serious endeavor and that business solvency is the final attribute of manhood. But in either case the outcome is the primacy of business in the counsels of nations, and its empire is none the less secure for its resting more on one or the other of these two supports.
BUSINESS IN LAW AND POLITICS 293 affairs. They neither are inclined, nor will business competition permit them, to neglect or overlook any expedient that may further their own advantage or hinder the advantage of their rivals. Under the modern situation, as it has taken shape since the industrial revolution,' business competition has become international, covering the range of what is called the world market. In this inter- I national competition the machinery and policy of \ the 8tate are in a peculiar degree drawn into the service of the larger business interests ; so that, both in commerce and industrial enterprise, the business men of one nation are pitted against those of another and swing the forces of the state, legislative, diplomatic, and military, against one another in the strategic game of pecuniary advantage. The business interests domiciled within the scope of a given government fall into a loose organization in the form of what might be called a tacit ring or syndicate, proceeding on a general undei^ standing that they will stand together as against outside business interests. The nearest approach to an explicit plan and organization of such a business ring is the modem political party, with its platform, tacit and avowed. Parties differ in their detail aims, but those parties that have more than
' For Englanil the lost ball of the eighteentb century, for ContiHBntal Europe and America the la«t half of the nlneWenth, In colonial commerce ilie date for both England and Che Continent ia miich •arlier.
una existencia transitoria y un efecto superficial representan diferentes líneas de política empresarial, que coinciden todo el tiempo en la medida en que todas aspiran a promover lo que cada una afirma que son los mejores, más grandes y más duraderos intereses comerciales de la comunidad.