b'That which seems to be wealth may in verity be only the gilded index of far-reaching ruin.There is not in history record of anything so disgraceful to the human intellect as the modern idea that the commercial text, Buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest, represents, or under any circumstances could represent, an available principle of national economy. Buy in the cheapest market?yes; but what made your market cheap: Charcoal may be cheap among your roof timbers after a fire, and bricks may be cheap in your streets after an earthquake; but fire and earthquake may not therefore be national benefits. Sell in the dearest?yes, truly; but what made your market dear? You sold your bread well today: was it to a dying man who gave his last coin for it, and will never need bread more; or to a rich man who tomorrow will buy your farm over your head; or to a soldier on his way to pillage the bank in which you have put your fortune?It is impossible to conclude, of any given mass of acquired wealth, merely by the fact of its existence, whether it signifies good or evil to the nation in the midst of which it exists. Its real value depends upon the moral sign attached to it, just as sternly as that of a mathematical quantity depends on the algebraical sign attached to it. Any given accumulation of commercial wealth may be indicative, on the one hand, of faithful industries, progressive energies, and productive ingenuities: or, on the other, it may be indicative of mortal luxury, merciless tyranny, ruinous chicane. 16 In 1904, Ruskins writing reached one Mohandas K. Gandhi, on whom it had a life-changing effect. Gandhi recounts that Unto This Last brought about an instantaneous and practical transformation in my life. 17Reading it during a 24-hour-long train trip from Johannesburg to 16 Unto This Last and Other Writings, John Ruskin (Penguin Books, 1985), pp. 187-817 Gandhi: An Autobiography (Beacon Press, 1957), p. 29932'