Unless, However, Security Of
Property Is Enjoyed, As Well As Political Liberty, Industry, Even If It
Could Spring Up Under Such Circumstances, Must Soon Droop And Decay.
It is
a contradiction in terms to suppose that comprehensive views and desires
can exist and lead to action,
When at the same time it is extremely
doubtful whether the objects of them could be realized, or, if realized,
whether they would not immediately be destroyed, or torn from those whose
labour, and skill, and anxious thought had acquired them.
But there are other causes to which we must ascribe the extension of
British manufactures and commerce; of these we shall only enumerate what we
regard as the principal and the most powerful: the stimulus which any
particular improvement in manufactures gives to future and additional
improvements, or rather, perhaps, the necessity which it creates for such
additional improvements; the natural operation of enlarged capital; the
equally natural operation of encreased wealth among the various classes of
the community; the peculiar circumstances in which Britain has been placed
since the termination of the war which deprived her of her American
colonies; and, lastly, her national debt. A short view of each of these
particulars will, we believe, sufficiently account for the present
unparalleled state of British manufactures and commerce.
The direct effect of improvement in the mode of manufacturing any article,
by the introduction of a more powerful machinery, is to encrease the
quantity, and to lower the price of that article. Hence it follows, that
those who manufacture it on the old plan must be undersold, unless they
also adopt such machinery; and as knowledge, both speculative and
practical, has greater chance to improve in proportion as it is spread,
from this cause, as well as from the more powerful cause of rival
interests, wherever improvements in manufactures have begun and been
extended, they are sure to advance.
That this is not theoretical doctrine requires only an appeal to what has
been effected, and is yet effecting in Britain, to prove. A very curious,
interesting, and instructive work might be written on the improvements in
the cotton machinery alone, which have been made in this country during the
last forty years: we mean interesting and instructive, not merely on
account of the tacts relative to mechanical ingenuity which it would
unfold, but on account of the much higher history which it would give of
the mechanism of the human mind, and of the connections and ramifications
of the various branches of human knowledge. In what state would the
commerce of Great Britain have been at this time, if the vast improvements
in the machinery for spinning cotton had not been made and universally
adopted? - and how slowly and imperfectly would these improvements have
taken place, had the sciences been unconnected, or greater improvements,
which at first were unseen or deemed impracticable, not been gradually
developed, as lesser improvements were made. The stimulus of interest, the
mutual connection of various branches of science, and above all the
unceasing onward movement of the human mind in knowledge, speculative as
well as practical, must be regarded as the most powerful causes of the
present wonderful state of our manufactures, and, consequently, of our
commerce.
2. The natural operation of enlarged capital is another cause of our great
commerce. There is nothing more difficult in the history of mankind - not
the history of their wars and politics, but the history of their character,
manners, sentiments, and progress in civilization and wealth - [as->than] to
distinguish and separate those facts which ought to be classed as causes,
and those which ought to be classed as effects. There can be no doubt that
trade produces capital; and, in this point of view, capital must be
regarded as an effect: there can be as little doubt, that an increase of
capital is favourable to an increase of commerce, and actually produces it;
in this point of view, therefore, capital must be regarded as a cause. As
in the physical world action and reaction are equal, so are they, in many
respects, and under many circumstances, in the moral and intellectual
world; but, whereas in the physical world the action and reaction are not
only equal but simultaneous, in the moral and intellectual world the
reaction does not take place till after the immediate and particular action
from which it springs has ceased.
To apply these remarks to our present subject, it is unnecessary to point
out in what manner trade must increase capital; that capital, on the other
hand, increases trade, is not, perhaps, at first sight, quite so obvious;
but that it must act in this manner will be perceptible, when, we reflect
on the advantages which a large capital gives to its possessor. It enables
him to buy cheaper, because he can buy larger quantities, and give ready
money; buying cheaper, he can sell cheaper, or give longer credit, or both;
and this must ensure an increase of trade. It enables him immediately to
take advantage of any improvement in the mode of manufacturing any article;
and to push the sale of any article into countries where it was before
unknown. Such are some of the more important effects on commerce of large
capital; and these effects have been most obviously and strikingly shewn in
the commercial history of Britain for the last thirty years, and thus give
a practical confirmation to the doctrine, that capital, originally the
creature of trade, in its turn gives nourishment, rigour, and enlarged
growth to it.
3. Encreased wealth among the various classes of the community, may be
viewed In the same light as capital; it flows from increased trade, and it
produces a still further increase of trade. The views, and desires, and
habits of mankind, are like their knowledge, they are and must be
progressive: and if accompanied, as they generally are, by increased means,
they must give birth to increased industry and skill, and their necessary
consequences, increased trade and wealth.
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