At our present pace of progress, what will things have come to in a thousand years? May I be there to see.—Author, chap. i.
Our young friend, after returning home with us from the holiday excursion, was to remain all night, so that we might both start by early morn upon our proposed business tour. But I had been much exercised in mind, ever since our tour had been mooted, about a much more extended scheme of travel; and without being over-communicative on the subject to my wife, I had quietly made, with my trusty foreman Gray, such business arrangements as might allow of a more protracted absence, in case my new plans took effect. The opportunity, indeed, seemed a good one for a bit of travelling adventure, to say nothing of a business turn or two that might also fall in one's way. Travel, in these advanced days, when one could launch off from the confinement of one's own little world, was something to enlarge the mind, as well as merely to fill the pocket.
Next morning, therefore, while we bent over our small chemical Liebigs, to make ready our simple laboratorial breakfasts before starting, I opened to my companion the project of my more extended travel. My proposal now was to superadd the foreign to the home business tour, and I was delighted with the cordial response given by young Brown, who was evidently, all over, as I have said, a true chip of the old block, and ever ready to jump by preference in the direction of the heaviest profit. Accordingly I sketched out, in the first place, a home business round, to be followed by another round abroad. And, again, as regarded this latter, while we were about it, we would take both the outer and the inner circle of foreign travel, and thus do a good round job once for all.
Let me here, in passing, contrast travel a thousand years ago, and travel now, in this year of grace to which we have arrived, the year 2882. Formerly all travelling was confined to our own little globe, and excepting casual excursions of the most helpless kind in balloons, we could not even lift ourselves off its narrow surface into the surrounding air, let alone getting away into outside space. But now, on the contrary, the air is the ordinary medium of our daily locomotion, as the earth's surface, both above and below, has been long since so crowded with human life, that the old modes either of surface or of underground travel, by rail or otherwise, have been for centuries of necessity abandoned. And again, as to range of travel, we now launch off into the boundless Ether ocean, on visits to adjacent worlds, with hardly more of time, trouble, or expense than were formerly incurred in visiting adjacent countries within our own little planet. What we now call the Home Trade, is the trade within our own small world, while the Foreign Trade is that with worlds outside.
Anon, with our few traps packed up, we are ready to march, and we open the door of our tidy little home, and emerge upon the street. Homes are very small spaces nowadays, when there are such countless millions to be accommodated with them, and thus most of space, other than house-room, gets the general name of street, seeing that the old variety of empty country areas and green fields has long since disappeared. When Brown senior and I, of a half-holiday Saturday, sally forth, in our old accustomed way, to seek the refreshing change of solitude and quiet, instead of the eternal crowd and noise of these endless streets, we have ever to mount farther and farther into the outer realms of thinnest endurable atmosphere, all the lower and denser air-strata being crammed with locomotive humanity. The spectacle we look down upon from aloft, by-the-by, is not unenjoyable, for every one must prefer to see cold space thus genially filled up with the warmth of human life and movement. At the same time, however, as I always say, although it is all pleasant and comfortable enough as far as we have as yet gone, and nobody could ever dream of retreating to the smaller things of the past, yet I do often wonder as to the future, and how the additional crowds are to get on, say in another thousand years.
Well, we have now sallied forth, and we watch our opportunity, from our door-step, to merge into line and pass on, tramp, tramp, with the rank and file of the street. This morning we are rather before the high business hours, when the press of passengers is always greatest. There is an understanding that at those times we are to march at a somewhat quicker step, that being of course the only mode by which all the multitude can get accommodated and passed through, each to his different business or other destination. It is really wonderful how pleasantly and comfortably we get on withal. But, as I said before, how will things be in the future at the present pace of progress? How will we all be getting on a thousand years hence?
On this subject of the life, warmth, and geniality impressed upon us by such well and comfortably filled space, our philosophers had a curious experiment the other day. Securing for their purpose, through the authorities, one of the public market spaces, which was kept quite empty for their use for some brief minutes, they placed an old lady, blindfolded, in the midst of this wide and unaccustomed solitude, in order to mark the sudden effect of the unexpected position. She, worthy, unsuspecting soul, proud of being in any way useful to the cause, and exemplifying a confidence in the honour of modern science which is so worthy of these advanced times, had for the occasion resigned herself unreservedly to the experiment. Her bandage being now whipped off by an electric switch, the instantaneous effect of realizing the surrounding solitude, and the fact that she was separated by quite fifty yards of empty space from any human being, sent the poor old lady off into a faint, from which she did not fully recover until partaking of a dose of well-synthesized old cognac from an adjacent laboratory.
