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POLITICAL ECONOMY.

DEFINITIONS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY is the science which teaches the manner in which nations and individuals acquire wealth. Wealth is anything which is capable of gratifying our desires, and of procuring for us by exchange some other object of gratification. Some objects are capable of gratifying our desires, but are incapable of procuring for us any other objects in exchange: such are air, the light of the sun, and commonly water. Others are capable not only of gratifying our desires, but of procuring for us other objects in exchange: such are fuel, cloth, salt, wheat, iron, money, &c. It is only articles of this latter class that are denominated wealth.

Value. That quality in any object which renders it capable of gratifying our desires is called its value. Thus the value of air consists in its power to support life; the value of water consists in its capacity to slake our thirst, and in its utility in the several purposes in the arts; the value of fuel consists in its capacity to impart to us warmth, to cook our food, &c.

When this value is considered simply as a capacity to gratify human desire, it is called intrinsic value. When it is considered as a capacity to procure for us something else in exchange, political economists term it exchangeable value.

Things which are everywhere abundant, and which require no aid from human labour to render them capable of gratifying our desires, have only intrinsic value. This is the case with air, the light of the sun, &c. On the other hand, things which derive their power to gratify our desires from human labour, and which are found only in particular places, have always exchangeable value. This is the case with articles of food, clothing, metals, minerals, &c.

The reason why these latter have exchangeable value is evident. If I, by my labour, give value to something which had no value before, I have a right to the thing in which this value resides. And inasmuch as I have bestowed my labour upon it, I will not part with it for nothing. Hence if any one wants it, he must offer me in exchange something on which he has bestowed a similar amount of labour, or else something which I could not otherwise procure without bestowing upon it an equal or a greater amount of labour. Thus if I have spent an hour in catching a fish, I will not give it to my neighbour for nothing, or for air, or sunlight, which I can have for nothing. I will only give it for something which I could not procure with less than an hour's labour. And if he offer me something which could procure with half an hour's labour, I shall not exchange, but shall prefer to procure for myself the article which he offers me.

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And hence we see that when men exchange the products which they have procured with each other, they exchange labour for labour. Thus when men exchange silver for gold, they give a much larger amount of silver than of gold, because it requires much more labour to procure gold than it does to procure silver. Again, they give a much larger amount of iron in exchange than of silver, because the labour of procuring silver is much greater than the labour of procuring iron.

And hence we see that when men exchange with each other, the exchangeable value of anything will be, in general, as the labour which it costs to procure it. Hence the cost of anything, or its natural price, is the labour which is necessary to produce it.

This, however, is liable to accidental and temporary fluctuation. Sometimes a much larger quantity of a given product is created than is wanted. In this case the owner, in order to induce persons to buy, will offer it at a less price than the cost, because he had rather No. 81.

sell it at a loss than lose it altogether. When in this case the supply is too abundant, the exchangeable value will fall. On the other hand, when not enough of any given product has been created to supply the wants of the community, the buyers, rather than be deprived of it, will overbid each other, and thus will pay more than the natural price: that is, when the demand is unusually great, the exchangeable value will rise. These causes of fluctuation can, however, exist but for short periods; and the constant tendency of the exchangeable value of any ordinary product will be towards the cost of the labour necessary to create it.

Production is the act by which we give to any object its particular value, or its particular capacity to gratify human desire. Man can neither create nor annihilate anything; he can only change the form of that which is created. We cannot create iron, but we can extract it from the ore; we can then convert it into steel; we can change a bar of steel into knife-blades. Each of these acts, by which a particular value is given to the iron, is called an act of production.

The substance to which any value has thus been imparted is termed a product.

Capital. The term capital is applied to the material before it has been changed by labour into a product; to the instruments with which this change is effected; to the means of subsistence by which the labourer is supported; and also to the product which results from the application of labour to the raw material.

Exchange. Every man finds it for his interest to labour exclusively at one kind of production. Thus we see that every man has his own trade or profession. But a man wants a great many other things besides those which he produces himself. The shoemaker produces shoes; but he cannot eat, or drink, or clothe himself with shoes. Hence he must exchange his shoes for those articles which he needs. Every other man is in the condition of the shoemaker. And hence we see that an immense amount of exchanges must be made every day in every civilised community.

