It is difficult for the Mind to embrace all the Advantages which must
flow from the Successful Progression of this great National Object; for
if we contemplate the progress of the Cotton Manufactory we shall see
that at the commencement of the Eighteenth Century the quantities of raw
cotton imported into England did not exceed Two Millions of Pounds
weight. At this period it amounts to more than Twenty Millions; and
altho' its price has considerably advanced, yet Manufactured Cotton
Goods have fallen full Two Hundred per cent. This prodigious diminution
in price is attributable to no other cause than the introduction of
Machinery, by which the expense of Manual Labour is comparatively
reduced to nothing.
Now, repeated experiments have demonstrated that the same Machinery is
equally applicable to every Branch of the Woollen Manufactory, and in
truth it would long since have been adopted, but for the popular Clamour
that thousands of Labourers would be thrown out of employment. "It
cannot be denied," say its Opponents, "that Machinery would reduce the
price of Woollen, as it has done that of Cotton Cloths, but the two
Cases bear no Analogy, for when Machinery was applied in the Manufacture
of Cotton the increased Quantity of the raw material furnished
abundance of Employment in some other branch to those whose Labour the
Machine superseded. Make but the same experiment in the Woollen
Manufactory, and its fatal effects upon the poor will soon be felt; for
as you cannot increase the quantity of Animal Wool now being brought
into the Market, any Invention that has a tendency to diminish Manual
Labour is, and must be, pernicious."
This reasoning has had great weight on the Minds of best informed Men;
but if we can by our united Efforts (as assuredly we can) raise in this
Colony any Quantity of fine Wool, all its force would be at once
demolished. Whatever the demands of Great Britain may be for that
Commodity, we certainly may supply it. The universal use of Machinery
might then be safely sanctioned, and the British Manufacturers would be
enabled so to reduce the price of Woollen Cloths, as would assure
throughout the world the most Monopoly that any people ever possessed.
We also should largely participate in the profits of this gainful Trade
and should enjoy the pleasing Consolation that our Labours were
contributing to the Support and Prosperity of that parent Country to
whom our debt of Gratitude can never be paid.
JOHN MACARTHUR.
EMANCIPIST CONTROVERSY
+Source.+--Historical Records of Australia. Vol. VII, pp. 245, 580-617
A storm of protest was aroused among the free settlers by the
action of Governor Macquarie in recognizing convicts as ordinary
members of society directly their terms of imprisonment had
expired. The free community became sharply divided into emancipists
and anti-emancipists.
GOVERNOR MACQUARIE TO VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH
Sydney, N.S.W., _30 April, 1810._
My Lord,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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