80 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
duce so much next time, indeed, having lost part of his capital, he has not 
the command of the same quantity of commodities to give his workmen as 
he had before, so he is obliged to dismiss some of them, and would, there- 
fore, not be able to produce so much, even if he wished to. The corduroy 
maker having, however, made money, and finding the demand for his wares 
brisk, employs more men and produces more corduroy. The total employ- 
ment given by the two manufacturers together is therefore the same, and 
no injury to the working class has been produced by the mere transfer of 
capital from one of them to the other, no wealth in short has been lost 
or destroyed. There will be next year more corduroy made and less 
velvet. Our philanthropist has succeeded in doing good to the working 
classes to this extent; so long as he continues his bounty it is at his own 
expense and not at that of others. The rich man’s charity, however, 
seldom or never does good; it generally returns into the pockets of the 
rich, and does so in this case, for his bounty is so much saved in poor rates 
to the neighbouring gentry. 
If he tries Mill’s other expedient of employing labour in building houses 
(not, however, for the poor to live in), in digging artificial lakes, and in 
making pleasure gardens, his suecess will be if possible still smaller. The 
self-sacrifice shown in making a personal display of wealth by having a 
fine garden instead of by wearing velvet is not of the kind that does much 
good to anyone. ; 
We will assume that after having made his annual purchase of velvet, 
he resolves that in future he will be an employer of labour, and, to simplify 
the question, that he has told the velvet-maker of his intentions, so that 
the latter does not make so much velvet but employs his wealth in some 
other way. Under his old style of proceeding his income would have been 
accumulating until the velvet which he was aboutto buy was manufactured 
and until the requisite sum had been got together. It would probably have 
been placed in the bank as it came in, and the bank would have taken good 
care that it was not left there lying idle. It would have been lent out to 
manufacturers who would have procured with the money the wealth it gave 
them a right to, and this wealth would have been given to workmen in 
exchange for their labour, which would be devoted to some profitable 
employment in producing new wealth to replace that which they consumed. 
This must now stop, the philanthropist wants his money from day to day to 
pay his gardeners, so the manufacturer's labourers are thrown out of work, 
the manufacturer not having means to pay them. The gardeners, how- 
ever, get the commodities which the manufacturer's men got before, and so 
on the average no harm is done. There has been a transfer of work from 
manufacturer's men to gardeners, and the labouring classes neither gain 
nor lose. 
