nd cheerfully pays an increased price. All nations in fact
stand to share fairly the commercial advantage of each other's colonial
markets: and it might even be shown by a little simple book-keeping that
the particular balance any nation gains from trading with a colony of
its own must be debited with the expense of governing that colony. In
short, the commercial excuse for Imperialism is actually obsolete. Yet
commerce continues to support Imperialism, and although the original
reason for this support is no longer valid, it is still, unconsciously
perhaps but very methodically, serving its own interests by this
support, in so far as Imperialism involves militarism (or "navalism")
and so leads to the probability of war. But even if the commercial
reasons which constitute the only possible excuse for Imperialism were
still valid, it would still remain equally valid and much more important
that Imperialism is bad in itself, the enemy of liberty and the begetter
of arrogance.

Imperialism is bad on general grounds because it implies a
centralisation of authority which violates the natural rights of
nationalities. A nationality, as has already been suggested, means not
necessarily a pure racial enclave, but simply a small local group, in
the formation of which similarity of "race," religion, and culture will
not be ignored but will naturally be considered as modifications of
primarily geographical boundaries. The right of nationalities to local
autonomy, to deal again only with the simplest general reason, is based
on the idea of democracy, the exercise of a political voice being
regarded as a natural and inalienable right of the free citizen.
Democracy means representative government, and representative government
simply does not work in a large and mixed community of more than twenty
millions.[81] Hence the right of nationalities to local autonomy is
fundamental, and is inconsistent with Imperialism as such.

Imperialism is bad because it is based on conquest, implies a "subject
race," and sooner or later will have to be maintained by war. It breeds
a conquering and commercial spirit, which is never satisfied unless it
is carrying some one else's burden (at a high freight). The imperialist
plutocracy will then find itself so much occupied with other people's
affairs that it will be neglecting domestic politics altogether: and
this neglect will be the more disastrous in so far as poverty and
servitude will have increased