Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-17
THE PRODUCER AND THE Sell
LERs

The Philadelphia Ledger says: There
are two general divisions of people IN eV-
erv business community-those who pro-
duce. and thus add TO the actual wealth
of the world, and those who make that
wealth available by becoming the agents
of its exchange and distribution. Both
these classes of business men are neces-
sary, and they are mutually dependent.
One could not exist and prosper to the
fullest extent without the other, nor can
civilized society carry on its affairs II ell
ther ia wanting. Disturbance of the bal
ance of trade occurs when either Of the
two callings is supplied with agents or
GENERATORS in excess of the public want
which creates the necessity for their ex-
istence. We have said that these two
classes are mutually dependent. But that
class which possesses the most OF the ele-
ments of self-reliance is the producer.
He is valuable to the public for the actual
wealth which he creates. OF course he
is liable to reverses, sometimes by over
production, but much oftener by the mis-
fortune of traffickers or merchants, whose
failures fall in their ultimate weight upon
the men who produce the articles which
are the basis of commerce. OVer-trading
and too eager competition among traders,
creating a fictitious demand, to be newt
ably succeeded by stagnatien, are the
usual causes of distress among the indus
trious.
And when we speak of Oyertrading we
mean especially an over supply of traders,
as well as an unduly extended volume Of
commerce. There are too many agents
for the work to be done; and there is
always in such case too little actual
capital for the business attempted. Men
of wealth and capital commensurate with
their line of operations do not usually ven
ture into uncertain speculations. In the
risks of trade it is not always the money
of the adventurer which is hazarded, but
the property of others, with which he
operates. The bubble is hollow before it
bursts, and the bursting is simply the
ultimate demonstration of that hollow
ness. All mercantile men, to some de-
gree, trade upon expectation, and some
exclusively upon hope. The saga
cious merchant is careful to keep up a
good line of deposits in the Expectation
Bank as well as in his more substantial
bank account He does not discount
his future" beyond reasonable extent.
But he is subject to the injury caused by
the failure of other men less prudent;
and as in actual bank failures the credit
ors of the institution suffer with the debt
ors, SO he who has kept the best SAC
count" in the Bank of Expectation, may
be ruined by the general CONFUSION
which he had little or no agency in pro-
ducing. The operations of trade and
expose those engaged in them
to more reverses and dangers than any
other business pursuit. And the ankle
ties and mental labOrs of traffic on any
extended scale are constant. The knOwl-
edge required for success is great and di-
versifed, not 10 be taught in schools, or
learned anywhere but by experience.
Theprize may be tempting, but the blanks
are in ominous and disheartening excess.
Yet most people, beginning in life,
would choose traffic rather than prOduc-
ton, as their occupation. The deceptive
appearance of ease and leisure which COM
merce wears and the freedom it gives
from actual handicraft, lead the inexpe
rienced locker on to suppose that all is as
smooth and pleasant as it looks. Conse-
quently traffic is overdone and production
is neglected. And there are thousands of
men in uneasy, hazardous pursuits, who
might be living by their hands much more
than they can live by their
wits; producing wealth instead of adding
now fictitious price to what others pro-
iuced, and then depreciating it below
It's intrinsic value. Under the chronic
public disease of ver-trafficking which has
grown upon the world in this trading age,
prices in one country, or in the same
country at different periods, rule too high
Or too low, and either extreme is as bad
Is the other. Our notions of political and
social economy are reduced to what one
If Dlckens's characters solemnly desig-
lates ''all a muddle.p
But, if ''the time is out of joint. men
iced not, like the royal Dane, think that
hey were born to set it right, lest like the
Dane, they grow crazy upon it. Every