1 84 THE DIVISION OF LABOUR 



commodities which would have a ready sale among 

 the village population would encounter the greatest 

 difficulty in getting into touch with his customers. 

 The small shopkeepers that are to be found here and 

 there in the rural districts are almost as ignorant of 

 modern trade as the villagers themselves, and at 

 present the large merchants of the towns are content 

 to let their customers come to them and to cater for a 

 demand which has already manifested itself.* Those 

 who find it difficult to realize that a shopkeeper con- 

 tributes directly to the production of wealth may see 

 in India how much the absence of such a class hinders 

 production. The difficulty of reaching the masses 

 must act as a strong deterrent upon any manufacturer 

 who wishes to supply the wants of the masses, and 

 the creation of new wants is hindered by the difficulty 

 which the peasant has in learning of the existence of 

 new products. 



I have said that the aggregation of artisans in large 

 centres would probably be followed by the introduc- 

 tion of steam-power in Indian industries, but I do 

 not wish it to be thought that the introduction of 

 steam-power is indispensable to the improvement of 

 Indian industry. On the contrary, I quite agree with 

 Mr. Havell, the Principal of the Government School 

 of Art in Calcutta, that a great improvement is possible 

 without recourse to steam-power, and that it might be 

 effected by the perfection of the instruments of manu- 

 facture driven by hand-power. The indigenous indus- 

 tries of India are for the most part conducted with 

 very rude appliances, such as were probably in use 

 2,000 years ago. Even before the introduction of 



* It is a remarkable fact that the large Muhammadan firms in 

 Bombay which import cloth from Europe and do a very large 

 business have not got travellers going round to visit the cloth- 

 dealers of the interior, but are content to sit at Bombay to await 

 the arrival of their customers from the Punjab, Sind, and the 

 United Provinces. 



