Her manufacturing capacity excels in importance that of allother nations.And although her cloth manufactures have increasedmore than tenfold (to forty-four and a half millions) since thedays of James I, we find the yield of another branch of industry,which was established only in the course of the last century,namely, the manufacture of cotton, amounting to a much larger sum,fifty-two and a half millions.(8*)Not content with that, England is now attempting to raise herlinen manufacture, which has been long in a backward state ascompared with that of other countries, to a similar position,possibly to a higher one than that of the two above-named branchesof industry: it now amounts to fifteen and a half millionssterling.In the fourteenth century, England was still so poor iniron that she thought it necessary to prohibit the exportation ofthis indispensable metal; she now, in the nineteenth century,manufactures more iron and steel wares than all the other nationson earth (namely, thirty-one millions' worth), while she producesthirty-four millions in value of coal and other minerals.These twosums exceed by over sevenfold the value of the entire gold andsilver production of all other nations, which amount to about twohundred and twenty million francs, or nine millions sterling.
At this day she produces more silk goods than all the Italianrepublics produced in the Middle Ages together, namely, thirteenand a half million pounds.Industries which at the time of HenryVIII and Elizabeth scarcely deserved classification, now yieldenormous sums; as, for instance, the glass, china, and stonewaremanufactures, representing eleven millions; the copper and brassmanufactures, four and a half millions; the manufactures of paper,books, colours, and furniture, fourteen millions.
England produces, moreover, sixteen millions' worth of leathergoods, besides ten millions' worth of unenumerated articles.Themanufacture of beer and spirituous liquors in England alone greatlyexceeds in value the aggregate of national production in the daysof James I, namely, forty-seven millions sterling.
The entire manufacturing production of the United Kingdom atthe present time, is estimated to amount to two hundred andfifty-nine and a half millions sterling.
As a consequence, and mainly as a consequence, of this giganticmanufacturing production, the productive power of agriculture hasbeen enabled to yield a total value exceeding twice that sum (fivehundred and thirty-nine millions sterling).
It is true that for this increase in her power, and in herproductive capacity, England is not indebted solely to hercommercial restrictions, her Navigation Laws, or her commercialtreaties, but in a large measure also to her conquests in scienceand in the arts.
But how comes it, that in these days one million of Englishoperatives can perform the work of hundreds of millions? It comesfrom the great demand for manufactured goods which by her wise andenergetic policy she has known how to create in foreign lands, andespecially in her colonies; from the wise and powerful protectionextended to her home industries; from the great rewards which bymeans of her patent laws she has offered to every new discovery;and from the extraordinary facilities for her inland transportafforded by public roads, canals, and railways.
England has shown the world how powerful is the effect offacilities of transport in increasing the powers of production, andthereby increasing the wealth, the population, and the politicalpower of a nation.She has shown us what a free, industrious, andwell-governed community can do in this respect within the briefspace of half a century, even in the midst of foreign wars.Thatwhich the Italian republics had previously accomplished in theserespects was mere child's play.It is estimated that as much as ahundred and eighteen millions sterling have been expended inEngland upon these mighty instruments of the nation's productivepower.
England, however, only commenced and carried out these workswhen her manufacturing power began to grow strong.Since then, ithas become evident to all observers that that nation only whosemanufacturing power begins to develop itself upon an extensivescale is able to accomplish such works; that only in a nation whichdevelops concurrently its internal manufacturing and agriculturalresources will such costly engines of trade repay their cost; andthat in such a nation only will they properly fulfil their purpose.
It must be admitted, too, that the enormous producing capacityand the great wealth of England are not the effect solely ofnational power and individual love of gain.The people's innatelove of liberty and of justice, the energy, the religious and moralcharacter of the people, have a share in it.The constitution ofthe country, its institutions, the wisdom and power of theGovernment and of the aristocracy, have a share in it.Thegeographical position, the fortunes of the country, nay, even goodluck, have a share in it.
It is not easy to say whether the material forces exert agreater influence over the moral forces, or whether the moraloutweigh the material in their operation; whether the social forcesact upon the individual forces the more powerfully, or whether thelatter upon the former.This much is certain, however, namely, thatbetween the two there subsists an interchanging sequence of actionand reaction, with the result that the increase of one set offorces promotes the increase of the other, and that theenfeeblement of the one ever involves the enfeeblement of theother.
