Whereas 
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ip 
nineteenth 
sentury 
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YOARLONE 
POSTSCRIPT 
wm vogue a hundred years ago. The competition of small 
capitalists, within the limits of a single country, is being 
rapidly superseded as the determining factor in price; a 
revolution is occurring, similar to that by which private 
enterprise ousted civic regulation and well-ordered trade. In 
every particular, the transition which has been recently 
taking place corresponds to the changes which occurred after 
the discovery of the precious metal in the New World, save 
that, In modern times, the movements are more rapid and 
more widespread in their effects, 
283. The parallel between the economic conditions of 
the Elizabethan age, with which this volume opened, and 
those of recent times in England is clear enough; but there 
are differences which are well worth noting. The object 
which Lord Burleigh and many succeeding generations of 
statesmen kept steadily before them was that of building up 
English power and prestige. They were determined that the 
nation should be free, economically and politically, to live her 
own life, and work out her destiny in the world for herself, 
incontrolled by the Pope, or any of the Roman Catholic 
powers. Their whole scheme of industrial and commercial life 
was devised with a view of fostering the elements that made 
for national power. Adam Smith and the classical economists 
1id not really abandon this point of view; they only insisted 
on a new means of obtaining the recognised end of political 
sconomy, as they understood it. They pointed out that 
wealth of any kind was the source of power, and that laissez 
faire principles were favourable to the rapid increase of 
wealth, both individual and national, and therefore to the in- 
rease of the power of the nation. The change, which occurred 
In nineteenth century opinion, was somewhat deeper; it 
depended on new views, not of the means to be used, but of 
the end to be pursued. The welfare of the people committed 
“ their charge was not left out of account, or forgotten, by 
the statesmen of the Elizabethan and Stuart period, but their 
chief care was for national power; in the last half century, 
national, power and prestige still kindle the keenest en- 
thusiasm, but the main thought and effort of public men is 
riven to the improvement of the condition of the masses of 
376