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The Warriors

Chapter 7 THE WORLD-MARCH OF TRADERS

Word Count: 4204    |    Released on: 30/11/2017

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nging for other things. We trade time, talent, service, goods, acres, produce, counsel, experience, ideals. T

ues on thoughts and on transactions, on merchandise and on philanthropies, on ideas and on accou

nce of the earth is constantly taking new shape before our eyes, being rearranged in kaleidoscopic combinations, and transported from port to port, from town to town, from sea to sea.

s stuffs, teak and cedar wood, Lebanon pine, apes, peacocks, sandal-wood, camel's hair, goat's hair, frankincense, pearl, dyes, myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, Balm of Gilead, calamus, spikenard, corn, ebony, fig

e towns; the Portuguese mariners and traders; the Venetian merchant princes. There was the Spanish colonial trade; the Dutch trade of the East Indies; the trade of Amsterdam and London. There were the Elizabethan sea-rovers. Then came the British trade in the East Indies, and the gr

across continents and seas. Instead of the ship, the camel, and the ass, we now have the ocean freighter or liner, and the flying train of cars: new forces, oil, steam, electricity, and water-power, do the carrying work of man. And hence trade has becom

aces, silks, perfumes; bread-stuffs, sugar, cotton, iron, ice, steel; wheat, flour, beef, stone; lumber, drugs, coal, leather. He scatters periodically the products of mills and looms, of shoe-shops and p

asis of trade, the place of the trader, the right conduct of this vast problem of Distribution upon which hing

great deal more in business than the art of making money. Business is, at the roots, a way of making nations; of developing the resources of a country, of handling its industries, of protecting its commerce, of enlarg

he prosperity of a nation depends largely on the intelligence, integrity, and magnanimity of its business men. To be narrow-minded in business, is not only intellectual astigmatism, it is poor commercial policy. To make use of present opp

world, sits on boards and committees, fills directorships and trusteeships, pays pew-rent, and runs towns. But when the spiritual conclaves of the world take place, when the things of life and death are inquired int

-this spiritual isolati

sadly to himself, Th

away, we shall discover the meaning of that great caste-line which has long been drawn, and ought

o the ideal-makers of the race. Understand, I am not now speaking of the new business man, the exceptional one,

class that Christianity has set free. Slaves have been given liberty; women, social companionship and intellectual equality; manual labor has been lifted to dignity and honor. But to break the shackles of the man of trade is the work of our era, or of an era yet to come. Thousands of young men are daily stepping i

its industry, manufactures, and commerce: men who understand the principles of production and exchange; ways of transportation; systems of credit and banking: men who know the constitution of the country, and the history of its development; its streng

ssic studies in language, literature, history, science, and philosophy. Then should come a technical course, graduate or undergraduate, such as the courses offered by the Universities of Pennsylvania, Chicago, Wisconsin, which include, in general, lectures and speci

deal more than just how to make money; he knows how to make it honorably and how to spend it, in his business, family, and

ot be bought with gold. The ideal is always founded on integrity, progress, and common-sense. It is pre?minentl

o do abiding work, in thought, deed, word; work philosophically planned, and perseveringly carried out; work which he shall do regardless of the outer circumstances of his life-poverty or wealth, of threats, misunderstanding, or hoots of scorn. He is unmoved, both by

anity fails of its full mission, and there remains a class of the socially lost, of the ethically unsaved. One reason why it is so hard to get business men into the Church, or to interest them religiously in any way, is that ministers, in general, do not unders

nto the world new ideal

Value, and Re

e is no ethical basis for it. "The amount of money which is

, and which others are continually trying to wrest from me, and which I must keep by all means, fair or foul. Competition is the battle of the strongest, the quickest, the meanest! I must know tricks. I must get in with people, get hol

might just as well be born a shark and live to prey. Every free dollar in the world will tease and fret him, until he sees it on its way to his own pocket. If this is all t

mere commercial prey? The value of Christianity lies in its reasonable and intellectual appeal. It does not spring upon one like a highwayman and say, Hands u

l give this whole town shoes, in return for which you may give me a house, market-produce, clothing, and an education for my children. The thing will come out even, if you and I are honest. Or a climate, a civilization, may give to another that which the other lacks.

trade receives an advantage. Not only this, it is a process of distribution, by which each one receives the

income. The publisher receives his profits, and makes a living. The public gains inspiration a

hfulness that he is giving his own child. He buys more cows, has them scientifically cared for, and his agents sell the milk. He finds himself, in the course of time, the owner of a dairy farm, and a man of increasing income. But his trade is not trade for the sake of money! it is trade to make sick children strong and well. He excha

imate measure of the cost of production. The ethical price of a commodity is the price which would enable its producer to

xcellence comes a certain exaltation of spirit, which ennobles the least fragment of daily toil. When the producer brings forth somewhat for sale, let him say: There! That is the best that I

of the necessaries of life-wheat, rice, sugar, soap, cotton, wool, coal, milk, iron, lumber, ice? The man who puts a price on an article, as buye

has control of a price-a price for a day's labor, for wages, for a cargo, or for any kind of product-has control of the living conditions of the one who works for him. The question is not: How shall I grind down price to the lowest? It is: What price will be an ethical return to this man for his social toil?-just to me for my brains, my capital,

system, more cutting than the axe of any Socialist, Nihilist, or Anarchist in the world? Oh, no. I have simply set myself to answer the quest

hen they do not care for yarn or calico, his looms stand idle for a year; the vast machinery of the world turns on woman's little word: I want. Hence t

or justice, or insight, or right barter, the soul is made more grand. True

never get back a money-value for our soul's toil. Whether we pass wampum,

it for the race. Sometimes the question comes over me: What am I trading for money? My time? My energy? My ideals? Part of my

all love gain. We are not born to go out of the world as poor as when we came into it. We should gain stature, wisdom, strength, influence, ideals. If o

gar. Their treasury is empty of spiritual coin, and their storehouse contains no world-thoughts. We can send a

ething for something less, or for nothing. Whatever we have to give may be rightly given; the wrong comes when we give it to the idl

the treasures of manhood. I give strength, courage, magnanimity, action, protection, and the indomitable will." Each wife should say: "Dear, in me are all gentleness, courtesy, beauty, grace, patience, mercy, and hope. I, too, am

ternity itself is not too much to ask. And hence the highest barter is that of the earthly for the spiritual; of the temporal for the unseen and eternal. We say, Give me God, give me heaven, give me divin

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