Knowledge is power : $b A view of the productive forces of modern society and the results of labor, capital and skill.Knight, Charles
Philosophy
Knowledge is power : $b A view of the productive forces of modern society and the results of labor, capital and skill.
Knight, Charles
Industrial arts; Industries
But we have new divisions of employment to trace before the wool can be
got to the manufacturer. These employments are created by what may be
called the _local_ division of labour. It is convenient to rear the
sheep upon the mountains of Wales, because there the short and thymy
pastures are fitted for the growth of wool. It is convenient to
manufacture the wool into cloth at Leeds, because coals are there at
hand to give power to the steam-engines, with which the manufacture is
carried on. The farmer in Wales, and the manufacturer of cloth at Leeds,
must be brought into connection. In the infancy of commerce one or both
of them would make a journey to establish this connection; but the cost
of that journey would add to the cost of the wool, and therefore lessen
the consumption of woollen cloth. The division of employment goes on to
the creation of a wool-factor, or dealer in wool, who either purchases
directly from the grower, or sells to the manufacturer for a commission
from the grower. The grower, therefore, sends the wool direct to the
factor, whose business it is to find out what manufacturer is in want of
wool. If the factor did not exist, the manufacturer would have to find
out, by a great deal of personal exertion, what farmer had wool to sell;
or the farmer would have to find out, with the same exertion, what
manufacturer wanted to buy wool. The factor receives a commission, which
the seller and buyer ultimately unite in paying. They co-operate to
establish a wool-factor, just as we all co-operate to establish a
postman; and just as the postman, who delivers a number of letters to a
great many individuals, does that service at little more cost to all,
than each individual would pay for the delivery of a single letter, so
does the wool-factor exchange the wool between the grower and the
manufacturer, at little more cost to a large number of the growers who
employ him, than each would be obliged to pay in expenses and loss of
time to travel from Wales to Leeds to sell his wool.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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