22 THE OFFICE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY. 



have no need of thee.&quot; It is no disparagement to all or any of 

 these that they cannot say to commerce, &quot;we have no need of 

 you.&quot; It ennobles all these, that none of them any more than 

 the professions, can say to education &quot;we have no need of thee.&quot; 

 As in the natural body, there is a divine harmony running through 

 the whole structure of the body economical. One member can 

 not suffer without all the other members suffer with it. 



In all civilized countries the division of labor and of employ 

 ments corresponds to the degree of civilization which there pre 

 vails. In the production of material wealth in its thousand 

 departments, agriculture, mechanic arts and manufactures, this 

 division of labor results in a vast increase of every kind of 

 production, through time and labor sayed, and the means fur 

 nished for intellectual, moral, and social improvement. 



But again, the division further begets the need of Exchange, 

 and of an extended system of exchanges, for the mutual benefit 

 of the producers; and owing to the different and sometimes 

 distant localities of production, transportation is also neces 

 sary. To effect the latter with economy and dispatch, the ac 

 cumulation and combination of capital has been required. 



The true principle of the division of labor is, that inasmuch 

 as all produced values are the results of agriculture and manu 

 factures, commerce ought to take to itself whatever share is on 

 an average a fair remuneration for its service, leaving in the 

 hands of producers a balance far exceeding in amount and value 

 their whole production, providing they were obliged to effect 

 transportion and exchanges themselves. Although the setting 

 up of the mercantile class, reacts upon production, enlarging 

 its volume, and enriching the producers themselves; still, it is 

 an ultimate and fixed fact, which ought to be distinctly under 

 stood, that commerce is a charge upon agriculture and manu 

 facture that the whole cost of commercial machinery must 

 withdraw just so much of the gross value produced, from the 

 hands of the producer. If the process be clumsily and expen 

 sively performed, he suffers, and is less prosperous. The farm 

 er, therefore, is interested in every improvement of the commer 

 cial process which will diminish the expenses of transportation 

 and exchange, as truly as in the improvements in manufacture 

 or in implements, which will diminish the cost of production. 



When we look at the vastness and complication of the ma 

 chinery of commerce, by land and by sea; and the enormous 

 expense of maintaining it, we may well wonder at the miracle, 



