On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures by Charles Babbage (english books to improve english TXT) 📕

fall. He will thus be induced to examine the rival fabric, in

order to detect, from its structure, any improved mode of making

it. If, as would most usually happen, he should be unsuccessful

in this attempt, he must endeavour to contrive improvements in

his own machinery, or to acquire information respecting those

which have been made in the factories of the richer country.

Perhaps after an ineffectual attempt to obtain by letters the

information he requires, he sets out to visit in person the

factories of his competitors. To a foreigner and rival

manufacturer such establishments are not easily accessible, and

the more recent the improvements, the less likely he will be to

gain access to them. His next step, therefore, will be to obtain

the knowledge he is in search of from the workmen employed in

using or making the machines. Without drawings, or an examination

of the machines themselves, this process will be slow and

tedious; and he will be liable, after all, to be deceived by

artful and designing workmen, and be exposed to many chances of

failure. But suppose he returns to his own country with perfect

drawings and instructions, he must then begin to construct his

improved machines: and these he cannot execute either so cheaply

or so well as his rivals in the richer countries. But after the

lapse of some time, we shall suppose the machines thus

laboriously improved, to be at last completed, and in working

order.

440. Let us now consider what will have occurred to the

manufacturer in the rich country. He will, in the first instance,

have realized a profit by supplying the home market, at the usual

price, with an article which it costs him less to produce; he

will then reduce the price both in the home and foreign market,

in order to produce a more extended sale. It is in this stage

that the manufacturer in the poor country first feels the effect

of the competition; and if we suppose only two or three years to

elapse between the first application of the new improvement in

the rich country, and the commencement of its employment in the

poor country, yet will the manufacturer who contrived the

improvement (even supposing that during the whole of this time he

has made only one step) have realized so large a portion of the

outlay which it required, that he can afford to make a much

greater reduction in the price of his produce, and thus to render

the gains of his rivals quite inferior to his own.

441. It is contended that by admitting the exportation of

machinery, foreign manufacturers will be supplied with machines

equal to our own. The first answer which presents itself to this

argument is supplied by almost the whole of the present volume;

That in order to succeed in a manufacture, it is necessary not

merely to possess good machinery, but that the domestic economy

of the factory should be most carefully regulated.

The truth, as well as the importance of this principle, is so

well established in the Report of a Committee of the House of

Commons ‘On the Export of Tools and Machinery’, that I shall

avail myself of the opinions and evidence there stated, before I

offer any observations of my own:

Supposing, indeed, that the same machinery which is used in

England could be obtained on the Continent, it is the opinion of

some of the most intelligent of the witnesses that a want of

arrangement in foreign manufactories, of division of labour in

their work, of skill and perseverance in their workmen, and of

enterprise in the masters, together with the comparatively low

estimation in which the master manufacturers are held on the

Continent, and with the comparative want of capital, and of many

other advantageous circumstances detailed in the evidence, would

prevent foreigners from interfering in any great degree by

competition with our principal manufacturers; on which subject

the Committee submit the following evidence as worthy the

attention of the House:

I would ask whether, upon the whole, you consider any danger

likely to arise to our manufactures from competition, even if the

French were supplied with machinery equally good and cheap as our

own? They will always be behind us until their general habits

approximate to ours; and they must be behind us for many reasons

that I have before given.

Why must they be behind us? One other reason is, that a

cotton manufacturer who left Manchester seven years ago, would be

driven out of the market by the men who are now living in it,

provided his knowledge had not kept pace with those who have been

during that time constantly profiting by the progressive

improvements that have taken place in that period: this

progressive knowledge and experience is our great power and

advantage.

It should also be observed, that the constant, nay, almost

daily, improvements which take place in our machinery itself, as

well as in the mode of its application, require that all those

means and advantages alluded to above should be in constant

operation: and that, in the opinion of several of the witnesses,

although Europe were possessed of every tool now used in the

United Kingdom, along with the assistance of English artisans,

which she may have in any number, yet, from the natural and

acquired advantages possessed by this country, the manufacturers

of the United Kingdom would for ages continue to retain the

superiority they now enjoy. It is indeed the opinion of many,

that if the exportation of machinery were permitted, the

exportation would often consist of those tools and machines,

which, although already superseded by new inventions, still

continue to be employed, from want of opportunity to get rid of

them: to the detriment, in many instances, of the trade and

manufactures of the country: and it is matter worthy of

consideration, and fully borne out by the evidence, that by such

increased foreign demand for machinery, the ingenuity and skill

of our workmen would have greater scope; and that, important as

the improvements in machinery have lately been, they might, under

such circumstances, be fairly expected to increase to a degree

beyond all precedent.

