COMMERCE first taught nations to see with goodwill the wealth and prosperity of one another. Before, the patriot, unless sufficiently advanced in culture to feel the world his country, wished all countries weak, poor, and ill-governed but his own: he now sees in their wealth and progress a direct source of wealth and progress to his own country.
It is commerce which is rapidly rendering war obsolete, by strengthening and multiplying the personal interests which are in natural opposition to it. And it may be said without exaggeration that the great extent and rapid increase of international trade, in being the principal guarantee of the peace of the world, is the great permanent security for the uninterrupted progress of the ideas, the institutions, and the character of the human race.
Précis
Victorian philosopher J. S. Mill argued that growing peace in Europe and beyond arose not from military conquest, but from increasing trade. Commerce, he said, turned love of country from something jealous, a wish to be better off than everyone else, into something generous, a wish to share in the blessings of every nation. (54 / 60 words)