Page images
PDF
EPUB

ing ore into iron, and iron into instruments, he might have been surrounded with coal and iron, and yet have perished for want of an axe or a spade. Forced, too, to divide his labor among a variety of employments, he was unable to obtain complete control of those faculties in which he most excelled. With the arrival of Friday, employment became divided each now taking that department for which he was best fitted. More neighbors coming, new divisions of employment now arise, and from year to year it becomes more obvious that each and every of them has a distinct individuality qualifying him to do some one thing better than it could be done by other members of the little community. Individuality being thus developed, commerce arises, and society is formed each and every act of commerce consisting in the consumption of two efforts of physical or mental power, and the production of two results, both of which are in their turn consumed. The more instant the consumption, the greater must be the motion. - the greater the tendency to increase of force - and the more perfect the steadiness of the movement.

-

Throughout the material world, production and consumption are but parts of the same operation-oxygen and hydrogen being consumed in producing water, and water being consumed in the reproduction of its elements. In both cases motion is produced, yielding power whose measure is to be found in the rapidity of the movement. So is it, too, in the physiological world — life being a constant round of production and consumption, and health and vigor being throughout, attendant upon rapidity of digestion. So, everywhere, is it in the social world — the power there existing being dependent, altogether, upon the circulation of the physical and mental efforts of the persons of whom it is composed. When it is rapid, the force is great; when it is sluggish, there can be but little force exerted. Seeking evidence of this, the reader may compare the sluggish Sparta with the lively Athens - Turkey, Italy, or Portugal, with Northern GermanyIndia, with her hundred millions of people, with France and her thirty-six millions or Carolina with Massachusetts.

Production consists in the direction of the natural forces to the service of man. The more they are so directed, the greater is his wealth wealth consisting in the power to command their service.

The more they are so directed, the greater is the tendency of matter to take upon itself new and higher forms- terminating in that of man.

of

The greater the number of men, the greater is the power association the more rapid is the development of individual faculty and the more does man acquire power over nature. That, in its turn, is attended with increased facility of combination, and increased capacity for comprehending the wonderful powers of nature—with corresponding increase in his power to reduce them to his service. With every step in this direction, the latent utilities of matter become more and more developed, with constant diminution in the value of all commodities required by man, and increase in his value when compared with them. Wealth tends, therefore, to increase at a constantly accelerated pacę — every stage of its growth being accompanied by an increase in the rapidity with which production and consumption follow each other, and in the further power of progress.

Made in

§3. The ultimate object of all production is MAN. the image and likeness of his Creator, he was endowed with faculties fitting him to obtain power over the material world; and, for their development, commerce with his fellow-man was imposed upon him as one of the conditions of his existence. That commerce consists in the exchange of physical or intellectual effort among men each with every other. The man who is strong of arm seeks to exchange with him who is swift of foot; and he who has taken fish desires to exchange with his neighbor who has spent his time in snaring rabbits. In the infancy of society, howeverthere being little commerce. the human faculties, whether physical or intellectual, remain latent, waiting demand; precisely as is the case with the natural forces which so much abound. Power exists everywhere, susceptible of being made to contribute to man's purposes; but coal and ore, elasticity and steam, await his coming for their development.

Everywhere in the social, as in the physical, world, it is demand that causes supply. The isolated settler, having taken as many birds as he can consume, finds no inducement to exertion, and his faculties remain unused. The wild man of the West secretes the produce of the chase; while Castilian men deposit their grain in

caves of the earth

awaiting demand. Both waste their days

in idleness, because the producers of the commodities for which they would gladly give their products, are so far distant, that commerce with them cannot be maintained.

The Russian farmer, unable to send his wheat to the distant market, and unable, therefore, to obtain the clothing needed for his family and himself, wastes the power for which there is no demand. The people of Carolina are enriched by seasons in which their land is rendered comparatively unproductive; whereas, they are impoverished by fruitful seasons- the major part of their produce being then required for the payment of storage, commissions, and freights. To them, therefore, any unusual effort, resulting in increase of crop, would be cause of loss, and not of profit. So, too, is it with the intellectual faculties-never in demand among a people wholly engaged in labors of the field. Leibnitz and Newton, Watt and Fulton, would have lived and died unknown, miserable cattle-drivers, had their lot been cast among the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, or the plains of Africa. That the Carolinian or the Russian- the man of physical or of mental force- may find inducement to exertion, it is required that there be that demand for individual faculty which promotes association, and thus gives rise to commerce those who spin the wool and weave the cloth taking their places by the side of the men who plant the cotton and sow the grain, in accordance with the advice of Adam Smith. Raw materials and finished commodities will then approximate the former gaining power to command the precious metals in exchange, and the latter losing it. The farmer and the planter growing rich, agriculture will then become a science. Land and labor will then rise in price, while cloth and iron will decline. such being the inevitable effects of an increase in the rapidity with which the demand for labor and its products follows their production.