But this sort of thing, as I must and will say, may be all very well for science, but for business it is not always so convenient. Both Brown and I, on that morning, found ourselves blocked by this ongoing upon our way to business. Both of us were some precious minutes late, and who knows what early worms both of us missed on that occasion, and in these competitive times too, when one's weather eye can never be safely shut even for a moment?
But to return to the thread of my story, my young friend and I are now making for the nearest cab-stand. We had decided on a cab, even at its higher cost, rather than the huge regular train-omnibus, as the greater speed of a direct course without stoppages was an object to us, and especially to myself, in view of our now enlarged scheme of travel. Cab-stands in old time used to range in long line upon the surface. But when available spaces there began to fail, some few centuries ago, under the preferent wants and claims of human beings, these useful vehicles were sent up aloft, in perpendicular succession, above our heads, in all sorts of shifty ways possible to their conveniently slight structure, which was mainly of thin extra-tough sheet diamond, until by the grand discovery of the reduplication of the cross-electric, as we shall see further on, the cross-electric current could be made to lift up and suspend material bodies, and thus enable us to have our present far greater convenience of long perpendicular lines of cab-stands, stretching unrestrictedly upwards towards old cloudland. Thus a whole cab-stand of thousands is upheld at a comparatively small cost of cross-electric energy; while each cab may have an accustomed place on the wire, or, as is found most workable and convenient, cabs are taken from the lowest in regular succession. The cab system nowadays would certainly astonish the quiet old fogies of a thousand years ago.
This particular cab-stand was one of the specials, in which each cab was booked to its own place. Our usual cabby happened to be "at home," and although five hundred feet aloft, unhooked his charge, upon our signalling him by his own electric bell beneath, and was with us in a trice.
We were soon whizzing through the air, and at a height and speed proportioned to the distance of our journey. The rules of the road, in air travel, have gradually become of necessity more and more strict; and it is alike creditable and wonderful, through this extreme care, how few accidents, comparatively speaking at least, do occur. They do occur at times, however; and most ugly and uncomfortable things they are, and a precious mess they make, when some thousands of splinters, alike of cabs, train-busses, or human bodies, bundle down, all in some unexpected moment, upon the full tide of countless humanity beneath. This is certainly one of the disadvantages of our modern circumstances and superiorities, and of all that dense population of whose powers of progress we are so proud. But, after all, it is marvellous how little all these disasters to the few disturb us, the surviving many. The wreckage of such occasional catastrophes is promptly removed, the gaps it makes filled up on the instant, and so the daily tide rolls on imperturbably as before.
As we loll comfortably on our cab sofa, we are not unimpressed with the dignity of even our friend Cabbie in these days of advanced science. There he sits at his ease in front of us, a model of well-practised skill, and mind-master of the situation, as he perfectly regulates the speed-energy, looks to his guiding comparative-altitude barometer for his exact level, and pilots his little ship withal through countless colliding dangers of the crowded scene. We could see, too, that he was using, as his locomotive power, a portion of the little Leyden accumulator which, on starting, we had paid to him as his fare. This is not uncommon—is indeed the practice, at least with cabbies, who either don't possess much means, or don't carry their capital about them, or may have permanently invested their spare cash. This leads me into saying a word or two upon—
Dealers and traders in Energy: our money itself would someday be Energy.—Author, chap. i.
A thousand years ago, for instance—and, by the way, I am somehow always on the trot back to that particular time—we used gold and silver for money. But afterwards we extricated our currency from that coarse and troublesome, special and costly kind of circulating medium, and substituted in its place our universal trading article, Energy, which was thus alternately, at the holder's option, either money for exchange and value-measuring purposes, or ready available force for current business use. This Money-Energy was conveniently intensified or accumulated into small Leydens, having much the appearance of school-boys' marbles, only of much lighter weight. We still keep up those old names of a thousand years ago, such as the Leyden jar for electric accumulation, and the Liebig for the chemical apparatus, by which the organic is created out of the inorganic, and our food supplies obtained by far prompter and more direct ways than the old slow-coach, circuitous and exploded ways of natural growth. These names, Leydens and Liebigs, are still indeed the same, but otherwise how much all is changed, and how different now are our advanced processes and results!
