hold his own in
the fight with the universal provider, or the co-operative store.

But this destruction of the small business, though an essential factor
in the movement, is not perhaps the most important aspect. The
industrial superiority of the large business over the small makes for
the concentration both of small capitals and of business ability. The
monster millionaire, who owns the whole or the bulk of his great
business, is after all a very rare specimen. The typical business form
of to-day is the joint stock company. This simply means that a number of
capitalists, who might otherwise have been competing with one another on
a small scale of business, recognizing the advantage of size, agree to
mass their capital into one large lump, and to entrust its manipulation
to the best business ability they can muster among them, or procure from
outside. This process in its simplest form is seen in the amalgamation
of existing and competing businesses, notable examples of which have
recently occurred in the London publishing trade. But the ordinary
Company, whether it grows by the expansion of some large existent
business, or, like most railways or other new enterprises, is formed out
of money subscribed in order to form a business, represents the same
concentrating tendency. These share-owners put their capital together
into one concern, in order to reap some advantage which they think they
would not reap if they placed the capital in small competing businesses.
But though it has been calculated that about one-third of English
commerce is now in the hands of joint stock companies, this by no means
exhausts the significance of the centralizing force in capital. Almost
all large businesses, and many small businesses, are recognized to be
conducted largely with borrowed capitals. The owners of these debentures
are in fact joint capitalists with the nominal owner of the business.
They prefer to lend their capital, because they hope to enjoy a portion
of the gain and security which belongs to a large business as compared
with a small one. Along with this coming together of small capitals to
make a large capital, there is a constant centralization and
organization of business ability. It is not uncommon for the owner of a
small and therefore failing business to accept a salaried post in the
office of some great business firm. So too we find the son of a small
tradesman, recognizing the hopelessness of maintaining his father's