The-Morality-of-Capitalism-PDF

strangers, but when we haggle for the lowest or highest price, werarely do so out of a concern for the well being of the party withwhom we’re bargaining. If we do, we are making an exchange anda gift, which somewhat complicates the nature of the exchange.Those who deliberately pay more than they need to are rarelygood businesspeople and, as H.B. Acton noted in his book TheMorals of the Markets, 39 running a business at a loss is in generala very foolish, even stupid, way to be philanthropic.To those who praise involvement in politics over involvementin industry and commerce, it is worth remembering that theformer can do a great deal of harm and rarely does much good.Voltaire, writing before Smith, saw the difference clearly. In hisessay “On Trade” from his Letters Concerning the English Nation(written by Voltaire in English, in which he was quite fluent,and then rewritten by him in French and published as LettresPhilosophiques) he noted that,In France the Title of Marquis is given gratis to any one whowill accept of it; and whosoever arrives at Paris from themidst of the most remote Provinces with Money in his Purse,and a Name terminating in ac or ille, may strut about, andcry, Such a Man as I! A Man of my Rank and Figure! Andmay look down upon a Trader with sovereign Contempt;whilst the Trader on the other Side, by thus often hearing hisProfession treated so disdainfully, is Fool enough to blush atit. However, I cannot say which is most useful to a Nation; aLord, powder’d in the tip of the Mode, who knows exactly atwhat a Clock the King rises and goes to bed; and who giveshimself Airs of Grandeur and State, at the same Time that heis acting the Slave in the Anti-chamber of a prime Minister;or a Merchant, who enriches his Country, dispatches Ordersfrom his Compting-House to Surat and Grand Cairo, andcontributes to the felicity of the world. 40Merchants and capitalists need not blush when our contemporarypoliticians and intellectuals look down their noses at them,and strut about declaiming this and decrying that, all the whiledemanding that the merchants, capitalists, workers, investors,67