THE EFFECTS OF CH AP. XX. 



gradual advance to take place between the com- 

 mencement and the completion of a piece of cloth ; 

 but in that day, when machinery was unknown, 

 and the division of labour was not carried to the 

 present minute extent, the making a piece of cloth 

 occupied more months than it does now days. At 

 this slow rate the general increase of price of all 

 commodities would insure a profit by the delay, in 

 addition to the regular profit on the manufacture. 



The merchants, whether wholesale or retail, 

 whether confined to the home or extended to the 

 foreign trade, must have benefited in proportion 

 to the stock of goods they kept in their warehouses 

 and their shops. The dealer in a rising article 

 necessarily gets money, because the rise, whatever 

 it may be, comes in addition to the regular profits 

 of his trade. 



The navigation of the European world was much 

 extended in this period, and though it was but 

 trifling compared with the extent to which it has 

 been since carried, yet, as far as it had proceeded, 

 it increased the wealth of the merchant adventurers 

 who engaged in it, and added additional and im- 

 portant members to that class of society. 



The effect of this prosperous state of the ope- 

 rative cultivators, of the manufacturers, and of the 

 merchants and retail traders, has been prolonged 

 through more than three centuries, and has given 

 to European society in general, but to that of 

 England more especially, a form utterly unknown 