--

§ 4. In the physical world, the less the friction the greater is the effect of any given force. So, too, is it in the social world

power there growing with every diminution of friction, and diminishing with its increase. Friction, here, results from the necessity for employing the trader and transporter - men whose

profits increase with every stoppage of the circulation, while diminishing as it becomes more rapid. Poverty and slavery advance steadily in the lands in which friction is increased, as in Ireland, India, and Jamaica; while wealth and freedom advance as steadily in those in which it declines, as in France, Denmark, and Northern Germany.

The men who traffic and transport make no addition to the quantity of commodities to be consumed. The wagoner who carries the products of the farm, gives nothing in exchange for the part that he and his horses consume on the road; whereas, were he and they employed in supplying other commodities, production would increase, and the power of consumption would be augmented. The trader at the shipping-port, the shipmaster and his sailors, the foreign trader, and the wagoner who hauls the produce to the place of consumption, all abstract their sharesgiving nothing in return. At the place of production, corn will feed, and wool will clothe, as many persons as they can do at that of consumption; and the more direct the exchanges, the more instantly does consumption follow upon production, with large increase of force.

To the men who live by trade and transportation, increase in the rapidity of circulation is most undesirable diminution of friction being attended with loss of power in themselves. Half a century since, the people of India converted their cotton into cloth the loom being everywhere in close proximity to the field in which the wool was grown. Now, on the contrary, years elapse between the production of cotton and rice and their consumption, in the form of cloth, at the place at which they had been grown during all which time they are subject to charges. for freight, storage, and commissions. The traders and transporters are thus enriched, but the producer of rice is unable to obtain shirts, and the producer of cotton often dies of hunger, because of inability to obtain a handful of rice. The more effectually the slave-owner can prevent all intercourse with the world except through himself, the more perfect is his power to determine what shall be his own proportion of the food and cotton, and how much he will leave to be divided among his people.

The more effectually the trader can compel resort to the market

he controls, the greater will be the tendency to the accumulation. of large "stocks on hand," and the more perfect will be his power to determine how much cloth or iron he will consent to furnish in exchange for any given quantity of corn, cotton, or sugar. The more effectually the ship-owner can prevent intercourse among the men who produce corn and sugar, the greater must be their demand for ships, and the greater must be his power to determine what shall be the proportion of the cargo allotted to him for carrying it to market. The slower the motion of society, the longer will be the period intervening between production and consumption, and the greater will be the power of the soldier, the slave-owner, the trader, and the shipmaster. Therefore it is that they occupy so important a position in all societies in which-there being no diversity of employment there is little development of individuality among those who labor, or those who live by the labor of others.

The helot could have existed nowhere but in Sparta, whose population was by law debarred from all association among themselves. The negro slavery of Carolina could not continue to exist in any but a purely agricultural population. Italian slavery had its origin in the fact, that year after year, and century after century, there was a decline in internal commerce - with steady diminution in the rapidity with which consumption followed on production. Peon slavery in Mexico must continue so long as the absence of all diversity of employments shall continue to cause so great an interval as now exists, between the production of the power to labor and the existence of a demand for the production of human effort. So is it in Jamaica and Trinidad, in Africa and India, in Portugal and Turkey, and in all countries in which, from any cause, the plough and the loom are prevented from taking their natural places by each other. Man seeks commerce, which is but another word for association with his fellowmen. Precisely as that is obtained, does he advance in his power to direct the great forces of nature to his service, with constant development of individuality — constant increase in the rapidity of the societary circulation—and in the force and influence of the community.

The greater the power exercised by the trader and the soldier, the slower will be the circulation, and the larger will be the pro

« PreviousContinue »