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

as soon as they could procure it, then our manufacturers would

extend their establishments, and undersell their rivals in their

own markets.

447. It may also be urged, that in each kind of machinery a

maximum of perfection may be imagined, beyond which it is

impossible to advance; and certainly the last advances are

usually the smallest when compared with those which precede them:

but it should be observed, that these advances are generally made

when the number of machines in employment is already large; and

when, consequently, their effects on the power of producing are

very considerable. But though it should be admitted that any one

species of machinery may, after a long period, arrive at a degree

of perfection which would render further improvement nearly

hopeless, yet it is impossible to suppose that this can be the

case with respect to all kinds of mechanism. In fact the limit of

improvement is rarely approached, except in extensive branches of

national manufactures; and the number of such branches is, even

at present, very small.

448. Another argument in favour of the exportation of

machinery, is, that it would facilitate the transfer of capital

to any more advantageous mode of employment which might present

itself. If the exportation of machinery were permitted, there

would doubtless arise a new and increased demand; and, supposing

any particular branch of our manufactures to cease to produce the

average rate of profit, the loss to the capitalist would be much

less, if a market were open for the sale of his machinery to

customers more favourably circumstanced for its employment. If,

on the other hand, new improvements in machinery should be

imagined, the manufacturer would be more readily enabled to carry

them into effect, by having the foreign market opened where he

could sell his old machines. The fact, that England can,

notwithstanding her taxation and her high rate of wages, actually

undersell other nations, seems to be well established: and it

appears to depend on the superior goodness and cheapness of those

raw materials of machinery the metals—on the excellence of the

tools—and on the admirable arrangements of the domestic economy

of our factories.

449. The different degrees of facility with which capital can

be transferred from one mode of employment to another, has an

important effect on the rate of profits in different trades and

in different countries. Supposing all the other causes which

influence the rate of profit at any period, to act equally on

capital employed in different occupations, yet the real rates of

profit would soon alter, on account of the different degrees of

loss incurred by removing the capital from one mode of investment

to another, or of any variation in the action of those causes.

450. This principle will appear more clearly by taking an

example. Let two capitalists have embarked L10,000 each, in two

trades: A in supplying a district with water, by means of a

steamengine and iron pipes; B in manufacturing bobbin net. The

capital of A will be expended in building a house and erecting a

steamengine, which costs, we shall suppose, L3000; and in laying

down iron pipes to supply his customers, costing L7000. The

greatest part of this latter expense is payment for labour, and

if the pipes were to be taken up, the damage arising from that

operation would render them of little value, except as old metal;

whilst the expense of their removal would be considerable. Let

us, therefore, suppose, that if A were obliged to give up his

trade, he could realize only L4000 by the sale of his stock. Let

us suppose again that B, by the sale of his bobbin net factory

and machinery, could realize L8000 and let the usual profit on

the capital employed by each party be the same, say 20 per cent:

then we have

Capital invested; Money which would arise from sale of machinery;

Annual rate of profit per cent; Income

L L L L

Water works 10,000 4000 20 2000

Bobbin net Factory 10,000 8000 20 2000

Now, if, from competition, or any other cause, the rate of

profit arising from water-works should fall to 20 per cent, that

circumstance would not cause a transfer of capital from the

water-works to bobbin net making; because the reduced income from

the water-works, L1000 per annum, would still be greater than

that produced by investing L4000, (the whole sum arising from the

sale of the materials of the water-works), in a bobbin net

factory, which sum, at 20 per cent, would yield only L800 per

annum. In fact, the rate of profit, arising from the water-works,

must fall to less than 8 per cent before the proprietor could

increase his income by removing his capital into the bobbin net

trade.

451. In any enquiry into the probability of the injury

arising to our manufacturers from the competition of foreign

countries, particular regard should be had to the facilities of

transport, and to the existence in our own country of a mass of

capital in roads, canals, machinery, etc., the greater portion of

which may fairly be considered as having repaid the expense of

its outlay, and also to the cheap rate at which the abundance of

our fuel enables us to produce iron, the basis of almost all

machinery. It has been justly remarked by M. de Villefosse, in

the memoir before alluded to, that Ce que l’on nomme en France,

la question du prix des fers, est, a proprement parler, la

question du prix des bois, et la question, des moyens de

communications interieures par les routes, fleuves, rivieres et

canaux.

The price of iron in various countries in Europe has been

stated in section 215 of the present volume; and it appears, that

in England it is produced at the least expense, and in France at

the greatest. The length of the roads which cover England and

Wales may be estimated roughly at twenty thousand miles of

turnpike, and one hundred thousand miles of road not turnpike.

The internal water communication of England and France, as far as

I have been able to collect information on the subject, may be

stated as follows:

In France

Miles in length

Navigable rivers 4668

Navigable canals 915.5

Navigable canals in progress of execution (1824) 1388

6971.5 (1*)

But, if we reduce these numbers in the proportion of 3.7 to 1,

which is the relative area of France as compared with England and

Wales, then we shall have the following comparison:

Portion of France equal in size to England and Wales

England(2*)

Miles Miles

Navigable rivers 1275.5 1261.6

Tidal navigation(3*) 545.9

Canals, direct 2023.5

Canals, branch 150.6

2174.1 2174.1 247.4

Canals commenced – 375.1

Total 3995.5 1884.1

Population in 1831 13,894,500 8,608,500

This comparison, between the internal communications of the

two countries, is not offered as complete; nor is it a fair view,

to contrast the wealthiest portion of one country with the whole

of the other: but it is inserted with the hope of inducing those

who possess more extensive information on the subject, to supply

the facts on which a better comparison may be instituted. The

information to be added, would consist of the number of miles in

each country, of seacoast, of public roads, of railroads, of

railroads on which locomotive engines are used.

452. One point of view, in which rapid modes of conveyance

increase the power of a country, deserves attention. On the

Manchester Railroad, for example, above half a million of persons

travel annually; and supposing each person to save only one hour

in the time of transit, between Manchester and Liverpool, a

saving of five hundred thousand hours, or of fifty thousand

working days, of ten hours each, is effected. Now this is

equivalent to an addition to the actual power of the country of

one hundred and sixty-seven men, without increasing the quantity

of food consumed; and it should also be remarked, that the time

of the class of men thus supplied, is far more valuable than that

of mere labourers.

NOTES:

1. This table is extracted and reduced from one of Ravinet,

Dictionnaire Hydrographique. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris. 1824.

2. I am indebted to F. Page. Esq. of Speen, for that portion of

this table which relates to the internal navigation of England.

Those only who have themselves collected statistical details can

be aware of the expense of time and labour, of which the few

lines it contains are the result.

3. The tidal navigation includes: the Thames, from the mouth of

the Medway; the Severn, from the Holmes: the Trent, from Trent

Falls in the Humber; the Mersey from Runcorn Gap.