COMMERCE AND TRADE. TERMS FOR DEFINITION. Commerce. Trade. A contract. A franchise. marine. "Index figures" in statistical lists of prices. Merchant A partner ship. A joint-stock company. Limited liability. "Trust." Syndicate. Pool. Subsidy. Foreign exchange, Monopoly. Insurance. Balance of trade. SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS. Influence of steam and electricity in expanding the world's commerce. Influence of railroad development in stimulating trade between the States and Territories. The commercial economies due to the Suez Canal. Influence of protective tariffs on the railways in Europe. Improvements proposed in national water-ways. Economies likely to follow the completion of the Panama and Nicaragua Canals. Provisions and effects of the Interstate Commerce Act. A comparison of the production of the manufacturing and mining industries with that of agriculture in the United States, at various decades. The development of mining and manufacturing in the South and Southwest, and its probable consequences. Origin, provisions and influences of the navigation laws of the United States; contrasted with those of other nations. The contraction of the area of competition by the growth of large concerns; the development of "trusts." History of the Standard oil trust; of the Cotton seed oil trust. Mercantile agencies, their aims, methods, and legal responsibilities. The advantages to trade of a Zollverein or Customs Union of several distinct nations. QUESTIONS FOR DEBATE. Is there any economic difference between agriculture, manufactures or commerce such as to justify the government in singling out any one of them for its fostering care? Competition in trade as it now exists involves grievous wastes through maladjustments of supply and demand. What just remedy is there? Retail distribution of food at present entails the payment of large profits. What improvement is feasible? What is the effect of municipal market houses upon the prices of provisions? Is the business of transportation and telegraphing to-day so essentially different in its nature from the business of a baker, a cornfactor, or a wool-grower, that the former now require regulating by law any more than the latter needed such regulation in the seventeenth century? Is it a proper function of government to furnish free transportation to shippers of merchandise? Would railroad pooling prevent wasteful competition and inure to public benefit? Are there monopolies which are natural as well as those which derive their being from statute law? Railroads and telegraphs being assumed natural monopolies, what relation should the government sustain to them-ownership or regulation, or should it simply require the publication of their tariffs and accounts? Canadian railroads are not amenable to the Interstate Commerce Act: is their competition with American railroads a benefit to the American public? Would the establishment of a railroad rate uniform for every distance of less than, say, fifty miles, be sound policy? Would it pay this country to enter upon a system of steamship subsidies to stimulate foreign trade? Since, other things equal, the larger the scale of production the more economically can it be managed, there is a strong tendency to the control of industry by fewer concerns, until combination among producers replaces their former competition; is there public danger in this tendency? If so, how can it be checked? Could not an individual, sufficiently rich and able, corner a commodity or monopolize its production as "trusts" and combines endeavor to do? If so, would public interests demand the curtailment of such an individual's right to buy, hire or manufacture? It sometimes happens that the property of a joint stock company is jeopardized by the acts of borrowers of a bare majority of its shares. What remedy is there? It is not uncommon for the original directorate of a joint stock concern to be able and trustworthy. Is it desirable for the promotion of enterprise that the permanency in office of such a directorate be assured? If so, how can it be done? In the issue of bonds by joint stock concerns, should not investors always exact voting powers, so as to be able in case of emergency to protect interests imperiled by a directorate? Would the substitution of individual responsibility of directors and shareholders for corporate responsibility tend to check the abuses of moneyed corporations ? Do the advantages of large corporations outweigh their defects? Free trade. FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. TERMS FOR DEFINITION. Ad Tariff for revenue only. Tariff for revenue, with incidental protection. A protective tariff. Prohibitory tariff. valorem and specific duties. Subsidy. Octroi. Bounty. SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS. The Tariff history of the United States. Of other countries. British fair trade movement. The principal proposals for tariff reform. QUESTIONS FOR DEBATE. Does protection increase the purchasing power of wages? Does it raise the value of farm products, or only their money price? Does it permanently increase the profits of the manufacturer ? Does the protection of one industry work to the detriment of another industry which is not protected ? Does protection sacrifice the interest of the citizen as a consumer to his interests as a producer? Does protection protect? Is free exchange a natural right? Can a nation increase its wealth faster under a protective tariff than under a tariff for revenue only? Has protection benefited or injured our ship-building interests? (Other industries may be substituted.) Can a nation, by any possible form of tariff, shift the burden of such taxes upon the foreign producer with whom it exchanges products? Can the foreign manufacturer compete in our home market in spite of protection? Is the cost of carrying bulky products necessarily paid by the exporting or importing nation? Does the constitutional power to regulate commerce give Congress authority to exempt ships engaged in foreign trade from State taxation? Is free trade advantageous to a nation without reciprocity with the nations with which it trades? Ought the offense of smuggling, or the evasion of duties (tariff) on imports, to be considered in the nature of a crime? Are there not now in this country important industries fostered to independence by a protective policy? Is the diversification of industry within the bounds of a nation, due to protection, more desirable than the international division of labor which permits production at the points which most favor it? Economic progress entails severe incidental loss in capital and labor in its supersedure of old methods. Governments do not indemnify sufferers from this cause within their own national boundaries; is it right for them to shield at public expense the interests of special classes assailed by international competition,-by foreigners more advantageously situated, or who produce more economically? It has been said* that protection resolves itself into such questions as: "How much can I afford to pay a man for hiring me?" "How much can I afford to pay a man to trade with me?" Is this statement accurate? Is there any inconsistency between the Constitutional provision insuring freedom of trade between the States of the Union and the customs laws restricting imports? If interstate trade is a benefit, would not equally free international trade be a benefit also? Is protection socialistic in tendency? Does protection prevent the international competition which would give certain extortionate combinations their death-blow? Is free trade just ? bank. MONEY, FINANCE AND BANKING. TERMS FOR DEFINITION. Money. Legal tender. Greenback. Currency. Bank. National A bank bill. A bill of exchange. Finance. Bullion. Bimetallism. The Latin Union. Assignats. A Government bond. A debenture. SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS. The comparative prices of gold and silver in various countries at different periods. Gresham's law and the experience from which it has been generalized. The origin and functions of the Bank of Venice. Legal-tender money in the United States and in other nations. The experience of the United States in issuing irredeemable paper currency. That of other countries. The probable effects of a legal-tender act enforcing payments in a specific kind of money *By Professor W. G. Sumner in "Protectionism,” p. 160. |