As a matter of fact we are very indifferent
shopkeepers. We lack several of the needful qualities: we lack
foresight, the sense of order and organised industry, and the strength
of mind to resist the temptations following upon a great coup. A
nation of shopkeepers would not go back on the shop so completely as
we do. No nation that is essentially snobbish can be accurately summed
up as a nation of shopkeepers. The French for all their distracting
gifts of art and mockery are better shopkeepers than we, largely
because they are more sensibly contented. They take short views and
live each day more fully. But the Dutch are better still; the Dutch
are truly a nation of shopkeepers. [4]
If one would see the Amsterdam merchant as the satirist sees him,
the _locus classicus_ is Multatuli's famous novel _Max Havelaar_,
where he stands delightfully nude in the person of Mr. Drystubble,
head of the firm of Last and Co., Coffee-brokers, No. 37 Laurier
Canal. _Max Havelaar_ was published in the early sixties to draw
attention to certain scandals in Dutch colonial administration, and it
has lived on, and will live, by reason of a curious blend of vivacity
and intensity. Here is a little piece of Mr. Drystubble's mind:--
Business is slack on the Coffee Exchange.
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