THE STEAM-ENGINE. 



529 



sary to raise four hundred, and one hundred more be required to bring the four 

 hundred to market, then the net surplus will be one hundred. But if by the 

 use of steam-carriages the same quantity can be brought to market with an 

 expenditure of fifty quarters, then the net surplus will be increased from one 

 hundred to one hundred and fifty quarters : and either the profit of the farmer, 

 or the rent of the landlord, must be increased by the same amount. 



But the agriculturist would not merely be benefited by an increased return 

 from the soil already under cultivation. Any reduction in the cost of tran- 

 sporting the produce to market would call into cultivation tracts of inferior 

 fertility, the returns from which would not at present repay the cost of cultiva- 

 tion and transport. Thus land would become productive which is now waste, 

 and an effect would be produced equivalent to adding so much fertile soil to 

 the present extent of the country. It is well known, that land of a given 

 degree of fertility will yield increased produce by the increased application of 

 capital and labor. By a reduction in the cost of transport, a saving will be 

 made which may enable the agriculturist to apply to tracts already under cul- 

 tivation the capital thus saved, and thereby increase their actual production. Not 

 only, therefore, would such an effect be attended with an increased extent of 

 cultivated land, but also with an increased degree of cultivation in that which 

 is already productive. 



It has been said, that in Great Britain there are above a million of horses 

 engaged in various ways in the transport of passengers and goods, and that 

 to support each horse requires as much land as would, upon an average, 

 support eight men. If this quantity of animal power were displaced by steam- 

 engines, and the means of transport drawn from the bowels of the earth, in- 

 stead of being raised upon its surface, then, supposing the above calculation 

 correct, as much land would become available for the support of human be- 

 ings as would suffice for an additional population of eight millions ; or, what 

 amounts to the same, would increase the means of support of the present 

 population by about one third of the present available means. The land 

 which now supports horses for transport would then support men, or produce 

 corn for food. 



The objection that a quantity of land exists in the country capable of sup- 

 porting horses alone, and that such land would be thrown out of cultivation, 

 scarcely deserves notice here. The existence of any considerable quantity 

 of such land is extremely doubtful. "What is the soil which will feed a horse 

 and not feed oxen or sheep, or produce food for man ? But even if it be ad- 

 mitted that there exists in the country a small portion of such land, that portion 

 cannot exceed, nor indeed equal, what would be sufficient for the number of 

 horses which must after all continue to be employed for the purposes of pleas- 

 ure, and in a variety of cases where steam must necessarily be inapplicable. 

 It is to be remembered, also, that the displacing of horses in one extensive 

 occupation, by diminishing their price must necessarily increase the demand 

 for them in others. 



The reduction in the cost of transport of manufactured articles, by lowering 

 their price in the market, will stimulate their consumption. This observation 

 applies of course not only to home but to foreign markets. In the latter we 

 already in many branches of manufactures command a monopoly. The reduced 

 price which we shall attain by cheapness and facility to transport will still 

 further extend and increase our advantages. The necessary consequence will 

 be, an increased demand for manufacturing population ; and this increased 

 population again reacting on the agricultural interests, will form an increased 

 market for that species of produce. So interwoven and complicated are the 

 fibres which form the texture of the highly-civilized and artificial community 



VOIi. II.— 34 



