26. Loss of Leadership
T
he market is supposed to be a level place of combat, often (usu
ally) peaceful. Not that the players would have it so: if they had
their way, they would be given every advantage and keep what they
have from those who come after. The same for groups and industries
and national economies: all want to get and keep. Fortunately, the
presence of competitors imposes a duty to strive; in the long run, noth
ing for nothing.
So with international economic rivalries. Cities and nations have
come to the fore, have yielded to newcomers, been passed in turn by
other newcomers. The process is not a pleasant one for the losers, al
though the pain is much eased by willful myopia; also by the fact that
these losses of place do not usually entail absolute decline.* On the
contrary, earlier advances will have been converted into a stock of
wealth that comforts those who have it; and into human and material
capital that continues to yield income and growth. Still, leadership is
habit- and pride-forming. No one likes to lose place.
Jealousy signals ambition. When English "political arithmeticians" of
- Much of the literature on this subject tacitly uses the term decline to denote rela
tive rather than absolute loss of place. It were better to specify that explicitiy.