manufacture, the machinery employed was | |||
much more imperfect in those ancient, than | |||
it is in the present times. It has since received | |||
three very capital improvements, besides, | |||
probably, many smaller ones, of which | |||
it may be difficult to ascertain either the number | |||
or the importance. The three capital improvements | |||
are, first, the exchange of the rock | |||
and spindle for the spinning-wheel, which, | |||
with the same quantity of labour, will perform | |||
more than double the quantity of work. Secondly, | |||
the use of several very ingenious machines, | |||
which facilitate and abridge, in a still | |||
greater proportion, the winding of the worsted | |||
and woollen yarn, or the proper arrangement | |||
of the warp and woof before they are put into | |||
the loom, an operation which, previous to | |||
the invention of those machines, must have | |||
been extremely tedious and troublesome.Thirdly, | |||
the employment of the fulling-mill | |||
for thickening the cloth, instead of treading | |||
it in water. Neither wind nor water mills of | |||
any kind were known in England so early as | |||
the beginning of the sixteenth century, nor, | |||
so far as I know, in any other part of Europe | |||
north of the Alps. They had been introduced | |||
into Italy some time before. | |||
The consideration of these circumstances | |||
may, perhaps, in some measure, explain to us | |||
why the real price both of the course and of | |||
the fine manufacture was so much higher in | |||
those ancient than it is in the present times. | |||
It cost a greater quantity of labour to bring | |||
the goods to market. When they were brought | |||
thither, therefore, they must have purchased, | |||
or exchanged for the price of, a greater quantity. | |||
The coarse manufacture probably was, in | |||
these ancient times, carried on in England in | |||
the same manner as it always has been in countries | |||
where arts and manufactures are in their | |||
infancy. It was probably a household manufacture, | |||
in which every different part of the | |||
work was occasionally performed by all the | |||
different members of almost every private family, | |||
but so as to be their work only when | |||
they had nothing else to do, and not to be the | |||
principal business from which any of them derived | |||
the greater part of their subsistence. The | |||
work which is performed in this manner, it | |||
has already been observed, comes always much | |||
cheaper to market than that which is the principal | |||
or sole fund of the workman's subsistence. | |||
The fine manufacture, on the other | |||
hand, was not, in those times, carried on in | |||
England, but in the rich and commercial | |||
country of Flanders; and it was probably | |||
conducted then, in the same manner as now, | |||
by people who derived the whole, or the principal | |||
part of their subsistence from it. It was, | |||
besides, a foreign manufacture, and must have | |||
paid some duty, the ancient custom of tonnage | |||
and poundage at least, to the king. This | |||
duty, indeed, would not probably be very | |||
great. It was not then the policy of Europe | |||
to restrain, by high duties, the importation of | |||
foreign manufactures, but rather to encourage | |||
it, in order that merchants might be enabled | |||
to supply, at as easy a rate as possible, | |||
the great men with the conveniencies and luxuries | |||
which they wanted, and which the industry | |||
of their own country could not afford | |||
them. | |||
The consideration of these circumstances | |||
may, perhaps, in some measure explain to us | |||
why, in those ancient times, the real price of | |||
the coarse manufacture was, in proportion to | |||
that of the fine, so much lower than in the | |||
present times. | |||
Conclusion of the Chapter. | |||
I shall conclude this very long chapter with | |||
observing, that every improvement in the circumstances | |||
of the society tends, either directly | |||
or indirectly, to raise the real rent of land, | |||
to increase the real wealth of the landlord, his | |||
power of purchasing the labour, or the produce | |||
of the labour of other people. | |||
The extension of improvement and cultivations | |||
tends to raise it directly. The landlord's | |||
share of the produce necessarily increases with | |||
the increase of the produce. | |||
That rise in the real price of these parts of | |||
the rude produce of land, which is first the | |||
effect of the extended improvement and cultivation, | |||
and afterwards the cause of their being | |||
still further extended, the rise in the price | |||
of cattle, for example, tends, too, to raise the | |||
rent of land directly, and in a still greater | |||
proportion. The real value of the landlord's | |||
share, his real command of the labour of other | |||
people, not only rises with the real value of | |||
the produce, but the proportion of his share to | |||
the whole produce rises with it. | |||
That produce, after the rise in its real price, | |||
requires no more labour to collect it than before. | |||
A smaller proportion of it will, therefore, | |||
be sufficient to replace, with the ordinary | |||
profit, the stock which employs that labour. | |||
A greater proportion of it must consequently | |||
belong to the landlord. | |||
All those improvements in the productive | |||
powers of labour, which tend directly to reduce | |||
the rent price of manufactures, tend indirectly | |||
to raise the real rent of land. The | |||
landlord exchanges that part of his rude produce, | |||
which is over and above his own consumption, | |||
or, what comes to the same thing, | |||
the price of that part of it, for manufactured | |||
produce. Whatever reduces the real price of | |||
the latter, raises that of the former. An equal | |||
quantity of the former becomes thereby equivalent | |||
to a greater quantity of the latter; and | |||
the landlord is enabled to purchase a greater | |||
quantity of the conveniencies, ornaments, or | |||
luxuries which he has occasion for. | |||
Every increase in the real wealth of the society, | |||
every increase in the quantity of useful | |||