By Jeremy Egerer
If one happens to be in the market for a cultural shock, he oftentimes needs only rent a movie from the 1940s. In my particular case, I had the pleasure of watching a Jimmy Stewart movie titled The Shop Around the Corner, a film excellent in every way, and unusually witty for a romantic comedy. But what struck me most powerfully about the film was not so much the clever script, the perfectly selected cast, or the believable romance, but rather a statement made by several characters about their employment. They stated, in terms which make the modern man's head spin, that they "wanted to be somebody" -- and what they meant was that they wanted to be either clerks or store managers.
Though merchants have gone in and out of fashion (the Romans, as Sir William Blackstone notes, believed it a dishonorable employment), the function merchants play in our society, though not themselves producing, permits what is produced to be adequately distributed. In a sense, as Adam Smith noted in The Wealth of Nations, merchants are responsible for a large part of the producer's success, and because the productive person's livelihood depends upon the merchant for the dispensation of merchandise (or else he, without access to buyers, would have to reduce production), the merchant may himself be considered an instrument of production.
If one happens to be in the market for a cultural shock, he oftentimes needs only rent a movie from the 1940s. In my particular case, I had the pleasure of watching a Jimmy Stewart movie titled The Shop Around the Corner, a film excellent in every way, and unusually witty for a romantic comedy. But what struck me most powerfully about the film was not so much the clever script, the perfectly selected cast, or the believable romance, but rather a statement made by several characters about their employment. They stated, in terms which make the modern man's head spin, that they "wanted to be somebody" -- and what they meant was that they wanted to be either clerks or store managers.
Though merchants have gone in and out of fashion (the Romans, as Sir William Blackstone notes, believed it a dishonorable employment), the function merchants play in our society, though not themselves producing, permits what is produced to be adequately distributed. In a sense, as Adam Smith noted in The Wealth of Nations, merchants are responsible for a large part of the producer's success, and because the productive person's livelihood depends upon the merchant for the dispensation of merchandise (or else he, without access to buyers, would have to reduce production), the merchant may himself be considered an instrument of production.
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