pecuniary interest in their work, for in this manner the energy and skill of the workmen might with greater certainty be secured. Joint-stock companies have always experienced the greatest obstacles in retail trades, where the transactions are numerous and small. The petty details of such businesses seem particularly to require the energy of individual management. The cooperative stores, however, which have lately assumed so much prominence all over the country, especially in London and in the north of England, are joint-stock companies; the capital is supplied almost entirely by a large number of shareholders. Yet these societies have engaged with the most remarkable success in the ordinary retail trades, conducted by grocers, drapers, chemists, wine-merchants, coal-merchants, bakers, butchers, &c. The success of these societies not only proves that the disadvantages of the joint-stock system have been much exaggerated, but also indicates how the most prominent. of these disadvantages may be overcome. The prosperity of the cooperative stores is probably mainly due to the ready-money system which they invariably adopt; the smallest sum is consequently never lost in bad debts. BOOK I. CH. VI. Special advantage of tive stores. coopera The exten sion of the joint-stock system de It is in every respect advantageous to a country, that the joint-stock system should be encouraged; it greatly promotes the production of wealth. Small capitals which, if separately applied, would do little towards the pro- sirable. duction of wealth, are brought together by joint-stock companies, and accomplish industrial works of the utmost importance. A thousand individuals who have saved 100%. each, may not have the time, capacity, or inclination themselves to employ the money in any business. If each of these individuals subscribed his 100l. to one common fund, a capital would be created sufficient to work a large Manchester manufactory; they would become proprietors and promoters of a great commercial concern, annually producing a large amount of wealth, and annually employing many hundreds of labourers. The relative advantages of large and small farming have Large and long been one of the most controverted points connected small farming. with the subject of this chapter. In England, agriculture has no doubt, within the last few years, been conducted on a much larger scale than formerly. In the best culti BOOK I. of large farming. Agricultural machinery more avail able. vated districts of England, each farmer generally rents not less than three or four hundred acres. In many parishes the land which is now cultivated by one or two farmers was, within the memory of those who are still living, parcelled into twenty or thirty distinct holdings. We will first point out some of the obvious advantages which arise Advantages from large farming. The extended use of agricultural machinery has been a prominent feature of that great improvement in the cultivation of the soil which has taken place within the last few years. Twenty-five years since the greater portion of the corn grown in this country was thrashed by the flail; now steam-thrashing machines are used in every district, and the flail has been almost banished; even agricultural labourers rejoice in the change, and confess that they should most reluctantly resume the use of the flail; the young men of the present day would probably not submit to such monotonous work. Steam cultivation is each year rapidly extending. A much greater proportion of the farmers' capital is consequently now invested in machinery than formerly. A good steamthrashing machine costs nearly 4007.; small farmers cannot afford to avail themselves of all this improved and expensive machinery. Not only can they not afford it, but a steam-thrashing machine requires for its working something more than the resources which a small farm can supply; its working must be attended to by eight or ten men; the corn is taken from the stack by two men, another man has to feed the machine with corn; the engine must have an engineer; the straw must be carried away by one man, and stacked by another; another man must take the grain from the machine, and another again will have to carry water to the engine. It is true that a great many even of the large farmers do not now own, but hire, the steam-thrashing machines which they use; such a plan, however, is extremely uneconomical. A farmer who hires such a machine cannot always obtain it at the exact time he may require it; those who let the machine must make a profit from those who hire it, and for several reasons a high charge must be paid for the use of the machine. There is the expense of taking it from one farm to another; it is earning nothing when being so moved, and the wear and tear caused by dragging it along the roads is very considerable. But a small farmer who hires such a machine is under still greater disadvantages, for he not only has to hire the machine, but must also hire the men to work it, since he has not enough men in his own employment. Men who are hired in this irregular way must be paid more than the ordinary labourer, whose employment is constant, for they have to sacrifice much time in moving from place to place in quest of this irregular employment. Such a farmer will not be able to thrash his corn at the time most convenient to him; he must thrash it when he can get the engine and hire the men. BOOK I. CH. VI. larger, Small farming generally involves small fields; these fields Fields are will be surrounded by hedges, and must be approached by roads, and