93 



103,000,000 of workmen, or fully six times the working 

 force of all breadwinners in the TJnited Kingdom, need we 

 be surprised to find that even the effective power of the 

 agricultural labourer, who is not so highly benefited 

 as the artisan class, has been increased 42'93 per cent., 

 and that fewer hands, therefore, are now required 

 to cultivate each acre. Ought we not to expect, also, 

 as we find it to be, that the new facilities must have 

 immensely cheapened transport and cost of production ; 

 raised wages and purchasing power; increased the average 

 consumption; and greatly improved the standard of living 

 of the labourer. By such improved conditions, the United 

 Kingdom is now better enabled, to employ, feed, clothe 38 

 millions than in the year 1841, when there were 10 millions 

 less to employ, feed, and clothe. 



Conclusion. 



In conclusion, I may be permitted to quote the following 

 interesting passage from the author of " Recent Economic 

 Changes " (David A. Wells), who is acknowledged to be one 

 of our most distinguished economists, in order to show that 

 my own opinions are in harmony with those of the most 

 advanced economic writers of the day. Mr. Wells, in his 

 concluding summary of " The Single versus the Double 

 Standard," states: " To comprehend the phenomenal reduction 

 in the prices of the world's great staple commodities which 

 has tciken place in recent years, it is essential to look for and 

 consider more potent and extensive causes than any variation in, 

 the volume or relative values of the money metals, great as they 

 may have been." 



Mechanical and chemical appliances have been invented, 

 developed, and applied for the production and distribution 

 of commodities within the last quarter of a century, which 

 prior to that time had hardly formed the subject of rational 

 speculation. The prime object of all these inventions and 

 discoveries, the great stimulus that led to their realisation, was 

 to Cheapen, cost, or, what is the same thing, reduce prices. And 

 the measure of the value of any new industrial method, 

 invention, discovery, appliance, or development is the 

 extent to which these results are effected by it. 



Thus, the " prices of cloth fell when the spinning-wheel 

 and the hand-looms were superseded ; the price of travelling 

 when steam superseded horses and the power of the wind. The 

 prices of all the world's great staple commodities fell when 

 steam connected the chief sources of their supply with the 

 market places of all nations, and made possible the wide 

 distribution of perishable products. The prices of all things, 

 again fell pari passu, with the growth of financial iustitutions 

 established to create the supply and use of metallic money." 



