The Manufacturing Power and the Principle of Stability andContinuity of WorkIf we investigate the origin and progress of individualbranches of industry we shall find that they have only graduallybecome possessed of improved methods of operation, machinerybuildings, advantages in production, experiences, and skill, and ofall those knowledges and connections which insure to them theprofitable purchase of their raw materials and the profitable saleof their products.We may rest assured that it is (as a rule)incomparably easier to perfect and extend a business alreadyestablished than to found a new one.We see everywhere old businessestablishments that have lasted for a series of generations workedwith greater profits than new ones.We observe that it is the moredifficult to set a new business going in proportion as fewerbranches of industry of a similar character already exist in anation; because, in that case, masters, foremen, and workmen mustfirst be either trained up at home or procured from abroad, andbecause the profitableness of the business has not beensufficiently tested to give capitalists confidence in its success.
If we compare the conditions of distinct classes of industry in anynation at various periods, we everywhere find, that when specialcauses had not operated to injure them, they have made remarkableprogress, not only in regard to cheapness of prices, but also withrespect to quantity and quality, from generation to generation.Onthe other hand, we observe that in consequence of externalinjurious causes, such as wars and devastation of territory, &c.,or oppressive tyrannical or fanatical measures of government andfinance (as e.g.the revocation of the Edict of Nantes), wholenations have been thrown back for centuries, either in their entireindustry or in certain branches of it, and have in this manner beenfar outstripped by nations in comparison with which they hadpreviously been far advanced.
One can see at a glance that, as in all human institutions soalso in industry, a law of nature lies at the root of importantachievements which has much in common with the natural law of thedivision of labour and of the confederation of the productiveforces, whose principle, namely, consists in the circumstance thatseveral generations following one another have equally united theirforces towards the attainment of one and the same object, and haveparticipated in like manner in the exertions needed to attain it.
It is the same principle which in the cases of hereditarykingdoms has been incomparably more favourable to the maintenanceand increase of the power of the nation than the constant changesof the ruling families in the case of electoral kingdoms.
It is partly this natural law which secures to nations who havelived for a long time past under a rightly ordered constitutionalform of government, such great successes in industry, commerce, andnavigation.
Only through this natural law can the effect of the inventionof printing on human progress be partially explained.Printingfirst rendered it possible to hand down the acquisitions of humanknowledge and experience from the present to future generationsmore perfectly and completely than could be done by oral tradition.
To the recognition of this natural law is undoubtedly partlyattributable the division of the people into castes, which existedamong the nations of antiquity, and also the law of the oldEgyptians -- that the son must continue to follow the trade orprofession of his father.Before the invention and generaldissemination of printing took place, these regulations may haveappeared to be indispensable for the maintenance and for thedevelopment of arts and trades.
Guilds and trade societies also have partly originated fromthis consideration.For the maintenance and bringing to perfectionof the arts and sciences, and their transfer from one generation toanother, we are in great measure indebted to the priestly castes ofancient nations, to the monasteries and universities.
What power and what influence have the orders of priesthood andorders of knights, as well as the papal chair, attained to, by thefact that for centuries they have aspired to one and the same aim,and that each successive generation has always continued to workwhere the other had left off.
The importance of this principle becomes still more evident inrespect to material achievements.
Individual cities, monasteries, and corporations have erectedworks the total cost of which perhaps surpassed the value of theirwhole property at the time.They could only obtain the means forthis by successive generations devoting their savings to one andthe same great purpose.
Let us consider the canal and dyke system of Holland; itcomprises the labours and savings of many generations.Only to aseries of generations is it possible to complete systems ofnational transport or a complete system of fortifications anddefensive works.
The system of State credit is one of the finest creations ofmore recent statesmanship, and a blessing for nations, inasmuch asit serves as the means of dividing among several generations thecosts of those achievements and exertions of the present generationwhich are calculated to benefit the nationality for all futuretimes, and which guarantee to it continued existence, growth,greatness, power, and increase of the powers of production; itbecomes a curse only if it serves for useless national expenditure,and thus not merely does not further the progress of futuregenerations, but deprives them beforehand of the means ofundertaking great national works, or also if the burden of thepayment of interest of the national debt is thrown on theconsumptions of the working classes instead of on capital.
