TRADE AND LABOR. 243 



his income. If he receives but one dollar a day, or 

 three hundred dollars a year, in wages, that is the 

 exact amount of his contribution to trade. Assume 

 that we have in the United States a productive, or 

 laboring population of ten millions, and that their 

 income is three hundred dollars a year each. In that 

 case the contribution to trade from that source would 

 be three billions. But suppose that their income 

 should be three dollars a day, or, say, one thousand 

 dollars a year. In that case their contributions to 

 trade would be not less than ten billions, and more 

 than three times greater than it is at present. The 

 principle here stated governs the case. 



In the days of our fathers, when every household 

 became the focus for the production and manufacture 

 of all that went into the consumption of the family 

 the food, the clothing, and the shelter when every- 

 thing was grown and manufactured by the very per- 

 sons who would use and consume them, the conditions 

 of trade were but little affected by the consumption 

 of the masses. Then the farmer had but little use 

 for money ; buying and selling formed no part of his 

 methods of obtaining a subsistence. He grew his 

 grain for his own consumption, had it converted into 

 flour or meal at the neighboring mill, paying toll in 

 kind for the service. He grew his own wool and flax, 

 made it into cloth in his own house ; then into gar- 

 ments and put them upon his person and wore them. 

 So he builded his own dwelling, made his own tools 

 of every kind, and used them. He was independent 

 of trade. When he had occasion to make use of the 

 services of the village, or neighboring blacksmith, or 



