30 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



period of prosperity enjoyed by certain branches of 

 trade in the years 1880 to 1883," and a crisis, I shall 

 add, which extended over all the chief manufacturing 

 countries of the world All possible causes of the crisis 

 have been examined; but, whatever the cacophony of 

 conclusions arrived at, all unanimously agreed upon one, 

 namely, that of the Parliamentary Commission, which 

 could be summed up as follows : " The manufacturing 

 countries do not find such customers as would enable 

 them to realise high profits". Profits being the basis 

 of capitalist industry, low profits explain all ulterior 

 consequences. Low profits induce the employers to 

 reduce the wages, or the number of workers, or the num- 

 ber of days of employment during the week, or eventu- 

 ally compel them to resort to the manufacture of lower 

 kinds of goods, which, as a rule, are paid worse than 

 the higher sorts. As Adam Smith said, low profits 

 ultimately mean a reduction of wages, and low wages 

 mean a reduced consumption by the worker. Low 

 profits mean also a somewhat reduced consumption by 

 the employer ; and both together mean lower profits 

 and reduced consumption with that immense class of 

 middlemen which has grown up in manufacturing 

 countries, and that, again, means a further reduction of 

 profits for the employers. 



A country which manufactures chiefly for export, 

 and therefore lives chiefly on the profits derived from 

 her foreign trade, stands very much in the same posi- 

 tion as Switzerland, which lives to a great extent on the 

 profits derived from the foreigners who visit her lakes 

 and glaciers. A good " season " means an influx of from 

 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 of money imported by the 

 tourists, and a bad " season " has the effects of a bad 

 crop in an agricultural country : a general impoverish- 

 ment follows. So it is also with a country which manu- 

 factures for export. If the " season " is bad, and the 

 exported goods cannot be sold abroad for twice their 



