352 LAND REFORM 



article of faith, not to be criticized or inquired into, 

 invariably ascribe this prosperity to the policy adopted 

 in 1846. But the legislation of that year did not 

 come into operation till 1849, when the trade and 

 manufactures of the country, as well as the demand 

 for labour, were, and had been for several years, in- 

 creasing by " leaps and bounds," 



England was practically the "workshop of the 

 world." Foreign nations in all their industrial under- 

 takings had, regardless of corn laws or any other con- 

 ditions, to send to this country for materials and other 

 requirements, for the sufficient reason that nowhere else 

 could they get them so quickly and cheaply. During 

 this long period of industrial prosperity a vast amount 

 of British capital was invested in various undertak- 

 ings in foreign countries, all adding to the volume of 

 trade and manufactures. "It was not money," as 

 Mr. Porter observes, " in the usual acceptation of the 

 word that thus found its way abroad for investment, 

 but products and manufactures, the results of British 

 industry."^ 



The unique position which in those days England 

 held among the nations of the world must be continu- 

 ally borne in mind in discussing the state of things at 

 the present time. The writer just quoted describes 

 that position as follows : " Placed beyond all com- 

 parison at the head of civilization as regards manu- 

 facturing skill, with capital far more ample than that 

 possessed by any other people, with cheap and in- 

 exhaustible supplies of iron and fuel, and with 



^ It is to be feared that we are now receiving the interest on these 

 investments ("dead men's profits" as they have been called) in the form 

 of foreign imports, a kind of payment which affords no employment to 

 the British workman, but rather deprives him of it. 



