The Manufacturing Power and the Personal, Social, and PoliticalProductive Powers of the NationIn a country devoted to mere raw agriculture, dullness of mind,awkwardness of body, obstinate adherence to old notions, customs,methods, and processes, want of culture, of prosperity, and ofliberty prevail.The spirit of striving for a steady increase inmental and bodily acquirements, of emulation, and of liberty,characterise, on the contrary, a State devoted to manufactures andcommerce.
The cause of this difference lies partly in the different kindof social habits and of education which respectively characterisethese two classes of people, partly in the different character oftheir occupation and in the things which are requisite for it.Theagricultural population lives dispersed over the whole surface ofthe country; and also, in respect to mental and materialintercourse, agriculturists are widely separated from one another.
One agriculturist does almost precisely what the other does; theone produces, as a rule, what the other produces.The surplusproduce and the requirements of all are almost alike; everybody ishimself the best consumer of his own products; here, therefore,little inducement exists for mental intercourse or materialexchange.The agriculturist has to deal less with his fellow-menthan with inanimate nature.Accustomed to reap only after a longlapse of time where he has sown, and to leave the success of hisexertions to the will of a higher power, contentment with little,patience, resignation, but also negligence and mental laziness,become to him a second nature.As his occupation keeps him apartfrom intercourse with his fellow-men, so also does the conduct ofhis ordinary business require but little mental exertion and bodilyskill on his part.He learns it by imitation in the narrow circleof the family in which he was born, and the idea that it might beconducted differently and better seldom occurs to him.From thecradle to the grave he moves always in the same limited circle ofmen and of circumstances.Examples of special prosperity inconsequence of extraordinary mental and bodily exertions are seldombrought before his eyes.The possession of means or a state ofpoverty are transmitted by inheritance in the occupation of mereagriculture from generation to generation, and almost all thatpower which originates in emulation lies dead.
The nature of manufactures is fundamentally different from thatof agriculture.Drawn towards one another by their business,manufacturers live only in society, and consequently only incommercial intercourse and by means of that intercourse.Themanufacturer procures from the market all that he requires of thenecessaries of life and raw materials, and only the smallest partof his own products is destined for his own consumption.If theagriculturist expects a blessing on his exertions chiefly fromnature, the prosperity and existence of the manufacturer mainlydepend on his commercial intercourse.While the agriculturist doesnot know the purchasers of his produce, or at any rate need havelittle anxiety as to disposing of it, the very existence of themanufacturer depends on his customers.The prices of raw materials,of the necessaries of life and wages, of goods and of money, varyincessantly; the manufacturer is never certain how his profits willturn out.The favour of nature and mere ordinary industry do notguarantee to him existence and prosperity as they do to theagriculturist; both these depend entirely upon his own intelligenceand activity.He must strive to gain more than enough in order tobe certain of having enough of what is absolutely necessary; hemust endeavour to become rich in order not to be reduced topoverty.If he goes on somewhat faster than others, he thrives; ifhe goes slower, he is certain of ruin.He must always buy and sell,exchange and make bargains.Everywhere he has to deal with men,with changing circumstances, with laws and regulations; he has ahundred times more opportunity for developing his mind than theagriculturist.In order to qualify himself for conducting hisbusiness, he must become acquainted with foreign men and foreigncountries; in order to establish that business, he must makeunusual efforts, While the agriculturist simply has to do with hisown neighbourhood, the trade of the manufacturer extends itselfover all countries and parts of the world.The desire to gain therespect of his fellow-citizens or to retain it, and the continualcompetition of his rivals, which perpetually threaten his existenceand prosperity, are to him a sharp stimulus to uninterruptedactivity, to ceaseless progress.Thousands of examples prove tohim, that by extraordinary performances and exertions it ispossible for a man to raise himself from the lowest degree ofwell-being and position to the highest social rank, but that, onthe other hand, by mental inactivity and negligence, he can sinkfrom the most respectable to the meanest position.Thesecircumstances produce in the manufacturer an energy which is notobservable in the mere agriculturist.
