supposed  to  be  beyond  exact  utilitarian  calcu-
lation. Fashion  often  determines  not  only
what  men  eat  and  wear,  but  where  they  buy


CUSTOM:    HABIT— DAIRE


477


and  even  to  some  extent  what  they  pay.
The  goodwill  of  a  business  is  simply  this
fashion  considered  from  the  purveyor's  point
of  view.  Thomas  Telford  the  engineer  formed
part  of  the  goodwill  of  the  Salopian  coffee-
house at  Charing  Cross  (see  Smiles'  Life  of
Telford).  It  is  perhaps  the  tendency  of  an
active  commercial  community  to  go  from  the
one  extreme,  of  regard  for  custom,  to  the  other,
regard  for  mere  cheapness  as  measured  by  price
without  due  account  of  quality.  Modern  im-
provements, such  as  railways,  and  telegraphs,
and  co-operative  stores,  play  a  great  part  in
breaking  down  custom  and  causing  a  rough
equality  even  in  retail  prices.  In  the  whole-
sale markets,  where  both  sellers  and  buyers
are  alive  to  their  commercial  interests,  the
power  of  custom  is  a  smaller  factor  than  in
retail  dealings.  But  in  the  stock  markets  and
elsewhere  it  is  still  a  factor  (see  e.g.  Babbage,
Mach.  avd  Manuf,  3rd  ed.  ch.  xv.  p.  145; —
Ellis,  "Influence  of  Opinion  on  Markets,"
Economic  Journal,  March  1892,  pp.  109  seq.)
It  may  be  doubted  if  customary  profit  is  so
tangible  a  conception  as  it  seemed  to  Adam
Smith  ;  yet  in  recent  Continental  Usury  Laws
it  figures  still  very  largely,  as  it  did  in  the
Middle  Ages.  Where  instead  of  prices  or  profits
conditions  of  bargaining  are  concerned,  it  is
not  only  a  factor  but  the  main  factor,  for
commercial  law  is  simply  the  customs  of  mer-
chants to  which  the  state  now  gives  legal  eifect.
