180 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



its spindles. But, in the opinion of the best engineering 

 authorities, such as Prof. W. Unwin, the hydraulic, and 

 especially the electric, distribution of power from a cen- 

 tral station sets aside the first part of the argument. 

 As to its second part, calculations of this sort are only 

 good for those industries which prepare the half-manu- 

 factured produce for further transformations. As to 

 those countless descriptions of goods which derive their 

 value chiefly from the intervention of skilled labour, 

 they can be best fabricated in smaller factories which 

 employ a few hundreds, or even a few scores of opera- 

 tives. Even under the present conditions the leviathan 

 factories offer great inconveniences, as they cannot 

 rapidly reform their machinery according to the con- 

 stantly varying demands of the consumers. How many 

 failures of great concerns, too well known in this 

 country to need be named, were due to this cause ! As 

 for the new branches of industry which I have mentioned 

 at the beginning of the previous chapter, they always 

 must make a start on a small scale ; and they can pros- 

 per in small towns as well as in big cities, if the smaller 

 agglomerations are provided with institutions stimulating 

 artistic taste and the genius of invention: The pro- 

 gress achieved of late in toy making, as also the high 

 perfection attained in the fabrication of mathematical 

 and optical instruments, of furniture, of small luxury 

 articles, of pottery and so on, are instances in point 

 Art and science are no longer the monopoly of the great 

 cities, and further progress will be in scattering them over 

 the country. 



The geographical distribution of industries in a given 

 country evidently depends to a great extent upon a 

 complexus of natural conditions ; it is obvious that there 

 are spots which are best suited for the development of 

 certain industries. The banks of the Clyde and the 

 Tyne are certainly most appropriate for shipbuilding 

 yards, and shipbuilding yards must be surrounded by a 



