by employing it; that is to say, by maintaining with it productive laborers. The more abundant, therefore, this wealth is, the more people will be employed.

Now it is evident that whatever tends to improve or facilitate labor, increases the productions of the country; and if fixed capital should eventually occasion the raising a greater produce than circulating capital, it must be more beneficial to the laborers as well as to the capitalist.

Caroline. So it appears; and yet I cannot understand how this operates with regard to machinery. We cannot substitute the powers of nature for human industry without throwing people out of work. then can the poor derive any benefit from inventions and improvements which prevent their being employed?

How

Mrs B. It may appear paradoxical, but it is nevertheless true, that whatever abridges and facilitates labor, will eventually increase the demand for laborers.

Caroline. Or, in other words, to turn people out of work is the most certain means of procuring them employment! This is precisely the objection I was making to the introduction of new machinery.

Mrs B. The invention of machinery, I allow, is at first attended with some partial and temporary incon-venience and hardship; but on the other hand, the advantages resulting from it are almost incalculable both in extent and duration. When any new machine or process whatever which abridges or facilitates labor is adopted, the commodity produced by it falls in price, the low price enables a greater number of persons to become purchasers, the demand for it increases, and the supply augments in proportion; so that eventually more hands are employed in its fabrication than there were

265. Under what circumstances would fixed capital be more beneficial to laborers than circulating capital?- -266. What reply does Mrs B. make to the question-How can the poor derive any profit from inventions and improvements which prevent their being employed?--267. How is that the fact?

previous to the adoption of the new process. When, for instance, the machine for weaving stockings was first invented, it was considered as a severe hardship on those who had earned a maintenance by knitting them; but the facility with which stockings were made in the loom, rendered them so much cheaper, that those, who before were unable to purchase them, could now indulge in the comfort of wearing them, and the prodigious increase of demand for stockings enabled all the knitters to gain a livelihood, by spinning the materials that were to be woven into stockings.

Caroline. That was a resource in former times, but household spinning is scarcely ever seen since Arkwright's invention of spinning jennies. Where are the spinners now to find employment? The improvements in machinery drive these poor workmen from one expedient to another, till I fear at last every resource will be exhausted.

Where there

Mrs B. No; that cannot be the case. is capital the poor will always find employment. In countries possessed of great wealth we see prodigious works undertaken. Roads cut through hills, canals uniting distant rivers, magnificent bridges, splendid edifices, and a variety of other enterprises which give work to thousands independently of the usual employment of capital in agriculture, manufactories and trade. What is the reason of all this? It is in order that the rich may employ their capital; for in a secure and free government no man will suffer any part of it to lie idle; the demand for labor is therefore proportioned to the extent of capital. Industry, we have already observed, knows no other limits. The capitalist who employs a new ma

268. What facts are mentioned concerning the knitting of stockings?-269. How does Caroline reply to them?-270. In the erection of what public works will the poor find employment where there is great wealth? -271. To what is the demand for labor proportioned ?

chine is no doubt the immediate gainer by it; but it is the public who derive from it the greatest and most lasting advantage. It is they who profit by the diminution of the price of the goods fabricated by the machine; and, singular as it may appear, no class of the public receives greater benefit from the introduction of those processes which abridge manual labor, than the working classes, as it is they who are most interested in the cheapness of the goods.

Caroline. Well, Mrs B., I must confess myself vanquished, and beg pardon of Mr Watt for having ventured to doubt the beneficial effects of his steam-engine; and of sir Richard Arkwright for having found fault with his spinning jennies.

Mrs B. I will read you a passage in Macpherson's history of commerce which will show you the degree of estimation in which the inventions of Arkwright were held by that writer.

"If Mr Arkwright made a great fortune, he certainly deserved it; for the advantages he conferred upon the nation were infinitely greater than those he acquired for himself; and far more solid and durable than a hundred conquests. Instead of depriving the working poor of employment by his vast abridgment of labor, that very abridgment has created a vast deal of work for more hands than were formerly employed; and it was computed that in 1785, about 25 years after the invention of his spinning jennies, that half a million of people were employed in the cotton manufactories of Lancashire, Cheshire, Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester. And it is but justice to the memory of sir Richard Arkwright to say that he was unquestionably one of the greatest

272. What description of persons is most interested in having goods cheap?273. What work is quoted by Mrs B. to corroborate her opinions on this subject?- -274. How many persons are said to have been employed in the cotton factories of Lancashire, Cheshire, Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester, within twentyfive years of Arkwright?

friends to the manufacturing and commercial interests of this country, and to the interest of the cotton planters in almost all parts of the world, and that his name ought to be transmitted to future ages, along with those of the most distinguished benefactors of mankind."

Caroline. This is indeed a magnificent eulogium of Sir Richard Arkwright, but not more so, it appears, than he really deserves.

Mrs B. I shall conclude my observations on the benefits arising from machinery by reading to you some remarks on the invention of printing, extracted from M. Say's excellent treatise on political economy.

"Au moment ou elle fut employee une foule de copistes durent rester inoccupes, car on peut estimer qu'un seul ouvrier imprimeur fait autant de besogne que 200 copistes. Il faut donc croire que 199 ouvriers sur 200 resterent sans ouvrage. He bien, la facilite de lire les ouvrages imprimes, plus grande que pour les ouvrages manuscrits, le bas prix auquel les livres tomberent, l'encouragement que cette invention donna aux auteurs pour en composer un bien plus grand nombre, soit d'instruction, soit d'amusement, toutes ces causes firent, qu'au bout de tres peu de temps, il y eut plus d'ouriers imprimeurs employes, qu'il n'y avoit auparavant de copistes. Et si a present on pouvoit calculer exactement non seulement le nombre des ouvriers imprimeurs, mais encore des industrieux que l'imprimerie fait travailler, comme graveurs de poincons, fondeurs de caracteres, relieurs, libraires, on trouveroit peut-etre que le nombre des personnes occupees par la fabrication des livres est cent fois plus grand que celui qu'elle occupoit avant l'invention de l'imprimerie."

Caroline. And the number of readers must have increased in a still greater proportion. You may recol

275. What effect have the improvements in spinning cotton had on commerce and the raising of cotton?-276. From what other author is there a quotation made illustrating the subject?

lect observing in our conversation on the division of labor, that the invention of printing was a circumstance most favorable to the diffusion of knowledge.

Mrs B. Thus you see that capital, whether fixed or circulating, invariably promotes the increase of the produce of the country; we may, therefore, I think, define capital to be an accumulated produce which tends to facilitate future productions. And the capital of a country is composed of the aggregate property of all its inhabitants.

CONVERSATION VIII.

ON WAGES AND POPULATION.

Extreme limits of Wages.-Wages regulated by the proportion which capital bears to population.small capital creates small demand for labor, low wages, and great profit to the capitalist.-Increase of capital creates greater demand for labor, higher wages, and less profit to the capitalist.-Necessity of raising subsistence before other works are undertaken. How wages are lowered by the increase of population without an increase of capital.--Effect of scarcity of provisions on wages-Effect of raising wages during a scarcity.-Of a maximum price of provisions. Effect of diminution of population by sickness on the rate of wages.-It is not work but funds that creates a demand for labor. Wages in Ireland.—Wages in town and country.

MRS B.

IN our last conversation I think we came to this conclusion, that capital is almost as beneficial to the poor as to the rich; for though the property of the one, it is by its nature destined for the maintenance of the other.

280. What conclusion was drawn from the last conversation as to utility of increased capital?