

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



away and lost. In the same way, if a labourer 

 removing stones has a barrow at his disposal, and 

 can hurl away four hundredweights as easily as 

 he can carry half a hundredweight, yet persists in 

 rejecting the barrow, and carrying the stones in 

 half-hundredweights, here is exertion thrown away 

 and however great it may be, and however mud 

 it may exhaust the poor man, it does not give th< 

 world the advantage of labour. This considera 

 tion possesses great importance in connection 

 with machinery. 



The comparative productiveness of simple labour 

 depends, in the first instance, on the muscular 

 strength, energy, adaptive faculty, intelligence 

 and information of the labourer ; and the measure 

 possessed of these is traceable partly to the civil- 

 isation of the time and country to which the 

 labourer belongs, partly to the individual training 

 he has received, and partly to his own character 

 and disposition. An active workman will, in the 

 same time, produce more than an indolent ; and 

 for the execution of most commodities a greater 

 or less measure of intelligence is requisite. 



To acquire skill, great patience, exertion, and 

 perseverance are necessary. It is generally ac- 

 quired at the time of life when the faculties are 

 fresh and strong, and capable of great effort with- 

 out exhaustion that is, in the period of youth. 

 The education or the professional training which 

 young people undergo is the acquisition of skill, to 

 enable them in after-life to work with great effect 

 and with comparative ease. There are many who 

 have opportunities of acquiring skill which others 

 have not ; but every one should acquire as much 

 as he can. It can only be gained by great exer- 

 tion and attention, and these are faculties which 

 indolent people do not possess. It is much easier, 

 for the time, to carry so much mortar silently on 

 the back, or dig up so many spadefuls of earth, 

 than to be noticing at the same time how walls 

 and houses are constructed, or how fields can be 

 best manured and cropped ; but those who pay 

 attention to what they see, and work with their 

 heads, and acquire skill, lay up the means of rais- 

 ing themselves and accomplishing superior ends. 

 If any one still doubt that skill is an advantage, 

 it may be sufficient to add, that he who has not 

 skill, cannot assume it when he pleases ; but he 

 who has skill, may dispense with it, and do un- 

 skilled labour. An engineer who has studied the 

 structure of machinery, and can make an improved 

 weaving-machine, would be quite able to work as 

 a handloom weaver ; but he is not likely to find 

 that necessary. A skilful designer of patterns for 

 damasks or printed calicoes would be quite able 

 to stand at the door of the shop where they are 

 sold, holding a placard in his hand ; but, fortu- 

 nately, such a person seldom requires _to descend 

 to so humble a means of employment. When 

 skilled labour is aided by machinery and other 

 capital, and guided by the discoveries of science, 

 there is almost no limit to the increase of its pro- 

 ductiveness. 



Machinery. 



Machinery is a general term designating the 

 material contrivances devised by man to aid him 

 in the use of his own strength or faculties, or in 

 adapting the powers of nature to his purposes. 



The most useful of the moving powers of nature 

 are air, water, and steam. For the application of 



these powers, especially of the last, an enormous 

 variety of machinery has been invented. 



Steam possesses advantages over every other 

 agent. It is capable of exerting any degree offeree, 

 from the least to the greatest ; it may be used 

 as a stationary or a locomotive power ; it may be 

 used on land or on water, and it may be placed 

 perfectly under human control. 



Inanimate agents are in general preferable to 

 animate agents in most of the appliances for 

 which power is required. The reasons of this will 

 be readily comprehended. 



1. They are cheaper. A steam-engine of a 

 hundred horse-power will cost less than the 

 horses necessary to do the labour which it per- 

 forms, and will cost much less to keep it at 

 work. 



2. They labour without cessation, while animals 

 require rest and refreshment. 



3. They are safer. They have no passions, and 

 are governed by fixed laws. 



4. We can use them without the infliction of 

 pain, while animals frequently suffer from hard 

 work. 



5. They are capable of much more rapid action. 



6. They possess a power that cannot otherwise 

 be obtained. 



Besides the moving powers of nature, there are 

 other qualities of things of great use, and which 

 are for the most part turned to account by means 

 of machinery. Thus, some metals, when heated, 

 readily melt ; and if poured in this state into a 

 mould, retain the shape of the mould with more 

 or less precision. By this device much labour is 

 saved, or a given amount of labour is rendered 

 much more productive. Were it not for this 

 quality of type-metal, every type must be cut by 

 the hand. 



Machines devised in aid of manual labour are 

 for the most part denominated tools. 



The productiveness of machinery is very great ; 

 and though its introduction, by superseding 

 manual workmanship, often throws large numbers 

 of labourers temporarily out of employment, the 

 cheapness of its products soon stimulates in- 

 creased consumption, and in the end the demand 

 for labour is increased. Beasts of burden, and 

 even slaves, must be regarded as little else than 

 machines or tools used by man for the purposes 

 of industry. 



Division and Combination of Labour. 



Division of labour, in general, means employing 

 one individual upon one kind of labour, instead of 

 employing the same individual upon several kinds 

 of labour. A savage does for himself whatever he 

 equires to be done ; but civilised men divide 

 he various occupations, so that one man labours 

 wholly in one, another man labours wholly in 

 another employment ; the products of which they 

 afterwards exchange mutually. But the division 

 of labour is soon carried further, by distributing 

 among different workmen the production of the 

 icveral pieces of which a commodity is composed. 

 !n order to make a clasp-knife, the blade must be 

 brmed and polished, the handle must be formed 

 n pieces, rivets must be made to bolt these ; and 

 after the pieces have been prepared, they must be 

 >ut together. Division of labour so apportions 

 he work that each workman shall labour at one 

 )art only of the manufacture. 



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