TEE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, 595 



industrial phenomenon of " overproduction," and as illustrating how 

 a greater abundance and cheaper price of desirable commodities, 

 work for the equalization and betterment of the conditions of life 

 among the masses, the recent experience of the article quinine should 

 not be overlooked. Owing to greatly increased and cheaper sup- 

 plies of the cinchona-bark, from which quinine is extracted, and to 

 the employment of new and more economical processes, by which 

 more quinine can be made in from three to five days than could be 

 in twenty under the old system, the markets of the world in recent 

 years have been overwhelmed with supplies of this article, and its price 

 has declined in a most rapid and extraordinary manner, namely : from 

 16.9. 6c/. (84.70) the ounce in the English market in 1877, to 12s. (13) in 

 1880 ; 3s. 6J. (80 cents) in 1883 ; 2s. 6f?., in 1885 ; and to Is. M. (30 

 cents), or less, in 1887. As quinine is a medicine, and as the increase 

 in the consumption of medicines is dependent upon the real or fancied 

 increase of ill-health among the masses, rather than on any reduced 

 cost of supply (although, in the case of this specific article, decreased 

 cost has undoubtedly somewhat increased its legitimate consumption), 

 the problem of determining how a present and apparently future over- 

 production was to be remedied has been somewhat difficult of solu- 

 tion. But recently the large manufacturers in Europe have made an 

 arrangement to put up quinine (pills) protected by gelatine, and in- 

 troduce and offer it so cheaply in the East Indies and other tropical 

 countries, as to induce its extensive consumption on the part of a vast 

 population inhabiting malarious districts which has hitherto been de- 

 prived of the use of this valuable specific by reason of its costliness. 

 And it is anticipated that by reason of its cheapness it may, to a con- 

 siderable extent, supersede the use of opium among the poorer classes 

 living along the Chinese rivers, who it is believed extensively consume 

 this latter pernicious and costly drug, not so much for its mere narcotic 

 or sensual properties, as for the relief it affords to the fever depression 

 occasioned by malaria. 



All this evidence, therefore, seems to lead to the conclusion tha't 

 there is little foundation for the belief largely entertained by the 

 masses, and which has been inculcated by many sincere and humane 

 persons who have undertaken to counsel and direct them, that the 

 amount of remunerative work to be done in the world is a fixed quan- 

 tity ; and that the fewer there are to do it the more each one will get. 

 When the real truth is, that work as it were breeds work ; that the 

 amount to be done is not limited ; that the more there is done the 

 more there will be to do ; and that the continued increasing material 

 abundance which follows all new methods for effecting greater pro- 

 duction and distribution, is the true and permanent foundation, and 

 the certain assurance of continually increasing prosperity for the masses 

 in the future. 



