Page:(Commercial character) The Joseph Fisher lecture in commerce, delivered at the University of Adelaide (IA commercialcharac00jessrich).pdf/15

11 Many did rub along comfortably enough, and some came remarkably well through the process. But times, alas! have changed. The world is dead against the men who propose to rub along. The class of rubbers along are going to have a bad time in the near future, especially in the commercial sphere. In commerce, as in other walks of life, the all round man must give way to the specialist, and commercial education, whatever be the branch of commerce one desires to engage in, is a pretty serious matter. There is an excellent treatise entitled Commercial Education in Theory and Practice, by Mr. E. E. Whitfield, M.A., late Lecturer at the City of Liverpool School of Commerce. The following are the subjects treated of:—Organization of Commercial Instruction, Study and Teaching of Languages and Literature, Mathematics, Natural Science, and Drawing, Principles of Business and its modern Features, Organization and Commercial Management of Industrial Concerns, the Theory of Trade, its Organization and Promotion, Economics and Mechanism of Transport, Economics and Framework of Taxation, Economics of Money—Banking—Stock Exchanges—Insurance, Book-keeping and Accounts, its Theory and Practice, Mercantile Office Work, and lastly, the formation of character and the conditions of success. This you will admit is a pretty formidable list of subjects, but to be considered, of course, in relation to the finite capacity of human intelligence, and to the particular branch of commerce the student proposes to engage in. The word Commerce has a most comprehensive meaning. Let us consider what it includes. Primarily the cultivation and production of everything needful to sustain life, to gratify