thus a great deal of land is wasted; the disadvantage of small fields will be greatly increased when steam cultivation is introduced. The steam plough requires considerable breadth of land upon which to work; at every turn that the plough makes, time is lost; after the centre of the field has been ploughed, the headlands will remain to be ploughed separately; the labour of moving the engine from field to field is considerable; much time may be thus wasted, and in fact it has been calculated that a steam cultivator would plough a square field of ten acres in half the time occupied in ploughing two fields of five acres each, and at two-thirds of the expense. and labour more profrequently Each ductive. Many kinds of labour on a small farm are less productive than on a large one. Thus a flock of 400 sheep requires as many shepherds as a flock of 800. farm has a carter, whether the farm is 300 acres, or 600 acres. Again, much of the time and energy of a small farmer is frequently wasted, for he would often be able to superintend his farm quite as well if it were larger. These and many other considerations show that large farming now possesses advantages over small farming, and that these advantages are destined to become more decided as the use of agricultural machinery is extended. Under large farming, labour can be made to work with greater efficiency; capital can be applied with greater effect, the most complete machinery can be used, less land will be wasted in useless hedges, and thus large farming tends to make labour and capital more efficient. BOOK I. In The advantages which have been here attributed to large farming mainly refer to the cultivation of corn. Advantages the growth of various other products, and especially of small in dairy farming, many most important advantages are farminj. associated with small farming. A traveller on the continent must have remarked that the vine, and other such products which require great care, it may be almost said tenderness, in their cultivation, are most frequently grown by small farmers; the reason of this is, that the cultivation of products requiring such watchfulness and skill could not be trusted to the careless apathy which so frequently characterizes the hired labourer. It is seldom that anyone but a mother will bestow the tender care an infant needs, and the vine will be seldom properly cultivated except by one who has that interest in it which can alone be derived from the feeling of ownership. Even in England there is a similar advantage associated with small farming; for all the operations of a small farm may be attended by the kindly interested watchfulness of the farmer himself, and this advantage is more prominently shown in those farming operations which require great care. A dairy, for instance, needs a constant attention which the large farmers of the present day have not time or inclination to bestow; hence, if there is a dairy attached to a corn or sheep farm, the large farmer will generally underlet his dairy; the farmer supplies all the food for his cows, and the person to whom the dairy is let has every motive to give his whole and undivided attention to those minute details upon which the success of a dairy depends. Again, English farmers seldom are willing to give the time and attention which the profitable rearing of poultry for the market requires. In France, on the contrary, the farmer depends upon his poultry for no inconsiderable portion of his profits; and the extent to which this branch of industry is cultivated is proved by the fact that England annually purchases from France eggs to the value of more than £2,000,000. The question of large and small farming is often incorrectly confused with the consideration of small landed properties. This subject will be discussed in some of the succeeding chapters of this work. CHAPTER VII. ON THE LAWS WHICH DETERMINE THE INCREASE OF WE in two ph VE have in the two previous chapters discussed some of the causes which determine the productiveness of land, labour, and capital; we have shown, for instance, how the productiveness of land may be increased by good systems of farming, and how the efficiency of labour and capital may be promoted by machinery and by a proper combination of labour. But if the land, labour, and capital of a country are in the most efficient state of productiveness, the production of wealth can only be increased by increasing either the land, labour, or capital; for if when the land in cultivation is in the highest state of tillage more produce from the land is required, it must be obtained by bringing a greater area of land under cultivation. Again, if all the labour which is employed is in the highest state of efficiency, a greater quantity of wealth cannot be produced unless the labour of the country is in some way increased; similarly, if the capital existing in a country is applied to the greatest advantage, and if it supports the greatest number of labourers it is capable of doing, more labour cannot be employed, and as a consequence more wealth cannot be produced, unless the capital of the country is in some way increased. Hence the laws which separately regulate the increase of land, labour, and capital, are the laws which combine to determine the increased production of wealth. We therefore intend in this chapter to discuss the laws on which depend the increase of land and labour; the next chapter will be devoted to a consideration of the laws which determine the increase of capital; and there BOOK I. CH. VII. Conditions of an in creased production of wealth. |