Distribution-Not only does every man work at a particular trade-it is commonly the case that a great many men must labour together in order to create a particular product. Every penknife, nay, every pin, goes through the hands of several workmen, and receives a portion of its value from every one of them. When the product has been created, every one is entitled to his share of it. The principles by which this division of the profits is made, is called by political economists distribution.

Consumption. Every product, after it has been created, is put to some purpose. Sometimes it is used for the creation of some other product-as wheat, when it has been raised, is used for the purpose of making flour; or again, it may be used for the simple purpose of satisfying human desire-as bread, when it is eaten, is used to appease our hunger. values in this manner is called consumption.

The destruction of

The whole subject of Political Economy may therefore be comprehended under these four divisions-Production, Exchange, Distribution, and Consumption.

I. PRODUCTION.

Production has already been defined as the act by which we confer upon any object a value which it did not possess before; or it is the application of labour to capital for the creation of a product.

CAPITAL.

Capital is the material which is to be united with industry for the creation of a product, or the instru

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ments which are used in the act of production, or the | which we enjoy in this country over those enjoyed by necessaries and conveniences by which the health of the labourer is sustained. Sometimes the labourer finds the material in its native state, as the miner finds the ore or the coal in its native bed; most commonly, however, he receives it from another individual, who has already conferred upon it some value, and it is his occupation to confer upon it additional worth.

The forms of capital are as various as the different occupations of men. The material of the farmer is seed, manure, animals, &c.; that of the manufacturer, cotton, wool, iron, leather, &c.; and that of the merchant, the various substances in which he traffics.

The instruments with which these producers labour are very various. The farmer uses ploughs, harrows, and carts; the manufacturer, saws, hammers, and spinning and weaving machines; and the merchant, ships, boats, locomotives, and the like.

Besides these, all men require for their sustenance food, clothing, shelter, and the various conveniences of life. Viewed in this light, all capital may be included under one or the other of the following classes:

Changes of Capital.-Inasmuch as the labour of men is so universally employed in changing capital having one form of value to capital having another form of value, capital must be incessantly undergoing changes. It is no matter how many changes it undergoes, if its value be at every stage sufficiently increased to pay for the labour which it cost to effect the change.

Increase of Capital.-If a given material undergo a change by which its value is increased, then there is an increase of capital equal to the difference between its former and its present value. I say equal to the difference; because, in the creation of one value, another value is always destroyed, and we are benefited, therefore, only by the superior amount of value which we possess over that which we have consumed to produce Thus the farmer consumes seed, manure, labour, sustenance, in the production of a crop. He has changed one kind of capital for another, and he is enriched just by as much as his crop is of greater value than all that it cost him to produce it.

it.

Capital which is undergoing change by which its value is increased, or which is yielding an annual income, is called productive capital. That which is lying idle, and neither producing anything nor increasing in value, is called unproductive capital.

Money forms a small, but very important part of the capital of all civilised nations. The use of money is to enable us the more easily to make exchanges with each other. That it forms but a small part of the capital of a country is evident from the fact, that a very small part of the wealth of any individual consists of money. What is true of the separate individuals of a community must be true of the community collectively.

Fixed and Circulating Capital.-That capital from which the owner derives profit by changing its form or place, is called circulating capital; while the various instruments which he uses to produce this change, and from the use of which he derives profit, are fixed capital. Thus the wheat and the manures of the farmer, the wool and raw cotton of the manufacturer, are their circulating capital; the ploughs, harrows, barn, and land of the one, the machinery and buildings of the other, are their respective fixed capitals.

There is a constant tendency in a prosperous condition of society to change circulating into fixed capital. The farmer sells his wheat, and with the produce buys more land and better tools, or erects better fences and barns. The manufacturer, with his profits of this year, enlarges his manufactory; and thus, in the progress of society, vast sums are annually invested in roads, canals, manufactories, and various means of improvement.

The beneficial result of this tendency is easily seen. Fixed capital is but slowly consumed, hence the wealth of each generation is transmitted to the next; and, year after year, a country becomes better and better provided with the means for furnishing itself with all the conveniences of life. The superior conveniences

the aborigines who long ago occupied it, are owing entirely to the amount of fixed capital which covers the soil. It is thus that the results of the industry of men are transmitted to their posterity, and that the men of any one age are enabled to reap advantage from the skill, industry, and good conduct of the men of all ages who have gone before them.

