f measures, on the part of the state, will
remove impediments in the way of that law and enable it to act in
greater perfection.

Connected with the dynamic movement on which the future of society
depends are the policies of the government in connection with currency
and with protective duties. Here, less action, rather than more, is
demanded on the part of the state. While no renewal of a
_laissez-faire_ policy is possible, a reduction of the duties which
now play into the hands of monopoly is distinctly called for. In
connection with currency a greater trust in nature and a smaller
reliance on governments will give the best results.

Our studies have included, not the activities of the whole world,
but those of that central part of it which is highly sensitive to
economic influences. The whole producing mechanism here responds
comparatively quickly to any force which makes for change. This
society _par excellence_ is extending its boundaries and annexing
successive belts of outlying territory; and as this shall go on, it
must bring the world as a whole more and more nearly into the shape of
a single economic organism. The relations of the central society to
the unannexed zones are attaining transcendent importance, and a
fuller treatment of Economic Dynamics than is possible within the
limits of the present work would give much space to such subjects as
the transformation of Asia and the resulting changes in the economic
life of Europe and America. Here again the conscious action of the
people determines the economic outcome. In the main we can still leave
the natural forces of industry to work automatically; but we have
passed the point where we can safely leave to self-regulation the
charges of the common carrier, the conduct of monopolistic
corporations, or certain parts of the policy of organized labor.
Foreign relations are, of course, a subject for public control, and
they are coming to affect in a most intimate way our own economic
life. Everywhere our future is put into our own hands and will develop
the better the more we know of economic laws and the more energy we
show in applying them. The surrendering of industries generally to the
state may be avoided, and the essential features of the system of
business which evolution has created may be preserved; but to keep
this system free from unendurable evils will require, on the part of
the people, a rare combination of intelligence and determination. It
will