Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. 119 



) 



so keenly has every invention and improvement, and saving been ap- 

 plied, that any oversight or neglect, will be followed by ruinous con- 



sequences. 



It is a great and obvious advantage to iron workers to be near a 

 colliery, and near a smelting furnace, where the iron, beginning from 

 the ore, is carried from one furnace to another, and from one shop 

 to another, until it comes out of the manufacturer's hands in its perfect 

 forms, ready for the market. Thus similar facilities in any depart- 



r 



ment of the arts reduce the cost to the producer. 



Making goods in large quantities is another source of profit; as is 

 working night and day, which is practised in some large manufactories. 



Mr. Babbage gives the following fact, illustrative of the less cost 

 of making large than small quantities. 



"The Navy Board applied to Mr. Llaudsley to make iron tanks for ships, which 

 he was rather unwilling to do, considering it out of his line : however, be undertook 

 one as a trial. The holes for the rivets were punched by hand punching with 

 presses, and the sixteen hundred and eighty holes, which each tank required, cost 

 7 5. The board, who required a large number, proposed, that he should supply forty 

 tanks a week, for many months. The magnitude of the order made it worth while 

 to commence manufacturer, and to make tools for the express business. He there- 

 fore made tools, by which the expense of punching the rivet holes, of each tank, 

 was reduced from 7 s. to 9 d.: he supplied ninety eight tanks a week for six months, 

 and the price charged for each was reduced from £17 to £15. 



The influence of durability, of supply and demand, and of the 

 quality of the article contracted for, further modifies the price of it 

 to the consumer. 



Price is, usually, measured by gold and silver ; but they are sub- 

 ject to some variations, such as differences in the cost of the metals 

 at different times, and the irregular distribution of specie. They are 

 objected to as a standard of value, by the author, who suggests seve- 

 ral modes of estimate, but they are elaborate and liable also to objec- 

 tions. A distinct understanding of the character of specie may be 

 premised as a reason why it should be made the criterion of value in 

 preference to " an agricultural laborer's days work" or any other 

 unit recommended by the political economists. It is but a short time 

 since the doctrine was current, that specie constituted individual and 

 national wealth ; and that returns for export in other shapes of prop- 

 erty, was a national loss. The reason why it was thought of so sacred 

 a character, was the fact of its representing the value of all other 

 things, and its apparent control over every thing, enabling the pos- 

 sessor to obtain by it whatever he wished for. Its durable nature, 

 and its scarcity led men to mistake the effect for the cause, and to 