The many important facilities for the construction of

machines and the manufacturing of commodities which we possess,

are enjoyed by no other country; nor is it likely that any

country can enjoy them to an equal extent for an indefinite

period. It is admitted by everyone, that our skill is unrivalled;

the industry and power of our people unequalled; their

ingenuity, as displayed in the continuol improvement in

machinery, and production of commodities, without parallel; and

apparently, without limit. The freedom which, under our

government, every man has, to use his capital, his labour, and

his talents, in the manner most conducive to his interests, is an

inestimable advantage; canals are cut, and railroads constructed,

by the voluntary association of persons whose local knowledge

enables them to place them in the most desirable situations; and

these great advantages cannot exist under less free governments.

These circumstances, when taken together, give such a decided

superiority to our people, that no injurious rivalry, either in

the construction of machinery or the manufacture of commodities,

can reasonably be anticipated.

442. But, even if it were desirable to prevent the

exportation of a certain class of machinery, it is abdundantly

evident, that, whilst the exportation of other classes is

allowed, it is impossible to prevent the forbidden one from being

smuggled out; and that, in point of fact, the additional risk has

been well calculated by the smuggler.

443. It would appear, also, from various circumstances, that

the immediate exportation of improved machinery is not quite so

certain as has been assumed; and that the powerful principle of

self-interest will urge the makers of it, rather to push the sale

in a different direction. When a great maker of machinery has

contrived a new machine for any particular process, or has made

some great improvement upon those in common use, to whom will he

naturally apply for the purpose of selling his new machines?

Undoubtedly, in by far the majority of cases, to his nearest and

best customers, those to whom he has immediate and personal

access, and whose capability to fulfil any contract is best known

to him. With these, he will communicate and offer to take their

orders for the new machine; nor will he think of writing to

foreign customers, so long as he finds the home demand sufficient

to employ the whole force of his establishment. Thus, therefore,

the machine-maker is himself interested in giving the first

advantage of any new improvement to his own countrymen.

444. In point of fact, the machine-makers in London greatly

prefer home orders, and do usually charge an additional price to

their foreign customers. Even the measure of this preference may

be found in the evidence before the Committee on the Export of

Machinery. It is differently estimated by various engineers; but

appears to vary from five up to twentyfive per cent on the

amount of the order. The reasons are: 1. If the machinery be

complicated, one of the best workmen, well accustomed to the mode

of work in the factory, must be sent out to put it up; and there

is always a considerable chance of his having offers that will

induce him to remain abroad. 2. If the work be of a more simple

kind, and can be put up without the help of an English workman,

yet for the credit of the house which supplies it, and to prevent

the accidents likely to occur from the want of sufficient

instruction in those who use it, the parts are frequently made

stronger, and examined more attentively, than they would be for

an English purchaser. Any defect or accident also would be

attended with more expense to repair, if it occurred abroad, than

in England.

445. The class of workmen who make machinery, possess much

more skill, and are paid much more highly than that class who

merely use it; and, if a free exportation were allowed, the more

valuable class would, undoubtedly, be greatly increased; for,

notwithstanding the high rate of wages, there is no country in

whichit can at this moment be made, either so well or so cheaply

as in England. We might, therefore, supply the whole world with

machinery, at an evident advantage, both to ourselves and our

customers. In Manchester, and the surrounding district, many

thousand men are wholly occupied in making the machinery, which

gives employment to many hundred thousands who use it; but the

period is not very remote, when the whole number of those who

used machines, was not greater than the number of those who at

present manufacture them. Hence, then, if England should ever

become a great exporter of machinery, she would necessarily

contain a large class of workmen, to whom skill would be

indispensable, and, consequently, to whom high wages would be

paid; and although her manufacturers might probably be

comparatively fewer in number, yet they would undoubtedly have

the advantage of being the first to derive profit from

improvement. Under such circumstances, any diminution in the

demand for machinery, would, in the first instance, be felt by a

class much better able to meet it, than that which now suffers

upon every check in the consumption of manufactured goods; and

the resulting misery would therefore assume a mitigated

character.

446. It has been feared, that when other countries have

purchased our machines, they will cease to demand new ones: but

the statement which has been given of the usual progress in the

improvement of the machinery employed in any manufacture, and of

the average time which elapses before it is superseded by such

improvements, is a complete reply to this objection. If our

customers abroad did