6 INTRODUCTION 



order to dispose of the product to the best advantage. 

 When industry is so directed, it is likely to terminate 

 in the production of a greater volume of wealth than 

 when it is controlled by an uneducated labourer who 

 has to combine these delicate tasks with exhausting 

 manual toil. In India the direction of industry is in 

 the hands of men who have no chance of learning 

 about new methods of production, new mechanical 

 appliances, or of studying the condition of the market. 

 The peasant who cultivates a small holding, for 

 instance, is not in a position to learn of the existence 

 of unfamiliar varieties of grain or cotton ; he has no 

 opportunity of finding out what devices for lifting 

 water or crushing sugar-cane have been invented, 

 or what degree of success they have achieved. His 

 acquaintance with the market is confined to knowing 

 of a demand which has clearly manifested itself; he 

 has no means of ascertaining what the future 

 movements of the market are likely to be. The 

 hand-weaver is in the same position : he has no 

 opportunities of learning of the mechanical improve- 

 ments by which the efficiency of his loom could be 

 enormously increased, and he continues to ply his 

 craft in the fatiguing and ineffective fashion which his 

 predecessors followed a thousand years ago. In these 

 circumstances the total output of wealth cannot be as 

 great as in a society in which industry is directed by 

 men possessing technical skill, commercial knowledge, 

 and administrative ability. Between one society and 

 the other there is the same difference as there is 

 between a mob and a highly-disciplined army led by 

 competent officers. 



The wealth produced in a country is the national 

 dividend from which all the factors of production re- 

 ceive their reward. Where the national dividend is 

 small, the share which falls to the labourer's lot is 

 small also, and it is a natural result of his methods of 

 production that the Indian labourer gets a scanty 



