Produced by Pat McCoy, Odessa Paige Turner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) KNOWLEDGE IS POWER: A VIEW OF THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES OF MODERN SOCIETY, AND THE RESULTS OF LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND SKILL. BY CHARLES KNIGHT. Illustrated with numerous Woodcuts. "The empire of man over material things has for its only foundation the sciences and the arts."--BACON. _THE SECOND EDITION._ WITH TWENTY-FOUR ADDITIONAL CUTS OF MANUFACTURING PROCESSES. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1859. _The right of Translation is reserved._ EXTRACT FROM THE INTRODUCTION. "Without attempting to give this volume the formal shape of a treatise on _Political Economy_, it is the wish of the author to convey the broad parts of that science in a somewhat desultory manner, but one which is not altogether devoid of logical arrangement. He desires especially to be understood by _the young_; for upon their right appreciation of the principles which govern society will depend much of the security and happiness of our own and the coming time." LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD-STREET, AND CHARING CROSS. TO NEIL ARNOTT, ESQ., M.D., WITH SINCERE ADMIRATION OF THE DISINTERESTED SPIRIT IN WHICH HE HAS DEVOTED HIS SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE TO THE PUBLIC GOOD; AND IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS NEVER-FAILING KINDNESS DURING A LONG FRIENDSHIP, THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION Page 1 CHAPTER I. Feeble resources of civilized man in a desert--Ross Cox, Peter the Wild Boy, and the Savage of Aveyron--A Moskito Indian on Juan Fernandez--Conditions necessary for the production of utility 6 CHAPTER II. Society a system of exchanges--Security of individual property the principle of exchange--Alexander Selkirk and Robinson Crusoe--Imperfect appropriation and unprofitable labour 14 CHAPTER III. Adventures of John Tanner--Habits of the American Indians--Their sufferings from famine, and from the absence among them of the principle of division of labour--Evils of irregular labour--Respect to property--Their present improved condition--Hudson's Bay Indians 23 CHAPTER IV. The Prodigal--Advantages of the poorest man in civilized life over the richest savage--Savings-banks, deposits, and interest--Progress of accumulation--Insecurity of capital, its causes and results--Property, its constituents-- Accumulation of capital 38 CHAPTER V.