SMALL INDUSTRIES AND INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES. 169 



produce and can deal directly with the wholesale buyer 

 and exporter ; or else he concentrates in one concern 

 the different stages of fabrication of a given produce. 

 The pages which Schulze-Gawernitz has given to the 

 organisation of the cotton industry in England, and to 

 the difficulties which the German cotton-mill owners 

 had to contend with so long as they were dependent 

 upon Liverpool for raw cotton, are most instructive in this 

 direction. And what characterises the cotton trade pre- 

 vails in all other industries as well. If the Sheffield 

 cutlers who now work in their tiny workshops, in one 

 of the above-mentioned buildings supplied with wheel- 

 power, were incorporated in one big factory, the chief 

 advantage which would be realised in the factory would 

 not be an economy in the costs of production in com- 

 parison to the quality of the produce ; with a share- 

 holders' company the costs might even increase. And 

 yet the profits (including wages) would be much greater 

 than the aggregate earnings of the workers, in conse- 

 quence of the reduced costs of purchase of iron and coal, 

 and the facilities for the sale of the produce. The great 

 concern would thus find its advantages not in such 

 factors as are imposed by the technical necessities of 

 the trade at the time being, but in such factors as could 

 be eliminated by co-operative organisation. All these 

 are elementary notions among practical men. It hardly 

 need be added that a further advantage which the fac- 

 tory owner has is, that he can find a sale even for produce 

 of the most inferior quality, provided there is a con- 

 siderable quantity of it to be sold. All those who are 

 acquainted with commerce know, indeed, what an im- 

 mense bulk of the world's trade consists of " shoddy," 

 patraque, " Red Indians' blankets," and the like, shipped 

 to distant countries. Whole cities we just saw pro- 

 duce nothing but " shoddy ". 



Altogether, it may be taken as one of the funda- 

 mental facts of the economical life of Europe that the 



