f.— ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 107 



unemployed in order to diminish the attractiveness of leisure to the 

 unemployed. 



S. 4. The progress of technique has been the characteristic feature of 

 the Western World since the eighteenth century, but it was in the early 

 years of the Machine Age that the problems arising out of the contemporary 

 developments were most fully discussed by economists. For this reason the 

 discussion of the problem of Rationalisation by the Classical Economists 

 has a direct significance for the present age : the problem of the ' Influence 

 of Machinery upon the Condition of the Labouring Classes ' which was 

 debated by Ricardo and McCulloch, Chalmers and Babbage and Senior 

 is in all essential respects the problem which vexes us to-day. Whatever 

 may have been the attitude of the popularisers of economic thought, the 

 original thinkers of the time were by no means so intoxicated with the 

 progress of technique that they failed to see that it had its drawbacks. 

 Ricardo, in his celebrated recantation in the Chapter on Machinery in the 

 third edition of the Principles, finally arrived at the conclusion that the 

 ' substitution of machinery for human labour is often A^ery injurious to the 

 interests of the class of labourers .... the same cause which may 

 increase the net revenue of the country may at the same time render the 

 population redundant, and deteriorate the condition of the labourer,' ' and, 

 in summing up his thought, argued roundly that ' the opinion entertained 

 by the labouring class, that the employment of machinery is frequently 

 detrimental to their interests, is not founded on prejudice and error, but 

 is conformable to the correct principles of political economy. ' ' But this 

 view, though it can be defended on adequate grounds, was based by Ricardo 

 on reasoning which must be regarded as untenable. Charles Babbage, the 

 most fervent contemporary apostle of the application of scientific method 

 to economic life, discusses the whole issue very admirably in his work ' On 

 the Economy of Manufactures.' Whilst reduced prices, consequential upon 

 the use of machinery, have a tendency to reabsorb the labour inevitably 

 displaced, yet in order to prove ' that the total quantity of labour is not 

 diminished by the introduction of machines, we must have recourse to 

 some other principle of our nature.' '^ This principle turns out to be the 

 influence of the increased power to enjoy upon the desire to enjoy : ' He 

 who has habitually worked ten hours a day will employ the half hour saved 

 by the new machine in gratifying some other want ; and as each new 

 machine adds to these gratifications, new luxuries will open to his view, 

 which continued enjoyment will as surely render necessary to his happiness.' 

 But this optimistic psychology of wants does not prevent Babbage from 

 stressing, (a) the effects of new machinery in redistributing the demand for 

 labour, so that ' considerable suffering among the working classes ' results. 



' Principles. MeCuUoch's edn., p. 236. 



'^ Op. cit.,p. 239, cf. this with the utterances of a more modern pessimist : Capitalistic 

 rationalisation, in the absence of constantly expanding foreign markets is ' driven back 

 upon the home market : and there it defeats itself and creates around it a desolation 

 of unemployment and human decay.' Labour ' deprived of its independent source 

 of income (cf. Ricardo's " Gross Revenue ") ceases to be effective in the market as a 

 buyer, and thus defeats the aim of the reduction in costs which has been achieved.' 

 G. D. H. Cole. The Next Ten Years, p. 109. 



■* This and the following citations are taken from the fourth edition of the Economy 

 of Manufactures, 1835, paras. 404-407. 



