s, though competition is often
difficult.

208. =The Ethics of Business.=--The methods of carrying on mercantile
business are based, as in the factory, on the principle of getting the
largest possible profits. The welfare of employees is a secondary
consideration. Expense of maintenance is heavy. Rents are costly in
desirable locations; the expense of carrying a large stock of
merchandise makes it necessary to borrow capital on which interest
must be paid; the obligations of a large pay-roll must be met at
frequent intervals, whether business is good or bad. All these items
are present in varying degree, whatever the size of the business,
except where a merchant has capital enough of his own to carry on a
small business and can attend to the wants of his customers alone or
with the help of his family. The temptation of the merchant is strong
to use every possible means to make a success of his business, paying
wages as low as possible, in order to cut down expenses, and offering
all kinds of inducements to customers in order to sell his goods. The
ethics of trade need improvement. It is by no means true, as some
agitators declare, that the whole business system is corrupt, that
honesty is rare, and that the merchant is without a conscience.
General corruption is impossible in a commercial age like this, when
the whole system of business is built on credit, and large
transactions are carried on, as on the Stock Exchange, with full
confidence in the word or even the nod of an operator. Of course,
shoddy and impure goods are sold over the counter and the customer
often pays more than an article is really worth, but every mercantile
house has its popular reputation to sustain as well as its rated
financial standing, and the business concern that does not deal
honorably soon loses profitable trade.

Exchange constitutes an important division of the science of
economics, but its social causes and effects are of even greater
consequence. Exchange is dependent upon the diffusion of information,
the expansion of interests, and growing confidence between those who
effect a transaction. When mutual wants are few it is possible to
carry on business by means of barter; when trade increases money
becomes a necessary medium; world commerce requires a system of
credit which rests on social trust and integrity. Conversely, there
are social consequences that come from customs of exchange. It
enlarges human interests. It stimulates soc