Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/535

 MOllEBN MEBOANTILISM IN INDIA 517 an index of prosperity and progress. trade is relatively far country, without great natural resources. India in this fashion we should sections of foreign trade equal all population, and the trade between Certainly foreign more important to a small varieties of either climate or But to compare Great Britain with divide India into six ald to ilndia's those sections also be due to the race for supremacy counting it twice, bo as exports and as imports. The last nominal agreement with the Mercantilists, namely, in their desire for . dense lopulation, may use of statistics to illustrate the among the Western nations. Thus we find an eminent writer comparing the growth o! population in India w/th that of Western countries, to India's disparagement. Here, too, the deep under- lying must stimulate Mercantilists. feelings of race preservation and race increase needs be powerful. But there is no desire to the growth of population as with the Rather the evils of a high birth-rate and of child. marriage are beginning to be realized, at least in theory; and there are not wanting signs that neo-Malthusianism the future. For the may become a danger in remaining ideas, the Mercantilists would have praised highly the preaching of thrift, the compelling of every man to work, and the return to ideals of self-sufficiency, which the war has brought about in the importance saving. is self sufficiency is not considered and that every man should work is as yet the dream o! an impractical visionary. A low standard of living is indeed desired by those who hold sacred India's name for spirituality, but by far the greater number are inten upon raising the standard o! living both Europe and America; but in India of too little realized, important in itself, for themselves and for other people's laborers.