Our money basis, then, is Energy: and we have two kinds of money—namely, that of account, which is decimally dealt with, and represented by paper; and that of action, or the intrinsic money, which is the Energy itself, ready for use as either money or merchandise, and which is counted, not decimally, but chiefly by multiples. Thus when we paid our cabbie, as his fare, a ten-energy piece, we saw that he discharged half of its force into his cab machinery. This E10 piece of money was thus reduced to a E5, and the next application to action would reduce it to a E2.5, and so on. But cabbie had calculated upon the first submultiple as sufficient to accomplish his whole journey. Yes, and, as we also noticed, it actually did so, thus clearing, out of our pockets, one hundred per cent, profit to Mr. Cabbie. I only wish, thought I at the time, that certain other business I could name would pay but half or one-fourth as well. But, to conclude our money exposition, we can always tell the intensity of charge in these Leyden money-pieces by the colour. From old association our highest moneypiece of that kind, that of a thousand Energy, is made to have a yellow or golden hue, while the E500, the E250, and so on, have other distinct hues, all being respectively the result of specially prepared chemico-electric relationship. Of course the decimalcounting notes go up to sums very much higher than such a puny amount for those days as (E1000) a thousand Energy. When we thus slid our money off metals on to Energy, we reckoned roundly that our Energy unit (E1) was equal to the old superseded dollar. There have been increasing facilities of Energy supply since, but also, on the other hand, such increasing demand, that the relative value has been fairly upheld. It may be readily understood that our Energy Mint is an institution at constant work, and that this monetary system gives us marvellous facilities, as compared with the barbarous and helpless old times of mere metallic money.
Our first business stage was the famous Atalanta, situated about the centre of what was once the old Atlantic Ocean, and now usually called the Birmingham of the world, on account of its vast hardware and energy factories. We have already filled up, let me here say, all our Atlantic, Pacific, and other old oceans, excepting certain great main lines, or broad canals, embracing the deeper sections, which still remain for sanitary considerations and purposes. How long future centuries, and future myriads of increasing humanity, will yet spare such watery spaces, I am not prepared to say. But, besides the sanitarian case, they afford in the mean time a picturesque aspect as seen from where we now are above, so far at least as any one at our considerable elevation can see through all the succession of layers of travel apparatus between us and the ground.
Of course, owing to all this travel-filled air, only a very reduced sunlight now reaches the earth's surface. But this is not of so much consequence nowadays, for several reasons. First, then, having mopped up nearly all the ocean waters, we are but little troubled with clouds or rain to diminish any of the light which the sun does send to us. Next, we have electric light everywhere available when wanted to supplement that of the sun, and to give us besides the purer light of the two, considering the well-known yellowish tint of our luminary, of which more further on; besides that, as we now perfectly separate heat from light, we can so much the more cheaply and conveniently indulge in the latter, while entirely free from the other when not for the time and occasion wanted. And, again, most of our life is now subterranean, the world's outer surface being already utterly inadequate in area for more than a fraction of the crowd of present human life; while throughout this vast subterranean we have imitation suns which, for all practical purposes, are quite as good as the one original article outside, together with atmospheres free from all the said noise and light-obscuration of upper surface life. So you may see that this outside surface life has, after all, its disadvantages as well as its attractions, and it is by no means much preferred by most people, house rents being just as stiff almost, down even to third and fourth subterranean stages, as upon the uppermost or even the outside level.
We arrived safely at Atalanta, and just about the usual early dinner hour, as we had planned, in order to catch our friends more at their leisure. This is an old business trick of making such business leisure out of the dinner hour. But if this be reprehensible, we have, on the other hand, kept to, or come back to, simpler ways in both food and dress in these busy modern times; for how else can we get through all we have to do in the science and progress of the time? The particular spot of our destination is the main entrance to the Atalanta Great Consolidated Subterranean. This vast concern is usually called, in stockexchange abbreviation, the Great Consols Sub, and the place has a history which is not unworthy of our now glancing at.
