44 
the business of a local hotel, you will find the 
grocer who supplies the bacon, the butcher 
who supplies the meat, the wine merchant who 
supplies the wine, and so on, are shareholders 
in the company. Owing to lack of competition 
for the contracts, the result naturally is that 
the hotel is carried on at great expense, and the 
shareholders suffer in consequence. This 
matters little or nothing to the interested 
shareholders who continue to make large 
profits by their contracts ; but it hardly con 
duces to the satisfaction of the disinterested 
investor. Indeed, such a form of investment 
is scarcely less dangerous than confining the 
capital to be invested to one country, and 
so speculating on that country’s future trading 
prosperity. 
In the next chapter we shall discuss a 
practical scheme whereby an investor may so 
widely distribute his investments over the 
world’s area as to endow his capital with 
the maximum stability of value.