The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1877-02-22
Tiles Of My Grandfather.
A Trade With John Jacob Aston.

1Ou see III LHOSe days. odlu lily
grandfather, 1--WE knew nothing at all
about telegraphs. ] am sure that with
your ideas you will not think as do,
and fancy we must have had no end of
trouble to obtain information about
the markets of the world.
sSWhy, grandfather, the world must
have been really small in your time, at
least for business--there was, for IN
stance, no Australia" said one OF the
grandchildren. Granted, my son.
but there was no end of countries
which then had no manufactures or
goods, and we used to supply them
Five Or six great cities III Europe ana
two or three in America used 10 De
the great depots, and distributed the
goods. But, as [ was saying, We got
along quite we'll without telegTapnS.
for so years ago d merchant was one
in everv sense of the word, and always
had his eyes and his ears open. we
got up early in the morning and went
to bed late. Now, no one OF you goes
to his Office before 10 o'clock, and you
come home at OF 4 o'clock, and COM
plain of hard days work. [ am GER
tain that most of the money | made
was earned before 10 o'clock IN the
morning. Special knowledge, TO re-
turn to the merchants Of my time, eX-
listed quite as much as il does today,
but the general acquaintance with
mercantile matters was much more
universal. A merchant knew about
the products Of every country, and
could carry out the whole business Tor
himself. No middlemen We're wanted.
| could buy anything wanted, because
could rely upon my own Judgment as
to price and quality. II | wanted to
sell. [ knew the wants Of the purchas-
ers, OF [ could wait for people Go buy
from me. | wonder II 1 dldn know
as well as the next man what
nv cargo Of sugar, or coifee, or
tea, or Of hides was worth.
/ know, again, that there IS not
one of YOU who Will agree with me,
but middlemen are Just eating UP the
substance Of the country. Brokers are
worse than ship rats, for they keep
nibhling and nIbbhng until all tue
profits are gone. Let d lot OF goods
pass half dozen times between whole
sale purchasers, when speculative pc
riod comes on, and just add the differ.
ent brokerages, and see how much II
comes to. | never used a broker IF
my life save when | wanted TO pur'
chase some money securities III the
market. When | did big business
and rented q large store on Water ST.
saving my insurance hrokerages, Whicl
attended to myself, paid my rental
went out OF business many years be
fore the present system of collecting
duties was imposed. / am not golnE
10 argue with you about free trade OF
protection, though, upon my word o.
honor. with all your boosted science
we old fellows-0r young fellows thei
-used 10 study our Adam Smith
which is something more than either
vour smart traders or sagacl0us legIs
lators do nowadays Now you tell IN
that we couldnt Get along without I
Custom-h0use broker, because TIL
whole system is SO complicated. /
seems To me q crying injustice whel
the simple clearance Of box, or bale
or 81 barrel through a Custom-hous
becomes so difficult thing that
special man has to be hired. 1t /
against common sense. Is d man, be
cause he imports single case of good
to be considered as law-breaker
And must "a Custom house be held as
court, and the simple act Of making
an entry. require the services Ola Gus
tom-h0use lawyer 7 tt IS an absurdlty
and one which am told does not ex
ist in any other country in tue world
don't want to think that the men 0
the present day are all thieves ant
rascals. intent on swindling the GOV
eminent. Good. sound common sens
must come round some day, and tn
system of collecting duties or clearin
goods, viii have 10 be simplided. Th
money from customs was not made t
benefit brokers, but the country
Most of YOU smile, said Our grandfa
ther, as he lifted Mp his spectacIes
ssfor aught | know, some Of you ma
be brokers. hut have always regarde
yau as the Delilabs Of trade. There
But grandfather. you had Unite
market in those days, YOU know.and :
STUFF. nonsense; you young fellows a
ways bring forward that argument
like that new tangled idea of othe
worlds Was there no business don
i'm Philadelphia, New York, or Bosto
90 years ago. put Philadelphia frs
because, before the big FIRE. she di
more business than New York. 70
take aud study the population or thos
cities half century ago, the popul
tion Of the country. and the amour
Of business done, and YOU will see
once what nonsense you are taking
The ratio Of business was large
Trade was more constant and more sd
isfactory. We vera not in any awf
hurry to get rich. We knew We
enough that fortune gained IN Gil
was lost In minute. Things did II
tumble down TO nothing in an hour
time. Coffee might shade off a qua
ter of a cent III month, or tea a
vance half cent and nobody hui
when we made importations we cou
rely on something. Freight, exchane
value of money, were not at skies a.
sevens. The telegraph did not cor
in every five minutes and complete
change things. We didn't tinker WI
tariffs. : The old gentleman was G