The Kinetic Theory of Economic Crises 21 



of the series. The materialistic conjuncture forms at any given 

 moment an harmonious whole. It is composed of objective util- 

 ities, i. e., of items that are useful to each other: each comple- 

 ments the whole, which would, in its absence, be defective. This 

 is the kinetic interpretation of an economic utility. Thus in 1825 

 the scythe, the forge, the anvil, and the bellows, primitive looms 

 and cards, and spinning machinery driven by water or by weak, 

 high pressure steam-engines, domestic manufacture of shoes, 

 clothing, etc., domestic slaughtering, transportation with oxen, 

 bad roads, sailing ships — all formed parts of one objective, 

 material whole. A modern mill could not then have gotten sup- 

 plies nor have sold its output. A modern railroad could not 

 have made its expenses. To-day or even by 1875, none of those 

 old methods could have competed. The very goods produced 

 change. A machine-made shoe is not a hand-made shoe. Again, 

 from 1880 to 1900 another complete revolution has taken place. 

 The market has again doubled, the complexity of machinery, its 

 delicacy, its differentiation been revolutionized. Iron has doubled 

 in output, steel has. been substituted for iron in the fine products, 

 coal output has doubled, ships and locomotives have been re- 

 ' created. Every manufacture has equally improved: silk, boots 

 and shoes, house and factory construction, electrical power, 

 renewed use of wind and water power, extension of system of 

 grading products, airbrakes and automatic couplers on freight 

 trains, inconceivable economies in iron manufacture, 1 new pre- 

 pared foods, improved electrically-driven printing presses, agri- 

 cultural machinery (blower threshers, disk harrows), phosphate 

 fertilizers, typewriting, telephone. Such improvements immensely 

 further the ability of the organizer, spread out the differences 

 between the able man and the next most able. Big production 

 and big organization are favored. 



Very few of these elements of the tenth decade could have 

 existed even technically in the ninth ; none could have existed 

 economically. The steamer Great Eastern is an example in point. 

 Launched in 1858, she was an economic failure from the start, 

 on account, apparently, of her unprecedented carrying capacity. 



1 See report of visiting British iron masters, daily press for September 27, 

 1902. 



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