Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

that directs them, regulates their movements, and guides them to their end by the straightest line The division of labour relates to labour in general; it prepares the links of that immense chain which connects individuals with individuals, families with families, nations with nations, and converts the whole world into a single workshop, a general manufactory. To confine the effects of divided labour to that portion of labour which it performs beyond what undivided labour would have performed, is to be ignorant of its nature, advantages, and benefits.

It must, however, be admitted, that the effects of the division of labour, the advantages of which are universally acknowledged with regard to manufactures and commerce, are not so certain with regard to agriculture. The point is not yet decided, whether the division of agricultural labour is more profitable than its concentration; or, in other words, whether small or large farms are more advantageous to public wealth. Both opinions have numerous and illustrious defenders.

"There is no maxim of political economy more "true," says Dr. Price, "than this: the division of property increases population; the concentration of property reduces the small farmers to the condition "of common day labourers, and forces them to pur"chase in the market the corn they want for their "subsistence. This manner of existence is more

painful, the children become more burthensome, "marriages less frequent, and population declines.

"When lands were divided among a greater num"ber of owners, day-labour was dearer than at pre"sent (1772), when it is not four or five times dearer

"than in 1514, and when food, with regard to bread, "is seven times, and, with regard to meat, fifteen "times dearer.

"Whence it follows, that ever since the introduc"tion of large farms, the maintenance of the hus"bandman is dearer, and his wages less; which cir"cumstance has, of course, diminished that impor"tant class of the people."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

*

Mr. Arthur Young, who has combated the opinion of Dr. Price, observes, that "it is not the number of people, but their wealth, which constitutes their power; and that population ought to be subordi "nate to agriculture, so that the abundance of pro"duce should constantly precede the increase of population." Whence he infers, that "large farins, being more advantageous than small ones, ought to "contribute more than small ones to the increase of population."t

[ocr errors]

To hesitate between these two opinions, appears impossible, if, as they certainly do, large farmst

* Dr. Richard Price's Observations on Reversionary Payments; 1773.

↑ Arthur Young's Political Arithmetic.

↑ A nation whose territory comprises thirty millions of acres of land proper for agriculture, with large, middling, and small tarms, would give the following results:

Upon the plan of small farms, one million of farms, of thirty acres each, would require two millions of regular husbandmen and three millions of horses.

On the plan of middling farms, that country would have five hundred forty-five thousand farms of fifty-five acres each, one

yield a larger quantity of produce than small ones, or, what is the same, if they yield an equal produce at less expence.. Should this saving of costs even be obtained at the expence of the husbandmen, and diminish their number, population would not be a sufferer, and wealth would be a considerable gainer. The husbandmen who are become useless to agriculture, still find the same subsistence in its produce: but being obliged to reproduce, at least, its equivalentby other labours, general wealth is increased by the total sum of this equivalent. There remains, therefore, no doubt that, with regard to population and wealth, the division of labour applied to agriculture, or the system of small farms, is as hurtful as it is beneficial in its application to manufactures and commerce.

But what is the actual utility of machines, which has been so much extolled by the Earl of Lauderdale? If it have zealous advocates, it has also numerous oppo nents; and the controversy which it has occasioned,

million six hundred thirty-five regular husbandmen, and two mil lions seven hundred twenty-five thousand horses.

On the plan of large farms, that country would have three hundred forty-one thousand farms of eighty-eight acres each, one million three hundred sixty-four thousand regular husbandmen, and two millions forty-six thousand horses.

And, as the produce consumed by a horse may be reckoned equal in value to that consumed by a labourer for his food, the nation may be considered as having, in the system of small farms, five millions of regular husbandmen; in the system of farms of the middle size, four millions three hundred and sixty thousand; and in the system of large farms, three millions four hundred and ten thousand. Discours Fondamental sur la Population; par Herrenschwand.

offers a problem which it is important and useful to examine with attention.

66

"Machines to shorten labour," says Montesquieu, are not always useful. If a piece of workm nship "be at a low price, which price suits alike the pur"chaser and the labourer who performed the work, "machines that should simplify its manufacture, "that is to say, that should diminish the number of "labourers, would be prejudicial; and were not wa"ter-mills established every where, I should not think "them as useful as they are supposed to be; because they have set a great number of hands at rest, deprived many people of the use of the waters, and "diminished the productiveness of many lands."* This opinion has been refuted in several equally convincing and triumphant ways.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

We ought first to distinguish between machines that perform labours beyond the strength of man, which of course do not deprive him of any labour, and those that perform labours which man is capable of performing.

With regard to the former, it has justly been observed, that they are but profitable, and nevér can be prejudicial, since they afford productions which exceed the strength and dexterity of man, and would not exist without their aid.

With regard to those machines which barely supplant the labour of man, it has also been very justly remarked, that they are not prejudicial to nations whose prosperity is upon the increase, because they

Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, book xxiii. chap. 15.

only supply the want of hands; but nations whose wealth is stationary or retrograding, as they have a sufficient or too great a number of hands, have no occasion for this latter kind of machines.*

This restriction to the utility of machines does not appear to rest on any solid foundation; it even excites surprise when we come to consider, that all authors agree that machines cost less and produce more than man; which circumstance of course affords a larger quantity of disposable produce. This increase of productions which has not and cannot find any consumers but in the labourers whom the machines have thrown out of employ, nor any equivalent but in the produce of their new occupation, can neither lessen their wages nor reduce their number. A large produce must not only maintain the same population and the same labour, but also increase both.

It is true, that if machines, and large farms, which may be assimilated to machines, were suddenly introduced, and both at once in the same country, they would occasion a supplanting of labour which might be extremely prejudicial to the labouring classes. But such innovations are introduced slowly and partially. The husbandman, left unemployed by large farms, is employed in other occupations by the landowner, whose net produce is increased; and the labourer, who through the erection of machines is deprived of his usual employment, likewise obtains his wages from new manufactures, the establishment of which

• Discours Fondamental sur la Population; par Herrenschwand.

« ForrigeFortsett »