INDUSTRY.

Of the Nature and the different Kinds of Human Industry. Industry is human exertion of any kind employed for the creation of value.

If we consider the different kinds of value which it is in the power of man to create, we shall see that human industry may be employed in three different ways. Matter may be changed in its elementary form, as it is by the farmer when he plants seed and reaps an increase; or in its aggregate form, as when a carpenter fashions a piece of furniture out of a log; or in its place, as when a sailor carries it from one country to another. The ultimate design of all human industry employed in production is to effect either one or the other of these results. They are frequently, for the sake of distinction, denominated agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial industry.

It is evident that every one of these kinds of labour is absolutely necessary, in order to promote the convenience and happiness of man; and also that neither one could prosper without the aid of the others. Were there no agricultural labour, everybody would starve. Were there no manufacturing labour, everybody would be chilled to death. Were there no labour employed in transporting commodities from place to place, no one could enjoy any convenience except what he had produced himself—that is, though with great industry and suffering a few persons might live, yet they would be but few, and these few would be miserably poor. Hence we may see how unwise it is for any jealousy to exist between the farmer, the mechanic, and the merchant. All are equally necessary to each one, and each one is necessary to both the others.

But some men are neither mechanics, nor farmers, nor merchants; they are students, or philosophers, or lawyers, or physicians, or clergymen. All of these men, however, are necessary to society in ways that must be generally obvious, and are as well entitled to their rewards as any other useful class.

Of the Increase of the Productiveness of Human Industry
by the means of Natural Agents.

By the productiveness of human industry we mean the amount of product which a human being in a given time can create. Thus if a farmer by one day's labour can raise one bushel of wheat, the productiveness of his labour is equal to one bushel; if he can, with the same labour, raise two bushels, the productiveness of his labour is equal to two bushels. If a cotton-spinner can spin one pound of cotton in a day, this is the amount of the productiveness of his labour; if he can spin ten pounds, this is the amount of it.

Now it is evident that the greater the productiveness of labour, the better is it for the industrious person and for all his neighbours. Every one knows that it is better for a farmer to own rich than to own poor land, because with a year's labour on the one he can obtain a much larger crop than on the other. It is, moreover, better for him that his neighbours also should have rich than poor land, because the richer their land, the larger quantity of their products will they be able to give him in exchange for his products. The great difference, therefore, between rich and poor land is, that rich land renders industry more productive than poor land.

The case is the same with the other modes of industry. He who spins with his fingers without any machine labours very unproductively-that is, in a day he can create but a small product: he who labours with a

Gunpowder is used in war, in hunting, and in the blasting of rocks. For the latter purpose it is very valuable in the construction of canals, railways, &c.

Wind is used as a stationary agent in the common windmill; and as a locomotive agent in the propelling of vessels on the water. It is cheap, and for some purposes very valuable.

spinning-wheel, labours much more productively-that | portant and familiar of these are gunpowder, wind, is, with a day's labour he can create a much larger falling water, and steam. amount of product: and he who uses a still better machine, called a spinning-jenny, labours yet more productively that is, in a day he can create twenty or a hundred times as much product as he could with a spinning-wheel. In every case, as the productiveness of labour increases, both the labourer and the community are benefited, just as a farmer would be benefited by exchanging a poor soil for a rich one. In both cases the benefit is the same-that is, with a given amount of labour he creates a larger amount of product, he receives better wages for his labour, and at the same time the community obtains his product at a cheaper rate. Hence it is that mankind have been, from the earliest ages, endeavouring to invent means by which the productiveness of human labour may be increased. And the condition of mankind is improved, from time to time, just in proportion as these endeavours have been made successfully. Every one knows how much the comforts of an industrious mechanic in this country exceed those of an uncivilised Indian; and the difference is owing to the fact, that the labour of the one is so much more productive than that of the other. Now there are two ways in which the productiveness of human industry may be increased: these are, first, the use of natural agents; and, secondly, division of labour. Let us explain :

Use of Natural Agents.

