59 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



has shown that, under a good organization of clerks, shopmen, porters, 

 and distributors, it costs much less proportionally to sell a large 

 amount of goods than a small amount, and that the buyer of large 

 quantities can, without sacrifice of satisfactory profit, afford to offer 

 to his retail customers such advantages in respect to prices and range 

 of selection, as almost to preclude competition on the part of dealers 

 operating on a smaller scale, no matter how otherwise capable, honest, 

 and diligent they may be. The various retail trades, in the cities and 

 larger towns of all civilized countries, are accordingly being rapidly 

 superseded by vast and skillfully organized establishments and in 

 Great Britain and Europe by co-operative associations which can 

 sell at little over wholesale prices a great variety of merchandise 

 dry-goods, manufactures of leather, books, stationery, furs, ready- 

 made clothing, hats and caps, and sometimes groceries and hardware 

 and at the same time give their customers far greater conveniences 

 than can be offered by the ordinary shopkeeper or tradesman. In 

 London, the extension of the " tramway " or street-railroad system is 

 even advocated, on the single ground that the big stores need quicker 

 access to their branch establishments, in order to still further promote 

 the economy of goods distribution. 



The spirit of progress conjoined with capital, and having in view 

 economy in distribution and the equalization of values, is therefore 

 controlling and concentrating the business of retailing, in the same 

 manner as the business of wholesale distribution and transporta- 

 tion, and of production by machinery, is being controlled and con- 

 centrated, and all to an extent never before known in the world's 

 experience. 



Keeping economy in distribution constantly in view as an essen- 

 tial for material progress, the tendency is also everywhere to dispense 

 to the greatest extent with the " middle-man," and put the locomo- 

 tive and the telegraph in his place. Retail grocers, as before shown, 

 now buy their teas directly of the Chinaman, and dispense with the 

 services of the East Indian merchant and his warehouses. Manufact- 

 urers deal more directly with retailers, with the result, it is claimed, 

 of steadying supply and demand, and preventing the recurrence of 

 business crises. The English cotton-spinner at Manchester now buys 

 his raw cotton by cable in the interior towns of the cotton-growing 

 States of North America, and dispenses with the services of the 

 American broker or commission-merchant. European manufacturers 

 now send their agents with samples of merchandise to almost every 

 locality in America, Asia, and the Pacific islands, where commerce is 

 protected and transportation practicable, and offer supplies, even in 

 comparatively small quantities, on better terms than dealers and con- 

 sumers can obtain from the established wholesale or retail merchants 

 of their vicinity. And all of these changes have inevitably occasioned, 

 and for a long time yet will continue to occasion, great disturbances 



