Studies In World Economics Author:G. D. H Cole STUDIES IN WORLD ECONOMICS BY G. D. H. COLE MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTINS STREET, LONDON 1934 STUDIES IN WORLD ECONOMICS FOREWORD THROUGH most of the essays which appear in this volume there runs a common idea that economic conceptions and the theories built upon them need far-reaching revision in the light of the developing forces in t... more »he world of to-day. For most of the familiar economic concepts of to-day are the products of thought upon past situations, belonging to past phases of industrial growth. I have tried, in these studies of a number of economic problems of to-day, to keep constantly in mind the essentially historical basis of economic thinking, and to break away from traditional concepts and methods of treatment wherever they seem to be no longer the right clues to the understanding of contemporary economic facts. With these few words of explanation I am content to let the essays stand by themselves. Most of them have appeared previously, in whole or in part, in various publications. But I have in all cases worked over the material again, and in many made large changes. Tims, T am indebted to the Editors of the Encyclo paedia of the Social Sciences for permission to use again the articles on Industrialism, Inheritance, Laissez-faire, Economic Mobilisation, and Socialisation but the first two of these have been retouched, and the other three sub stantially revised . The greater part of A Short Study in World Economies originally appeared in the New Statesman and Nation but I have made changes and added a new section. Our Unused Wealth is also based on a New Statesman article but it has been completely rewritten and expanded. The Problem of Consumers Credit is partly new, and partly based on a rewriting of several articles from The Christian Century and The Millgate. Loyalties was origin ally a paper read to the Aristotelian Society, and published in its Proceedings. Economics in the Modern World from vi STUDIES IN WORLD ECONOMICS the Political Quarterly, The End of the Bourgeoisie from The Student World, The Planning of International Trade from the American Foreign Affairs, and The Economics of Advertising from a source which I regret to have forgotten, and therefore to be unable to acknowledge appear substantially in the forms in which they were first published. Dr. Hayeks Triangle and Towards a New Economic Theory are entirely new. I desire to thank those who have given me permission to use the materials published elsewhere which I have incorporated in these essays. Selected from a much larger body of occasional writing, they form, I hope, enough of a coherent presentation of a point of view to be worth offering in book form. In a sense, they continue and amplify the criticism of contemporary doctrines and institutions in my earlier Economic Tracts for the Times. G. D. H. COLE OXFORD, February 1934 CONTENTS PAGE FORK WORD ...... v I. A SHORT STUDY IN WORLD ECONOMICS . . 1 TE. ECONOMICS IN THE MODERN WORLD . . .28 III. A NOTE ON LAIHSEZ-FATRE . . . .42 IV. INDUSTRIALISM . . . . . .58 V. THE END OF THE BOURGEOISIE . . .80 VI. OUR UNUSED WEALTH . . . . .91 VII. THE PROBLEM OF CONSUMERS CREDIT . .101 VIII. DR. HAYEKS TRIANGLE .... 122 IX. SOCIALISATION ...... 157 X. THE PLANNING OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE . .170 XI. INHERITANCE . . . . . .186 XII. ECONOMIC MOBILISATION .... 209 XIII. THE ECONOMICS OF ADVERTISING . . . 232 XIV. TOWARDS A NEW ECONOMIC THEORY . . 243 XV. LOYALTIES . . . . . .267 vn I A SHORT STUDY IN WORLD ECONOMICS 1 i CAPITALISM ON ITS TRIAL ALL over the world to-day the capitalist system is 011 its trial. It is in peril of its life not only in Europe, where it has long had to meet the challenge of an active Socialist movement, but also in the United States, where until almost now its position has appeared impregnable...« less