A natural agent is, as its name imports, an agent of nature, or any quality of things which we are able to use in order to accomplish our purposes. Thus it is of the nature of wood, when set on fire, to give off heat, and heat is the natural agent which we use for the purpose of cooking our food. It is of the nature of steam, when heated, to expand, and when suddenly cooled, to contract; hence steam is the natural agent by whose alternate expansion and contraction we create the force which we need to propel boats or machinery. So it is of the nature of water, when falling down from an elevation, to acquire a very considerable force; this force is the natural agent which we use to turn the wheel of a mill. So the peculiar quality of the magnet is a natural agent. The various qualities of medicinal herbs are also natural agents, though used for a different purpose from those mentioned above.

A tool or a machine is any instrument by which we are enabled to avail ourselves of the qualities of natural agents. Thus an axe is an instrument by means of which we make use of the cutting power of iron. A steam-engine is an instrument by which we make use of the expansive and contractile quality of steam.

In political economy, the principal use of natural agents is either to create or to use power or force, or, as we sometimes call it, momentum. Thus if a man wishes to row a boat, or chop wood with an axe, he must have strength or power with which to do it. The more strength or power he has, the more work he can do.

Thus a man can do more work than a boy because he has more strength, or power, or force, to do it with. Now natural agents are capable of exerting this power, and by means of machinery we can direct the manner in which it shall be exerted.

The natural agents which we use for this purpose are of two kinds, animate and inanimate :

Animate natural agents are beasts of burthen and draught as the ox, the horse, the ass, the camel, the elephant, and other animals similarly employed.

That these very greatly increase the productiveness of human labour is evident. Every one knows how much more land a farmer can cultivate by means of a pair of horses than he could by his own unassisted strength, and how much more wheat a man can transport from one place to another with a wagon and horse than he could carry on his back.

The inanimate natural agents are, as we have said, the various qualities and powers of things by which we are enabled to accomplish our purposes. The most im

Falling water is used very extensively as a stationary agent in almost all works where great power is required. Almost all our nails are made, our wheat is ground, and much of our cotton is spun and woven by water. Steam, however, is now used the most extensively for the various purposes of the arts, as it possesses many advantages over every other agent. It is capable of exerting any degree of force, from the least to the greatest; it may be used as a stationary or a locomotive power; it may be used on land or on water, and it may be placed perfectly under human control. Its only disadvantage is its expensiveness. Steam is now used to spin the finest thread and the stoutest cable, to weave muslins and to hammer anchors, to propel the largest vessels on our rivers and on the ocean, to draw our carriages, to saw and plane our boards, and in fact to accomplish almost all the purposes which require either great or unremitted force (See No. 25, Vol. Î.).

Inanimate agents are in general preferable to animate agents in most of the purposes for which power is required. The reason of this will be readily comprehended. For instance

1. They are cheaper. A steam-engine of a hundred horse-power will cost less than the horses necessary to do the labour which it performs, and will cost much less to keep it at work.

2. They labour without cessation, while animals require much time for rest and refreshment.

3. They are safer. They have no passions, and hence may be governed by fixed and certain laws. A steam locomotive, for example, is neither liable to run away nor be frightened.

4. We can use them without the infliction of pain, while animals frequently, of necessity, suffer in consequence of hard labour or rapid driving.

5. They are capable of much more rapid action, hence there is a great economy of human time.

But this is not all. Men are able not only by the above means to create force, they are also able to devise machines by which the force thus created may be applied. Thus after a steam-boiler and cylinder have been constructed, we are able to create a force by means of steam; but we still need levers, and wheels, and cranks, in order to enable us to use it. When we have trained horses to draw, we still need wagons to enable them to draw with. All these machines, by which force is directed, are the various modifications of what are called in philosophy the mechanical powers. And by means of them we are enabled to wield the force which we have created in any manner that we choose.

