INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES. 337 



of purchase of iron and coal, and the facilities 

 for the sale of the produce. The great concern 

 would thus find its advantages not in such 

 factors as are imposed by the technical neces- 

 sities of the trade at the time being, but in 

 such factors as could be eliminated by co- 

 operative organisation. All these are elemen- 

 tary notions among practical men. 



It hardly need be added that a further advan- 

 tage which the factory owner has is, that he can 

 find a sale even for produce of the most in- 

 ferior quality, provided there is a considerable 

 quantity of it to be sold. All those who are 

 acquainted with commerce know, indeed, what 

 an immense bulk of the world's trade consists 

 of " shoddy," patraque, " Red Indians' blankets," 

 and the like, shipped to distant countries. 

 Whole cities we just saw produce nothing 

 but " shoddy." 



Altogether, it may be taken as one of the 

 fundamental facts of the economical life of 

 Europe that the defeat of a number of small 

 trades, artisan work and domestic industries, 

 came through their being incapable of organis- 

 ing the sale of their produce not from the 

 production itself. The same thing recurs at 

 every page of economical history. The in- 

 capacity of organising the sale, without being 

 enslaved by the merchant, was the leading 



