The transport and communication board would have jurisdiction over all of those activities involving the transfer of goods, of people and of messages, not wholly within one division. Such a plan has been worked out in part in the United States of America, where commerce between the states (interstate commerce) is under the control of the Federal Government, while commerce wholly within one state is under the control of that state. The same principle, applied to a producers' society, would leave local transport in local hands, while all matters concerning world transport would be under the control of the world producers' federation.
The present economic system depends on the shipment of goods from one point to another. Raw materials are sent from the place of their origin to the fabricating establishment that consumes them. In some cases, these distances are small, but when Cuba sends iron ore to the United States, or when Brazil ships coffee to Europe, or when England sends coal to Italy, the distances are considerable and the means of efficient transport are correspondingly important. The same thing holds true of the marketing of finished products. Many of the goods turned out by the present-day industry—particularly machinery—are very bulky and heavy. Each of the manufacturing nations sells its goods, not only within its own borders, but at the ends of the earth. The transport of goods thus becomes supremely important.
The transport of goods and of people is only one aspect of the work coming under the direction of the transport and communication board. In addition, there would be:
1. The postal system, which is already on a world basis.
2. The express system, which is really only a branch of the postal system, and which is also on a world basis at the present time.
3. Telephone, telegraph and wireless machinery, which are in their very nature wider than the boundaries of one nation, and which are to-day among the chief means of holding the people of the world close together.
The mechanism of transport constitutes a vast net-work of inter-relations that have been carried farther toward a world basis than any other phase of the world's economic life. The nature of ocean transport, of the postal service, of the express service and of the telephone and telegraph made this inevitable. The inventions and discoveries of the past century have worldized transport without the necessity of any intervention from a producer's society.
While the work of the transport and communication board would be of vital consequence, it would be relatively simple, in that it would involve little innovation, but rather the unification and co-ordination of existing agencies.
7. The Exchange, Credit and Investment Board
Many economic writers have characterized the processes of exchange as "non-productive" activities, nevertheless, under the present economic order they lie closer to the seat of power than any other single group of activities. The rise of the banker to his present commanding position is due, primarily, to his control over money, and to his power to issue or to withhold credit. A producers' society may lay far less emphasis on money and its derivatives than does the present system, yet the money function will remain and the money forces will doubtless play some part for a very long period in the new economic order.