Besides these agents for the creation of force, there are various other qualities of things which are of very great use in the purposes of human life. Thus, for instance, some of the metals, when heated, readily melt; and if in this state they are poured into a mould, they retain the shape of the mould with perfect precision. In this manner much human labour is saved, or a given amount of labour is rendered much more productive. Were it not for this quality of type-metal, every type must be cut by the hand. This would render types and books very expensive. But now we have only to cut a mould into the form that we wish, and if the melted metal be poured into it, the type is formed, by cooling, into the precisely corresponding figure. In this manner a single workman can make several hundred types in an hour. There are various other qualities of things which we use in a similar manner, but their number is so great that we have no room here to describe them. By reflection, every person may easily furnish himself with as many examples as he pleases.

Division of Labour.

In the preceding sections we have seen that the productiveness of human labour may be greatly increased, first, by discovering the various qualities of things, or, specially, those qualities by which we are capable of creating force; and, secondly, by those various contrivances by which the force thus created may be successfully directed and applied. We have one other source of increased productiveness yet to consider it is division of labour-and its results are in many cases as striking as any that have been noticed.

Division of labour, in general, means employing one individual upon one kind of labour, instead of employing the same individual upon several kinds of labour. If we reflect, we shall see that this circumstance forms one of the leading distinctions between savage and civilised nations. A savage does for himself whatever he requires to have done. inventor, and operative; his own farmer, butcher, baker, He is his own philosopher, shoemaker, tailor, carpenter, &c. And the result is, that he is ignorant, hungry, shelterless, almost naked; and that he continues age after age without making any sensible improvement. On the contrary, civilised men divide these various occupations, so that one man labours wholly in one, and another man labours wholly in another employment; and the result is, that civilised men, without labouring more than savages, easily obtain convenient shelter, clothing, food, and all the necessaries of life.

only occasionally makes nails, may make about 800 or
thing else, will make upwards of 2300 in a day.
1000 in a day; while a boy who has never done any-

and machines, by which labour may be rendered still
4. Division of labour suggests the invention of tools
more productive. As soon as an operation is analysed
into its simple processes, it is comparatively easy to
contrive some way in which to perform either one or
all of these processes by a machine. It would have
required great skill to construct a machine for making
nails before the process was analysed; but let it be
comparatively easy to construct instruments by which
divided into rolling, cutting, and heading, and it is
each of these processes may be accomplished.

performing the various parts of a process. Some parts 5. There is great diversity in the talent required for of the operation require great dexterity, and a long course of education; others can be performed by women, parts may require labour worth four or five shillings, and even by children, with very little training. Some while others can be executed by labour worth no more than a few pence per day. Now without division of labour, all the processes must be performed by labour at the highest price. By judicious division of labour, the kind of labour that he needs. This greatly reduces the manufacturer can employ just the amount and just the cost of production.

which almost all the articles of general use may be The effect of all this is seen in the very low price at obtained. For instance, suppose a lady in New York

other workman to have them made for her, she could not obtain them at much less than a shilling a piece. But needles are imported into that city from a British manufacturing town, and sold at about four for a halfpenny of our money, notwithstanding all the cost of transportation; and this entirely through the advantage derived from the division of labour.

But still more. Every one who observes any mecha-wanted a dozen needles, and applied to a jeweller or nical process, observes that it consists of several parts. For instance, in order to make a knife, the blade must be formed and then polished, the handle must be formed in several pieces, the rivets must be made to connect these several pieces together; and after these several pieces have been formed and prepared for each other, they must be united together into a knife. Now what is commonly called division of labour in political economy, consists in so apportioning this work that one person shall labour at only one part of any process.

is as far as division of labour can go. There would be no economy in any farther division.

limit. This limit depends upon several circumstances. 1. But to this division of labour there is a natural The division of labour in this manner is found to a certain number of operations. When it has been For instance, a given process consists of no more than have a much greater effect upon the productiveness of divided into as many parts as there are distinct prohuman industry than could possibly have been sup-cesses, and one part is assigned to each individual, this posed. Every man who labours at a trade adopts this plan in part. If a cabinet-maker, for example, have a dozen tables to make, he will make all the legs of all the tables at once, then all the covers, &c. and when all have been prepared, he will put them all together. And if several men were to unite and make nothing but tables, and each one perform but one part of the labour, they could make a great many more tables in a given time than if each one made a whole table. The principal reasons for this increased productiveness are as follow:

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1. It saves the loss of time and skill, which must result from frequently passing from one occupation to another. After a man has laboured for some time at one thing, he is said to have got his hand in,' and he performs the operation with ease and skill. If he turns to a different occupation, his hand is out,' and he cannot perform it so well. Hence all the time consumed in acquiring the habit is lost.

