第 15 节
作者:
猫王 更新:2022-04-16 12:11 字数:9322
r a moment by a fall in the price; is very soon shut up; and if the general consumption is not increased; the production is not so either。 Sale is extended also; and in a more lasting manner; when the cheapness of the thing produced brings it within the reach of a new class of consumers; a very sensible diminution of the price may often produce this effect。 Thus glass windows were at one time confined to palaces; they are found at the present time in the meanest huts。 Consumption is in that case truly increased; each nation gains doubly by it; manufacturers have extended their labour; the poor have acquired a new enjoyment。 The increase of population; and of national wealth; contributes to extend the market; in a manner still more advantageous。 Yet every conceivable increase of population and of wealth; does not; of necessity; extend the market; it is only such an increase as attends the increased comforts of the most numerous class。 When cultivation on the great scale has succeeded cultivation on the small; more capital is perhaps absorbed by land; and re…produced by it; more wealth than formerly may be diffused among the whole mass of agriculturists; but the consumption of one rich farmer's family; united to that of fifty families of miserable hinds; is not so valuable for the nation; as that of fifty families of peasants; no one of which was rich; but none deprived of an honest competence。 So also in towns; the consumption of a manufacturer worth a million; under whose orders are employed a thousand workmen; reduced to the bare necessaries of life; is not so advantageous for the nation; as that of a hundred manufacturers far less rich; who employ each but ten workmen far less poor。 It is very true; that ten thousand pounds of income; whether they belong to a single man; or to a hundred; are all equally destined for consumption; but this consumption is not of the same nature。 A man; however rich; cannot employ for his use an infinitely greater number of articles than a poor man; but he employs articles infinitely better; he requires work far better finished; materials far more precious; and brought from a far greater distance。 It is he who especially encourages the perfection of certain workmen; that finish a small number of objects with extreme skill; it is he who pays them an exorbitant wage。 It is he also that especially rewards such workmen as we have named unproductive; because they procure for him nothing but fugitive enjoyments; which can never by accumulation form part of the national wealth; and whilst the effect of increasing capital is generally to concentrate labour in very large manufactories; the effect of great opulence is almost entirely to exclude the produce of those large manufactories from the consumption of the opulent man。 The diffusion of wealth; therefore; still more than its accumulation; truly constitutes national prosperity; because it keeps up the kind of consumption most favourable for national re…production。 The manufacturer's market may; in the last place; be extended; by what forms the noblest wish of a statesman; the progress of civilization; comfort; security; and happiness; among barbarous nations。 Europe has arrived at such a point; that; in all its parts; there is to be found an industry; a quantity of fabrication; superior to its wants; but if false policy did not incessantly induce us to arrest the progress of civilization among our neighbours; if Egypt had been left in the hands of a people requiring the arts of Europe; if Turkey were extricated from the oppression under which it groans; if our victories over the inhabitants of Barbary had been profitably employed in giving back the coasts of Africa to social life; if Spain had not again been yielded to a despotism which destroys and ruins her population; if the independents of America were protected; so that they might be allowed to enjoy the advantages which nature offers them; if the Hindoos; subject to Europe; were amalgamated with Europeans; if Franks were encouraged to settle among them; in place of being repelled; … consumption would increase in these different counties; rapidly enough to employ all this super…abundant labour; which Europe at present knows not how to dispose of; and to terminate this distress in which the poor are plunged。 The more superior the buyer's price is to the seller's; the more profit does trade give to be shared among the trader; and all those whom he employs in the transport and distribution of his goods; the manufacturer; and all those whom he employs in the production of them。 Hence one of the great and constant objects of governments has been; to increase this difference; that their manufacturers might be enabled to produce cheap; and so find many buyers; and to sell dear to such as could not buy elsewhere; and so gain a large profit。 The progress of society generally enables nations to produce cheaper; the almost ever injudicious protection of government often gives them means of selling dearer。 The low price of workmanship is the first cause of manufacturing profit; but this low price is never a national advantage; except when it is produced by superiority of climate; greater fertility of soil; or abundance of provision。 On the contrary; when it arises from the difficulty of communication; which prevents cultivators from reaping all the profit of their wares; it can only be regarded as a private advantage; acquired at the expense of the national advantage。 When the low price of workmanship arises from the poverty of day…labourers; forced by competition to content themselves with what is necessary for life; though commerce may profit by the circumstance; it is nothing better than a national calamity。 Abundance of capital; and the consequence of this; a low price of interest; likewise doubly contribute to diminish the price of production。 With more capital; the manufacturer and merchant transact their purchases and sales at a more favourable moment; they are not pressed by either operation; or compelled to provide for the print by a sacrifice of future advantage。 Executing all kinds of labour more on the great scale; they save time; and all those incidental charges; which are the same for a great and for a small sum。 But as to the saving made by the merchant on the interest of money; it is made at the expense of a particular class; deriving their revenue from trade; it does not enrich the nation any more than the diminution of wages enriched it; it only gives to one what it takes from another。 The increasing division of labour forms; as we have seen; the chief cause of increase in its productive powers; each makes better what he is constantly engaged in making; and when; at length; his whole labour is reduced to the simplest operation; he comes to perform it with such ease and rapidity; that the eye cannot make us comprehend how the address of man should arrive at such precision and promptitude。 Often also this division leads to the discovery; that as the workman is now worth nothing more than a machine; a machine may in fact supply his place。 Several important inventions in mechanics applied to the arts; have thus sprung from the division of labour; but; by the influence of this division; man has lost in intelligence all that he has gained in the power of producing wealth。 It is by the variety of its operations that our soul is unfolded; it is to procure citizens that a nation wishes to have men; not to procure machines At for operations a little more complicated than those performed by fire or water。 The division of labour has conferred a value on operations so simple; that children; from the tenderest age; are capable of executing them; and children; before having developed any of their faculties; before having experienced any enjoyment of life; are accordingly condemned to put a wheel in motion; to turn a spindle; to empty a bobbin。 More lace; more pins; more threads; and cloth of cotton or silk; are the fruit of this great division of labour; but how dearly have we purchased them; if it is by this moral sacrifice of so many millions of human beings! The employment of machinery in place of men; has contributed generally to lessen the price of production。 At the renovation of arts and civilization; there was so much work to be done; and so few hands to do it; oppression had so far reduced the poor class; there remained so much uncultivated land in the country; so many ill…supplied trades in towns; and sovereigns required so many soldiers for war; that it seemed workmanship could never be economized enough; since an artisan; sent away from one trade; would always find ten others ready to receive him。 Circumstances are not now the same; our labour is scarcely sufficient for the labourers。 We shall endeavour; in another place; to explain the cause of this fact; in the mean time; surely none will maintain that it can be advantageous to substitute a machine for a man; if this man cannot find work elsewhere; or that it is not better to have the population composed of citizens than of steam…engines; even though the cotton cloth of the first should be a little dearer than that of the second。 The application of science to art is not limited to the invention of machinery; its r