or a certain measure of private property always has been found where
money was little or not at all used. True, if there were absolutely no
private property, there would be little use for money, altho it might
still be used as a form of counter by the communistic state. We have
already seen[5] how a monetary unit comes into use, and we shall treat
more fully of the nature of money in later chapters. We may note here
merely that the use of money is an outstanding feature of the present
economic system and gives rise to many of the problems of political
economy.

Sec. 10. #The competitive system#. The existing system is likewise
characterized by competition[6] in the buying and selling of wealth
and of the usances and services of economic agents. By competition we
mean here the condition of political freedom on the part of each man
to trade his property (goods, uses, or services) as he chooses, and
this combined with the disposition on his part to get what he
values most highly for himself and his family. Whenever any one else
(official or citizen) forbids and prevents a man from getting all he
can, in so far competition is limited. Whenever any one is deterred by
fear of, or by affection for, some other trader, from getting all he
can, in so far competition is limited. Whenever any one conspires with
another trader to act together with him to withdraw or to alter his
bid, in so far competition is limited. Private property and economic
competition do not merely happen to exist side by side, forming more
or less favored conditions each for the other; they are essentially
connected.[7]

It is not our task at this point to present the advantages and
disadvantages of competition, but merely to indicate its important
place in the actual economic world. Like private property, competition
is not the universal feature of our present system, but it is the most
general and characteristic method of valuation, of price fixing, and
of trade.

Sec. 11. #Limitation of competition by custom.#[8] The relatively large
influence of competition in present society appears more plainly in
comparing the present system with that of an earlier state of society
or with that of a present savage tribe. A member of the lowest human
societies is subject to law; tho he is a savage he is not "untutored."
On the contrary he is bound in many ways to follow customary lines
of conduct, and a large part of his time is given to learning the
traditions and