2. When a variety of operations is to be performed by the same individual, he must frequently adjust his tools, or pass from the use of one kind of tools to the use of another. This occasions a great waste of time. By performing the same operation continuously, the same tools with the same adjustment will answer the same purpose perpetually. This is specially the case where the adjustment of tools requires not only time but expense, as, for instance, in the use of the blacksmith's furnace. If the smith heat it, and leave it for the purpose of doing some other work, all the fuel consumed after he leaves it, as well as that necessary to bring it again to its proper temperature, is lost.

3. When men confine themselves to a single operation, they acquire a degree of dexterity and skill which could be acquired in no other manner. 484 A man who

pends upon the capital of an individual or of a coun2. Again, the practicability of division of labour detry. A man must have accumulated some considerable amount of capital before he can carry on division of labour in any occupation. For instance, suppose that the division requires the labour of ten men, he must Nor is this all: suppose that it take ten days to finish have materials and tools sufficient to employ ten hands. them during all this time before he receives anything his product, he must have material sufficient to employ in return for that product. And if it take a fortnight fresh stock of material, he must have a capital suffimore before he is able to sell his goods and obtain a cient to employ them during this time also. It is for this reason that manufactures do not commence with the first settlement of a country, but they must always be successfully established. be delayed until capital accumulates before they can

there is sufficient demand for a product to consume it 3. Division of labour can only be carried on where as fast as it is manufactured. If it would take ten men to manufacture pins by division of labour, but only so many pins could be sold as could be made by one man, the labour could not be divided. This, however, depends upon several other circumstances. For instance, the demand depends upon the number and the wealth of a community. in a town of ten thousand inhabitants than in a village of one hundred inhabitants. There is also a greater There is a larger demand for hats among a thousand beggars. This is another reason why demand for hats among a thousand rich men than division of labour and manufactures naturally increase with the growth, and age, and wealth of any country.

And hence we see why roads, canals, and railways | strate that such has always been the result.

The

a pot of rice and a cotton cloth. How different is the condition of the labourer in this country!

are so beneficial to the industry of a country. By re- labour of the Western Indian or the Eastern Hindoo ducing the cost of transportation, they render the price is without machinery and without division, and it is of any commodity as low at one hundred miles distance of course very unproductive. Hence he is very poor. as it frequently was before at ten miles distance from The whole wealth of the Indian is a blanket and a the place of its manufacture. Hence facility of trans-bow and arrows, and the whole wealth of a Hindoo is port increases the number of consumers, and by thus increasing the demand, renders practicable the division of labour in cases where before it was impracticable. Again, it is evident that demand must be greatly affected by the cost of the article manufactured. Costly articles are purchased only by the rich. But the rich are only a sinall part of the community. Hence the demand for such articles is but small. It is those articles which every one wants, and which every one can buy, that create such a demand as will enable them to be made at the cheapest possible rate. Hence we see that division of labour, and the reduction of price which it occasions, benefits the poor much more than it does the rich. I do not suppose that jewellery, trinkets, rich laces, are much, if at all, cheaper than they were twenty or thirty years ago; while cotton cloth, hardware, woollen goods, and all the manufactured necessaries of life, have fallen in price from one-half to three-realised by the labouring-classes. A nobleman in Great fourths. This is an immense benefit to those of us who are obliged to spend our money for necessaries and comforts, and have none to spend for trinkets.

Of the Benefits of Increased Productiveness of Labour.

The prime object of labour, as every one knows, is to procure the means of happiness. A farmer labours to produce wheat, rye, fruits, &c.; a cotton manufacturer to produce clothing, and a shoemaker to produce shoes, and so of any other case.

Now the greater the productiveness of labour, the greater are the means of happiness which the individual by a given amount of labour produces. If a farmer expend a year's labour upon a rich soil, his labour is more productive than if he expended it upon a poor soil; that is, with the same labour, he produces in one case say five hundred bushels of wheat, and in the other case only two hundred bushels. Every one must see that this is an advantage; and every one would rather own one hundred acres of good soil than one hundred acres of poor soil.

