The World in Chains

The World in Chains, by John
Mavrogordato

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World in Chains, by John
Mavrogordato This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost
and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it
away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The World in Chains Some Aspects of War and Trade
Author: John Mavrogordato
Release Date: January 24, 2007 [EBook #20435]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
WORLD IN CHAINS ***

Produced by Irma Špehar, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced
from images generously made available by The Internet
Archive/Canadian Libraries)

THE WORLD IN CHAINS

* * * * *
But should we stay to speak, noontide would come, And thwart Silenus
find his goats undrawn, And grudge to sing those wise and lovely songs
Of Fate, and Chance, and God, and Chaos old, And Love, and the
Chained Titan's woeful doom, And how he shall be loosed, and make
the earth One brotherhood....
* * * * *
THE WORLD IN CHAINS
SOME ASPECTS OF WAR AND TRADE
BY JOHN MAVROGORDATO M.A.
LONDON: MARTIN SECKER NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET
ADELPHI

First Published 1917
* * * * *
IN MEMORIAM AMICORUM R. F. C. GELDERD SOMERVELL
IVAR CAMPBELL: T. R. A. H. NOYES: J. W. BAILEY QVI ANTE
DIEM PERIERVNT
* * * * *
Note
There may be some exaggeration in this book. I firmly believe that
England and her Allies entered this War with the noblest intentions. If I
have done less than justice to these, it is because my chief purpose in
this essay has been to express my equally firm belief that all these fine
emotions have been and are being exploited by the basest forms of
Imperialism and Capitalism.

J. M.
January 1st, 1917.

Contents
CHAPTER I
THE MASSACRE OF COLLEAGUES, 3
THE WIDENING SPHERE OF MORALITY, 4
THE RECEDING GOD, 6
THE PHILOSOPHER LOOKS AT SOCIETY, 8
HOMO HOMINI LUPUS, 8
TRIBE AGAINST TRIBE, 10
THE CITY STATE, 12
THE NATIONS OF EUROPE "FERAE NATURAE," 14
THE CONVENIENCE OF DIPLOMACY, 15
A NOTE ON DEMOCRACY, 18
DIPLOMACY NOT BAD IN ITSELF, 19
MANNERS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR MORALS, 21
WAR A MORAL ANACHRONISM, 21
CHAPTER II
THE ARMAMENT RING, 27

EUGENICS? 29
PATRIOTISM, 31
THE MORAL TEST, 36
TRADE, 39
TRADE IN TIME OF PEACE, 42
DUTIES OF COMMERCE TO THE STATE, 44
RESTRICTED SPHERE OF GOVERNMENT CORRESPONDING
TO RESTRICTED SPHERE OF MORALITY, 51
CHAPTER III
TRADE DURING THE WAR, 57
TRADE LIVES ON INCREASING DEMAND, 65
WAR A FORM OF DESTRUCTION, 66
WAR STANDS TO BENEFIT NEUTRAL AS WELL AS
BELLIGERENT NATIONS BUT NOT TO THE SAME EXTENT, 69
THE GREATER THE CAPITAL, THE GREATER THE WAR
PROFIT, 71
THE BLESSINGS OF INVASION, 72
THE LUXURY TRADES DON'T DO SO BADLY, 74
TRADE PROFITS IN WAR NOT SHARED BY THE NATION BUT
CONFINED TO EMPLOYERS, 77
TRADE PROFIT AND NATIONAL LOSS, 82
APPENDIX: SOME TYPICAL WAR PROFITS, 125

CHAPTER IV
DIALECTICS ROUND THE DEATH-BED, 89
GERMAN RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR, 90
THE VALUE OF GERMAN CULTURE, 95
THE MANUFACTURE OF HATRED, 102
IMPERIALISM THE ENEMY, 107
POSSIBLE OBJECTS OF WAR, 112
PHYSICAL FORCE IN A MORAL WORLD, 118
IMPERIALISM AND CAPITALISM THROUGH WAR AND
TRADE THE ENEMIES: SOCIALISM TO THE RESCUE, 122
* * * * *
CHAPTER I
[Greek: môros de thnêtôn ostis ekporthôn poleis naous de tumbous th,
iera tôn kekmêktôn, erêmiadous autos ôleth usteron.]
Euripides: Tro. 95.

§1
The Massacre of Colleagues
The existence of war in the modern world is primarily a question for
the moral philosopher. It may be of interest to the anthropologist to
consider war as a gallant survival with an impressive ritual and a code
of honour curiously detached from the social environment, like the
Hindu suttee; or with a procedure euphemistically disguised, like some

chthonic liturgy of ancient Athens. But it is a problem too broad for the
anthropologist when we consider that we have reached a stage of
civilisation which regards murder as the most detestable of crimes and
deprives the murderer of all civil rights and often even of the natural
right to live: while in the same community the organised massacre of
our colleagues in civilisation is not only tolerated but assumed to be
necessary by the principal expositors of law and religion, is the
scientific occupation of the most honoured profession in the State, and
constitutes the real sanction of all international intercourse.
§2
The Widening Sphere of Morality
The existence of war stimulates the astonished watcher in the tower of
ivory to examine the development, if any, of human