The Sub-system, to use the smart business phraseology, commenced centuries ago, and even long before it became, from sheer want of surface-room, the absolute necessity it is now. Companies were, long since, got up, to excavate underground abodes, which by the natural increase of heat as you descended, conducted people at once to temperate, semi-tropical, and tropical regions, without any of the trouble, cost, or danger of thousands of miles' journeys. Thoroughly healthful ventilation was easily devised, and what with bright electric light, and artificially imitated tropical scenery, these subterranean abodes came to be quite the rage of the time, especially with invalids and the superannuated, who thus escaped at will all the ceaseless thunder of business and progress upstairs.
Brown and I often heard of the bulling and bearing of the Stock Exchange, but we never risked our money.—Author, chap. i.
But later on, when the sub-system had become a necessity of our crowded life, it was conducted more systematically. The whole land surface became by degrees literally honey-combed with sub-life, and tier was added to tier in the progressively downward excavation, as the ever-increasing numbers of human beings demanded more and more standing-room and house-room. These business sub-interests became at last such a countless throng, as to defy all stock-exchange ingenuity in exhibiting severally their conditions, their prospects, and their dividends; and it was just at the height of this emergency, and when the difficulty had become intolerable, that a great genius arose upon the troubled scene for the relief of the choked market.
This was no other than Bullings, the great stockbroking promoter, who originated the fertile modern idea of Consolidation, in gathering up the countless separately existing subs into comparatively few great consolidated interests; and who first successfully applied, as though by magic, his amalgamating hand to a thousand adjacent but distinct and separate subs in Atalanta. The huge additional capital of the new concern, which was still, by economy of consolidated management, to pay on the consolidated total much more dividend than before, and the adroitness with which he dealt with—aye, and pacified—almost countless superseded directors, who, with embarrassing but irresistible compliment to Bullings himself, persisted in valuing their seats, not by the small realities of the past, but by those grand prospects of the future which their own timely sacrifice of resignation rendered attainable, raised Bullings' reputation to unprecedented height, and surrounded him with quite a legion of eager speculators, who hung upon every glance and sign and word of the great man. I, too, and Brown as well, tried at times to get a wrinkle out of Bullings, so as to guide us to a premium or two. But the fellow, unless he scented the large order, had ever a dodging way of looking through you, instead of at you, and of seeming to be always so distressingly out of breath with the load of cares and profits he had constantly in his head, that it seemed positive cruelty to take up his precious time with your comparatively insignificant matters.
This was not Bulling's only great hit. He had encountered one earlier chance of fortune, during the last great mania for Finance, Discount, Loan and Universal Accommodation Companies. These had become so numerous at last, that a good, suitable, or popularity-catching name became the chief difficulty for the new concerns. As one grand resource in this way of course, every point of the compass had been early seized upon in succession, and a separate company duly floated off upon each. Thus there was the Northern, the Western, the North-western, and so on; but, curiously enough, no mind had been original and comprehensive enough to think of the collective compass itself. A rival promoter called Foddles had indeed bethought himself of the half points; and, when he launched the Nor'-half-west Company, boundless fortune seemed, for a brief instant, at his feet; for he had precautionarily patented the whole fractional succession. But it was only for an instant. The thing in that particular direction had already been run to seed, and so poor Foddles disappeared, overwhelmed in preliminary expenses. The genius of Bullings dawned opportunely at this critical stage. He came down upon the astonished market with the Whole Compass, Finance, Discount, Loan and Universal Accommodation Company, Unlimited, and he floated it successfully with a capital fully proportioned to the expansive dignity of the title.
But the premiums, great as they were, which Bullings was known to have harvested from this preceding concern were absolutely as nothing to what seemed now in prospect from his grand sub-consolidation scheme. He was of the boldest among speculators, and the amount of stock he contrived to hold, by aid of loans and contangoes, in support of his own market, was the marvel of the day. Of course, on the rising market this was all profit multiplying profit. His great opponents were the Bears Brothers, who were as speculatively bold in selling and depreciating his stock, as Bullings himself was in buying and buoying it up. But hitherto Bullings had routed the Bears in every direction along the whole line of battle.