Now if a poor soil can, by means of manure, or in any other manner, be changed into a fertile one, the result is the same as if, by means of improved tools, a farmer were able by one day's labour to produce twice as much as he could produce before.

Now this principle applies just as much to a manufacturer or any other labourer as to a farmer. Suppose a carpenter, when he first commences learning his trade, could not make more than one table in a week, his labour would be very unproductive. As he becomes more and more skilful, he can make a table in less time; and at last, when he can make a table in a day, his labour is six times as productive as it was before, and he has the means of procuring for himself six times as many comforts with the same amount of labour. Further, if he be able, by means of a turning-lathe, or a steam-engine, or by division of labour, to make two tables a day, his labour will be still more productive, and he will be able to procure for himself a corresponding greater amount of conveniences.

So if men spun by hand and wove by hand, were this possible, a man could produce but very little thread and very little cloth. His labour would be in the lowest degree unproductive. But if he invent a spinning-wheel and a loom, his labour becomes at once vastly more valuable, and he can produce ten or twenty times as much as he could before, and he is able to provide himself with a much greater portion of the necessaries and comforts of life. If now we furnish him with a spinning-jenny and a power-loom, his labour will be still more productive; and as he creates, with a given amount of labour, a greater amount of the means of happiness, a larger portion will fall to his own share-that is, he will be both richer and happier. And facts demon

And we also see that it is not beneficial merely for one individual to increase the productiveness of his labour; it is beneficial to the whole community that the sum-total of industry should be as productive as possible. Would it not be a benefit if the crops of corn, and wheat, and cotton, and rice, the products of the fisheries, of the mines, and of the manufactories, during the next year, should with the same labour be doubled, so that we might by a day's labour procure twice as much bread-stuffs, fuel, clothing, and every necessary and comfort of life, as we are able to procure at present? Now the whole effect of the increased productiveness of labour, by means of machinery and of division of labour, is to bring about precisely such a result.

And yet more the benefit of this change is specially

Britain is by no means as much better off than his ancestor, as a common labourer in England now is better off than a serf at the period of the feudal oppression and ignorance. The rich and powerful in all countries always have an abundance of comforts and luxuries. Comparatively, they are but slightly benefited by improvement in the productiveness of labour. It is the labourer who is chiefly benefited, because every improvement brings within his power some convenience which was before out of his reach. What difference does it make to a man worth a hundred thousand a year whether coal costs one or five pounds a ton, and cotton cloth fourpence or two shillings a yard? At either price he would be able to procure an abundance. But to the man who is worth but fifty or a hundred pounds a year, the difference of price is a matter of immense consequence; inasmuch as at one price he would be able to supply himself abundantly, and at the other price he would be able to supply himself but very scantily, if he were able, indeed, to supply himself at all. Hence we affirm that improvements in machinery, by which the productiveness of labour is increased, are specially for the benefit of those classes who are obliged to work for their living.

The only objection to all this is, that by increasing the productiveness of labour we diminish the demand for labour, and that hence labourers are thrown out of employment. This deserves a brief consideration, inasmuch as it has led not only to erroneous views in theory, but to practical wickedness in action.

To settle this question, let us examine the facts. What are the manufactures which now employ the greatest number of workmen, and in which the number of workmen has within the last twenty years the most rapidly increased? I think that any one will answer, the cotton and the iron manufactures. But if we were asked in which branches of manufactures has labour-saving machinery been most extensively introduced? we must also answer, the cotton and the iron manufactures. Or we may come to the same result if we compare the linen with the cotton manufacture. Machinery has been introduced only in a small degree into the manufacture of the one, and very extensively introduced into that of the other. The consequence is, that the labourers in linen are very poorly paid, and are diminishing in number, while the labourers in cotton are well paid, and are every year rapidly increasing. These facts are abundantly sufficient to teach any person what is the natural result of the use of machinery.

The reason of this is easily seen. Suppose that only 10,000 yards of cotton could be used in a given district, and it required 100 men to make them. If these 10,000 yards could be made by 50 men, it is evident that 50 men would be thrown out of work. But suppose that by this change in the mode of labour, the cotton cloth

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