WAGES, LABOUR AND TRADES' UNION. 467 



cases ; though certainly more remotely in some than in others. Let 

 us take an individual and well known instance, a trade which is 

 spreading rapidly, not only in England but throughout the world 

 PRINTING. Why is it that French books are so much cheaper than 

 ours that butfor the prohibitory duties which is put upon their im- 

 portation,, books of English manufacture would be put entirely out of 

 the market by a cheaper foreign supply ? It is, that besides the 

 greater cheapness of the raw materials, and the exemption from taxes 

 under which the home manufacturer labours, the price of journey- 

 men's labour in Paris is not much more than half what it is in Eng- 

 land, whilst their expertness, and their perfection in the art being 

 equal if not superior to ours, the result is eminently in their favour. 

 Then why, it may be asked, is it, that in woollen, hardware, and 

 other manufactures of a like kind, they do not equally excel us in 

 cheapness as in printing ; the raw material being equally cheap to 

 them as to us, and labour so much cheaper ? It is because the per- 

 fection of our machinery is as yet far in advance of theirs,* and that, 

 consequently, with an equal number of higher paid hands, we are 

 enabled, as yet, far to surpass them both in the quantity and quality 

 of our produce. But what good grounds have we to expect that this 

 superiority should continue for ever undisturbed? Why may not 

 France, as she already equals us in the art of printing, one day equal 

 us in the application of machinery to other purposes ? There is not 

 only no one reason to offer against such a prospect, but, on the con- 

 trary, experience already shows that there is every probability that 

 such a state of things may not be far distant. 



It is a notorious fact that the hardware manufactures, both of 

 France and of Prussia, are fast advancing upon our own. In some 

 of the finer articles of cutlery we are already in part supplied by 

 France ; and, on the other hand, the foreign demand for some of our 

 articles of brass ornament, as those for doors, &c., has almost entirely 

 been superseded by the competition of foreign manufacturers. 



What is it that urges the foreign manufacturer to compete with us 

 in our hitherto peculiar articles of exportation ? why, the hope of 

 making them cheaper at home than he can buy them from us. Then 

 how should we best oppose such competition ? why, by keeping our 

 prices as low as possible, by every means in our power, not only in 

 the cheapness of our actual labour, but in employing it by means of 

 machinery to the most extensive advantage. There must, indeed, be 

 " a union" amongst our manufacturers to enable us to bear up against 

 the competition which rival nations oppose to us ; but it must be a 

 real union of interests, not of parties a union of interests, not a 

 clashing of them. 



This brings us to another view of the case, and the final consi- 

 deration, that : 



* There is evidently another cause that operates in England to give us a supe- 

 riority in cheapness and excellence of production over any other nation and 

 that is our command of CAPITAL. This consideration, however, is not essential 

 to our present view of the case, and may be treated of in a subsequent article. 



