TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 167 



could raise directly from the soil, we arrive at the conclusion that two thirds of 

 two and a quarter millions, say one and a half million, should be deducted from the 

 industrial and added to the food-producing class, and that three and three quarter 

 millions are actually engaged in producing or procuring food for all the inhabitants 

 of the United Kingdom. 



But we must go a step further. There are other things which are absolutely 

 essential for those who thus labour— houses to live in, clothing to wear, and several 

 minor articles of food, over and above that which is raised at home._ To provide 

 these, some of our mechanics and operatives must devote their time either directly 

 to their production, or directlv to producing that which will procure them from 

 abroad. For reasons which will be better explained when speaking of the indus- 

 trial class, the number thus employed may be computed at half a million of workers. 

 The result of these calculations may thus be stated in round numbers :— 



Census return of agricultural class 3,000,000 



Less J, producing hay, wool, flax, hides, oils, &c 750,000 



2,250,000 



Add, manufacturers of goods to be 'exchanged for food 1,500,000 



Ditto, of necessaries for food-producers 500,000 



Giving a grand total of 4,250,000 



whose labour in one shape or another sufficed to maintain in food the 31,500,000 

 ascertained inhabitants of the kingdom in 1871. 



II. The industrial class, numbering six and a quarter millions, includes all persons 

 engaged in art and mechanic production, and those working and dealing in textile 

 fabrics and dress, in food and drinks, and in animal, vegetable, and mineral sub- 

 stances. To these we may, as before stated, add the commercial class, one million ; 

 not that they are actual producers, but because their employment is necessary for 

 the distribution and exchange of that which others produce, and which without 

 such assistance could not be utilized. To these seven and a quarter millions we 

 must add the three quarters of a million of the agricultural class whom we con- 

 sidered as employed in producing other articles than food, but deduct the one and 

 a half million the product of whose labour we reckoned as applied to the purchase 

 of food imported from other countries, leaving six and three quarter millions of 

 workers engaged in producing, for the benefit of the whole population, substances 

 not to be consumed as food. In like manner, however, as we added to the food- 

 producers half a million for those providing articles necessary to their existence, so 

 must we deduct this half a million from the industrial producers, together with, 

 say, three quarters of a million similarly employed upon necessaries for these 

 workers themselves. 



These two numbers, thus transferred as necessary for the workers, are to a cer- 

 tain extent conjectural, yet not altogether arbitrary. A close examination of the 

 suborders and divisions of the census return under the various occupations of the 

 industrial class leads to the conclusion that, after making the deduction for goods 

 manufactured to be exchanged for food imports, one half of the workers may be 

 assigned to the production of articles of necessity; and as this would give some 

 three or three and a half millions, the proportion for the consumption of the 

 workers themselves woidd bo about a quarter of a million for the agricultural and 

 three quarters of a million for the industrial. Thus we get five and a half millions, 

 the products of whose labour supply themselves with food and necessaries, and the 

 rest of the community with every thing it uses, beyond the absolute food on which 

 it subsists. 



Assuming that the necessary supplies for the wants of. the non-productive popu- 

 lation (including most of the women and all the children ) will absorb the labour of 

 two and a half millions mi re, we shall have left some three millions for the pro- 

 duction of luxuries or superfluities and the accumulation of wealth, nearly one 

 third of the total workers. 



These calculations may be tabulated in round numbers thus :— 



