scale, but not to the risks and development of
external trade and shipping interests. To illustrate,--and the
incident is given only for what it is worth,--a French officer,
speaking to the author about the Panama Canal, said: "I have two
shares in it. In France we don't do as you, where a few people take a
great many shares each. With us a large number of people take one
share or a very few. When these were in the market my wife said to me,
'You take two shares, one for you and one for me.'" As regards the
stability of a man's personal fortunes this kind of prudence is
doubtless wise; but when excessive prudence or financial timidity
becomes a national trait, it must tend to hamper the expansion of
commerce and of the nation's shipping. The same caution in money
matters, appearing in another relation of life, has checked the
production of children, and keeps the population of France nearly
stationary.

The noble classes of Europe inherited from the Middle Ages a
supercilious contempt for peaceful trade, which has exercised a
modifying influence upon its growth, according to the national
character of different countries. The pride of the Spaniards fell
easily in with this spirit of contempt, and co-operated with that
disastrous unwillingness to work and wait for wealth which turned them
away from commerce. In France, the vanity which is conceded even by
Frenchmen to be a national trait led in the same direction. The
numbers and brilliancy of the nobility, and the consideration enjoyed
by them, set a seal of inferiority upon an occupation which they
despised. Rich merchants and manufacturers sighed for the honors of
nobility, and upon obtaining them, abandoned their lucrative
professions. Therefore, while the industry of the people and the
fruitfulness of the soil saved commerce from total decay, it was
pursued under a sense of humiliation which caused its best
representatives to escape from it as soon as they could. Louis XIV.,
under the influence of Colbert, put forth an ordinance "authorizing
all noblemen to take an interest in merchant ships, goods and
merchandise, without being considered as having derogated from
nobility, provided they did not sell at retail;" and the reason given
for this action was, "that it imports the good of our subjects and our
own satisfaction, to efface the relic of a public opinion, universally
prevalent, that maritime commerce is incompatible with nobility." But
a prejudice involving co