting that as circumstances may demand. There was nothing that he might not undertake di rectly, and any interference with private enterprise was j justified if the realization of the state’s policy was at stake. Indeed, men and property were simply tools to be used as needed.” 2. Subordination of business ac tivity to codes. “Instead of exer cising the individual iniative and freedom with which we are famil iar nowadays, the workers in each trade, including both masters and men, were organized into one body, which in its corporate capacity controlled the details of the busi ness. In the process of time the most important of these developed elaborate codes regulative of the kinds and qualities of goods to be manufactured, the prices to be charged, the wages to be paid, hours to be worked, apprenticeship, the realtions between masters and men, etc., etc.” 3. Stimulation of the growth of population. “According to it, the more rapid the growth of and the larger the population of a country the better, because military power was directly proportional to pop ulation and a rapid increase in the number of the people meant a rapidly increasing supply of labor, which was also essential to low wages.” 4. Assurance of cheap food and raw materials. “The attitude to ward cheap food and raw materials was determined by the same con siderations. The interests of the classes who produced these com modities were not to be consider ed, but that of the nation. Cheap food was considered desirable be cause it made possible low wages, and cheap raw materials, like low wages, contributed toward the low ering of the cost of production of manufactured products.” (To Be Continued) ’Twas never said of a joke that the good die young. —ELECTIONS— (Continued from page 1) the members of the club. New members were welcomed into the club and their part in the club ex plained. Efforts on the part of the old members of the club were made to help the new members feel at home on the campus as well as in the club. Plans for a stand ing financial support of the treas ury were made and heartily agreed upon by all present. After a mo tion to hold regular monthly club meetings was made and sustained as a club rule, Logan adjourned the meeting. If a buttercup is yellow, I sup pose a hiccup is burple. is today’s reality! OTEEL RAILS connecting coast with coast! That was Abraham Lincoln’s vision, realized by the Driving of the Golden Spike. This historic event, in 1869, united the first trans continental tracks, and initiated the nation-wide delivery by Ex press of commercial goods and personal packages at passenger train speed. Today, Railway Express operates on 230,000 miles of track. Over them daily, 10,000 trains speed shipments of every kind to and from 23,000 offices. Included in this nation-wide network is almost every college town in America. Generations of students first learned about Express Service when they left home for college, then grew to depend upon it during their years on the campus. When you do have packages to send, you can help us do our war job better by aiding in three ways: Pack your ship ments securely—address them clearly —start them early. Our century of experience proves that “a shipment started right is half-way there ! M