Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Síða 134

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LE NORD
it remains constantly true to its nature, it still functions as the
eye of economic life, now directed also inwards and upwards,
watching that the heavy and mechanically functioning machinery
of state does not hold up developments beyond the field and
the time required by the conditions of economic life. It was the
very discrepancy between the changed conditions of economic
life and the stubborn and heavy maintenance by the state of
its leading position which was once founded on entirely different
conditions and had therefore then been justified and useful; it
was the very discrepancy between the changed conditions of
economic life in the course of the i8th century and the state’s
stubborn maintenance of its position as leader of industrial life
from the ijth or i6th century that led the mercantile system
into ridiculous consequences and concluded in a rupture, an ex-
plosion instead of a solution, leading from the mercantile system
to its opposite: laissez faire, the free play of forces, as the ideal
of economic policy.
And now that we are contemplating the burial of this ideal,
after a lifetime of about a century, it might perhaps be a good
thing to conclude this study by casting back a glance over its
activities and try to estimate objectively what we owe to it,
not only in the economic field in the materialistic sense of the
term, but also in the domain of philosophy and morals.
¥e are then in the happy position of being able to honour
the deceased without dissimulation as long as we consider his
economic activities in a purely materialistic sense. It is different,
unfortunately, if from the heights of the economic battlefield
we look down upon the sad remains of the hecatombs of the
victims, and different again if we weigh the influence of the
principle on man’s philosophy, his morals, his faith, and not
least its national, social and political effects.
Thus we may let the guard at the funeral present arms when
we say that without the free play of forces that rise of European
economy and of the standard of living of the population of our
continent which took place in the last century, and which is un-
parallelled in all history — as accounted for in ”The Balance
of 'World Economy” — would not have been possible. State
management could not have achieved it, the very speed of devel-
opments would have taken the breath out of the public authorities.
But at this point the official ceremony had better be closed and
the guard of honour dismissed. Then we relatives remain at the