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POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



Political 

 Jkoiromv. 



which one man does as much work as a hundred did 

 before, was a benefit for humanity, only because, at 

 the same time, the progress of civilization, of popula- 

 tion, and of wealth, increased the number of consumers. 

 New countries adopted the customs of Europe; and this 

 article of dress, formerly reserved for the rich, has now 

 descended to the poorest classes. But if, at the present 

 day, some new discovery should enable us, by a single 

 stocking-frame, to do the work which ten years ago was 

 done by a hundred, this discovery would be a national 

 misfortune ; for the number of consumers can scarcely 

 increase, and it would then be the number of producers 

 which would be diminished. 



This example may show us the general rule : When- 

 ever r discovery, economizing labour, brings within 

 the reach of a poorer class what was previously con- 

 fined to the rich, it extends the market ; and whilst be- 

 nefiting undertakers and poor consumers, it does no 

 harm to workmen. But when the discovery cannot 

 increase the number of consumers, though it serves 

 them at a cheaper rate, either because they are already 

 all furnished, or because the thing produced can never 

 be useful to them, however low it may fall, the disco- 

 very becomes a human calamity ; because it is advanta- 

 geous, but to a certain manufacturer, and that only at 

 the expence of his brethren ; or it benefits a single 

 nation, and that only at the expence of others. This 

 national benefit, if purchased at the expence of wretch- 

 edness and famine to foreign artisans, would not in it- 

 self be much worth coveting ; it is, besides, very far 

 from being certain. From the progress of communi- 

 cation between different states, from the skill of manu- 

 facturers, a discovery in one country is imitated in 

 every other before the former has gained any great 

 profit from it. 



It will doubtless be said, that whoever introduces a 

 saving in any article of his consumption, preserving 

 still the same revenue, will consume what he saves from 

 the fall of price in such and such an article, by a new 

 expenditure, for which he will put in requisition a 

 new labour. But there never will be any proportion 

 between this new demand and the labour suspended on 

 account of it. 



On one hand, consumers make use of goods a little 

 finer, a little prettier at the same price. The clothes 

 with which the poor workman is dressed, are a little 

 superior in quality, are really worth a little more, than 

 those which covered his father at the expence of the 

 same part of his wages. But himself does not perceive 

 this advantage. Decency, which, according to his sta- 

 tion, he is obliged to consult, leaves him no choice ; he 

 must dress like his equals, without finding more enjoy- 

 ment; he makes no saving in this article, he cannot 

 apply it to any other expence. 



On the other hand, the price of goods is not always 

 established in direct proportion to the labour they re- 

 quire, but in a very complicated proportion subsisting 

 between this annual labour, the circulating capital, and 

 a primary, unrenewed labour, consumed in building 

 the manufactory, constructing the machinery with ex- 

 pensive and often foreign materials. Hence, even 

 when a hundred workmen are dismissed, that the work 

 may be done with one by means of machinery, the 

 goods are not reduced to the hundredth part of their 

 price. The stocking-frame economizes work nearly 

 in this proportion, yet it scarcely produces stockings 

 ten per cent, cheaper than those made with the needle. 

 Notwithstanding the invention of large mills for spin- 

 ning wool, silk, cotton, women continue to be em- 



3 



ployed in spinning with the wheel, or even with the 

 distaff'; a certain proof that the saving does not exceed 

 ten per cent. 1'he same observation may be extended 

 to all improved manufactures : they have never dimi- 

 nished the price of their produce, except in arithmeti- 

 cal progression, while they have suspended workman- 

 ship in geometrical progression. 



Let us compare this saving in workmanship with 

 the saving in price, according to the most simple cal- 

 culation on the commonest manufacture. A hundred 

 thousand women, who knit with the needle each a 

 hundred pair of stockings annually, produce 10 million 

 pairs ; which, at 5s. a-piece, would sell at 2,500,000 : 

 the raw material is worth a fifth of this. There remains 

 2,000,000 to distribute among 100,000 workmen, 

 or 20 a-head. 



The same work is done at present on the frame by 1000 

 workmen, and comes in ten per cent, cheaper at 4s. 6d. 

 a pair, or 2,250,000 in all. The nation therefore saves 

 250,000. If employed solely in workmanship, this 

 sum would be sufficient to maintain 12,500 of the work- 

 ers who have been dismissed. But this is not what 

 happens ; the consumer accustomed to buy stockings at 

 5s. a pair, pays still the same price ; but by reason of 

 the progress of the art, he merely wears them a little 

 finer. This progress in his luxury gives subsistence to 

 a tenth more stocking manufactures, that is, to a hun- 

 dred more; to these add still farther a hundred work- 

 men employed in repairing the machines or construct- 

 ing new ones, and you have in all 1200 workmen living 

 on the sum which supported 100,000. 



The same calculation is applicable to all improved 

 manufactures; for the manufacturer, in adopting a new 

 machine, and dismissing his workmen, never troubles 

 himself with inquiring whether he shall make a pro- 

 fit equal to the diminution of workmanship, but mere- 

 ly whether he shall be enabled to sell a little cheaper 

 than his rivals. All the workmen of England would 

 be turned to the street, if the manufacturers could em. 

 ploy steam engines in their place with a saving of five 

 per cent. 



Besides, the improvement of machinery, and the 

 economy of human labour, contribute immediately 

 to diminish the number of national consumers; for 

 all the ruined workmen were consumers. In the 

 country, the introduction of the large farming system 

 has banished from Great Britain the class of peasant 

 farmers, who laboured themselves, and yet enjoyed an 

 honest plenty. The population has been considerably 

 diminished, but its consumption is reduced still far- 

 ther than its number. The hinds perform all sorts of 

 field labour, are limited to the scantiest necessaries, and 

 give not nearly so much encouragement to the industry 

 of towns as the rich peasants gave before. 



A similar change has taken place in the population of 

 towns. Discoveries in the mechanical arts have al- 

 ways the remote result of concentrating industry within 

 the hands of a smaller number of richer merchants. 

 They enable men to perform with an expensive ma- 

 chine, that is to say, with great capital, what was for- 

 merly performed with a great labour. They discover 

 the economy which exists in management on a great 

 scale, the division of operation, the employment com- 

 mon to a great number of men at once, of light, fuel, 

 and all the powers of nature. Thus small merchants, 

 small manufacturers disappear ; and our great under- 

 taker supplies the place of hundreds, who all together 

 perhaps were not as rich as he. All together were, how- 

 ever, better consumers than he. His expensive luxury 



1'oJitieai 



