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governments,  and  are  geographically  situated
widely  apart,  will  nearly  always  differ  in
activity  at  any  given  moment.
Lastly,  we  have  shown  that  the  trade  of  the
world,  considered  as  a  whole,  is  constantly
increasing,  and  that  a  decline  in  the  trade  of
any  one  country  simply  means  the  transfer  of
it  to  another  country,  and  not  a  loss  of  trade.
These  three  facts  taken  conjointly  and
utilised  as  the  basis  upon  which  the  fluctuations
of  investment  values  should  he  averaged,  constitute ­
  the  practical  means  of  freeing  the  act  of
investment  from  the  taint  of  speculation.  Their
application  resolves  itself  into  the  Geographical
Distribution  of  Capital.  Let  us  take  the
important  points  of  this  system  of  investment ­
  seriatim,  and  explain  their  individual
importance  :—
1.—The  Speculative  Element  Reduced  to  a
Minimum.—Although  it  is  impossible  to
predict  the  future  of  any  single  investment, ­
  it  is  possible  to  predict  the  result
of  distributing  invested  capital  amongst
a  number  of  different  investments  which
embrace  the  world’s  area.  We  have
already  seen  that  the  value  of  all  sound
investments  is  dominated  by  the  trade
of  the  country  to  which  they  belong,  and
similarly  the  total  value  of  a  number  of