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LABOUR LABOUR-SAVING MACHINES. 



Jess importance, since, if it be too small, that is, if 

 the people are in want oi a sufficient stock to employ 

 thfin-i Ivcs to the greatest advantage, industry mill 

 economy may very soon supply the deficiency. The 

 aggregate annual products of the same labour and 

 capital are greater in one country than miotluT. 

 This i> a distinction of great importance, which is 

 overlooked in some economical speculations, or 

 which, at least, has not always its just weight. The 

 fact is, perhaps, too obvious to need proof or illustra- 

 tion. If, for instance, the people of one country have 

 better lands, domestic animals, roads, utensils, or are 

 more skilful and ingenious than those of another, the 

 same amount of manual labour bestowed upon cor- 

 responding materials, with corresponding instruments 

 of production, will produce greater results. The 

 wages of labour, and the interest of money, may 

 both, therefore, be higher in one country than in 

 another. This we know to be a fact. In the United 

 States, for instance, the interest of money, and 

 the wages of common labour, are both higher than 

 in European countries. It does not follow, then, that 

 if the condition of the mere labourer is better in one 

 country than in another, that of the capitalist will 

 necessarily be worse. To ascertain the condition of 

 these two classes, possessing the productive capacity 

 and means of a community, we first inquire into the 

 aggregate productiveness of capital and industry, and 

 next into the distribution of the aggregate products 

 between the two classes. And, in examining into the 

 condition of the members of a community, the next 

 inquiry relates to the proportionate share of each 

 industrious class in the whole portion of the aggre- 

 gate products allotted to industry, as distinguished 

 from that which is allotted to capital. This distribu- 

 tion among the labouring classes themselves, of the 

 products of their labour, will, of course, depend upon 

 the estimation in which the various kinds of labour 

 are held; and its effect on their condition will also 

 depend very materially upon the arrangements, 

 improvements, and facilities possessed by the com- 

 munity, to render their labour effective ; for the com- 

 pensation to labourers, individually, may be small, 

 and yet the expense of the whole class of the com- 

 munity to which they belong, very great. To take a 

 familiar instance, if, from the thinness of the popula- 

 tion, or other cause, the receivers and distributors of 

 the articles of production and consumption among 

 the people, that is, the retail dealers, can transact 

 but a small amount of business each, though the 

 earnings of each one may be small, their aggregate 

 compensation must be large. In countries half civi- 

 lized, and in which the arrangements and facilities for 

 exchanges are rude and imperfect, the usual profits 

 of trade are at an enormous rate per cent. ; and yet 

 the wealth of these traders will be very trifling, in 

 comparison with that of the merchants and traders of 

 a more civilized, improved, and populous community, 

 though the per centage of profit of these latter may 

 be much lower. The same distinction will hold 

 good in respect to every other pursuit and employ- 

 ment in a community, the proportion of the whole 

 products awarded to any one class, may not corre- 

 spond at all, to the individual advantage or disad- 

 vantage of the members of that class, in their pur- 

 suits, in comparison with that of those of any other 

 class. The compensation of any one class of a com- 

 munity, in comparison to any other, will evidently 

 depend upon the course taken by the taste and 

 luxury of the community ; for we may assume it as a 

 general doctrine, that when the taste and passions of 

 a community lead to a large consumption of the 

 articles produced by any class, or if the services of its 

 members are considered particularly beneficial, these 

 members will be liberally compensated. If, for 



instance, as is, or, at least, 1ms been, the fact in 

 some countries, the inhabitants suppose that their 

 future welfare does not depend so much upon their 

 own characters and conduct as upon the prayers and 

 good offices of their spiritual guides, they will deem 

 it impossible to reward these spiritual guides too 

 liberally, seeing they have the salvation of the rest at 

 their disposal. The same principle will hold true 

 in respect to any other class : in proportion as its 

 employment goes along with the tastes and passions 

 of the community, will its members be rewarded for 

 their labours. The effect will not, however, neces- 

 sarily extend itself to all the members of the class. 

 Suppose, for example, that the taste and vanity of a 

 people appear very much in their apparel and per- 

 sonal ornaments; it will not follow that all cloth 

 makers, tailors, jewellers, hatters, and shoemakers 

 will have the highest wages in the community; but 

 the result will be, that a high price will be paid for 

 excellence of material or superiority of skill, in the 

 manufacture of those articles. The moment, there- 

 fore, in which civilization commences, and some 

 degree of it is coeval with the existence of every 

 society, excellence in some arts or employments 

 will meet with extraordinary rewards. As arts and 

 civilization advance, the objects of passion and taste 

 will be multiplied, and with them the kinds and 

 varieties of excellence of materials or skill, which 

 will be esteemed of extraordinary value. The effect 

 necessarily is to produce a comparative depression in 

 the value of all ordinary products and unskilful 

 labour. Accordingly, the ordinary labourers, in all 

 the arts, become by degrees a distinct class. In a 

 refined community, abounding in arts, this class 

 necessarily becomes munerous, and the condition of 

 its members is a subject of solicitude to the phi Ian 

 thropist, and of interest to the economist and states- 

 man. The security and welfare of the whole com- 

 munity, will depend very materially upon the charac- 

 ter and condition of this part of the population. 

 The greater the distance between this class and the 

 rest, the more effectually they are set off from the 

 others, the more unnatural and distorted will be the 

 state of society, and the more frequent will be scenes 

 of disorder, distress, and vice. It is one of the first 

 and most important maxims of policy and of economy, 

 then, to sustain the members of this class, not by 

 giving them the control and management of affairs, 

 for which, of course, they are not the best fitted, 

 but by using all possible means, whether by legisla- 

 tion or social influence, to give them education, good 

 habits, and good morals ; to inspire and maintain in 

 them a respect for themselves, and secure to them 

 the respect of others. 



LABOUR-SAVING MACHINES. Montesquieu 

 somewhere regrets the introduction of the use of 

 water-mills for grinding corn, instead of the hand- 

 mills formerly in use, as it threw a great many 

 labourers out of employment, besides diverting the 

 water from the purposes of irrigation. Upon this 

 principle of tin-owing labourers out of employment, 

 our hand-loom weavers were opposed to the use of 

 power looms. It is not remarkable that labourers 

 themselves, who, for a time, feel the inconveniences 

 of the introduction of any improvement, should 

 oppose its introduction ; but it is singular that any 

 man of enlarged and philosophical views should fall 

 into such a notion. Nobody certainly would think it a 

 misfortune to a community, that, in consequence of 

 some improvement in agriculture, the same labour 

 would produce a greater quantity of grain ; on the 

 contrary, every one consents to the praise bestowed, 

 by Johnson, upon the man who makes two blades of 

 grass grow where only one grew before. And an 

 improvement in machinery, whereby the same labour 



