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
A quarter of a century has made a remarkable difference in the feelings,
even in the least informed, with regard to machinery. The majority of
the people now know, as the weavers of Glasgow knew in 1827, that
"machinery must go on, that it will go on, and that it is impossible to
stop it." We therefore, adapting this volume to the improved times in
which it is now published, think it needless to urge, as fully as we
once did, any of the notions of the labourers of Aylesbury to their
inevitable conclusions. It is sufficient briefly to show, that, if the
labourers had been successful in their career, had broken all those
ingenious implements which have aided in rendering British agriculture
the most perfect in the world, they would not have advanced a single
step in obtaining more employment, or being better paid.
We will suppose, then, that the farmer has yielded to this violence;
that the violence has had the effect which it was meant to have upon
him; and that he takes on all the hands which were out of employ, to
thrash and winnow, to cut chaff, to plant with a dibber instead of with
a drill, to do all the work, in fact, by the dearest mode instead of the
cheapest. But he employs _just as many people as are absolutely
necessary_, and no more, for getting his corn ready for market, and for
preparing, in a slovenly way, for the seed-time. In a month or two the
victorious destroyers find that not a single hand the more of them is
really employed. And why not? There are no drainings going forward, the
hedges and ditches are neglected, the dung-heap is not turned over, the
chalk is not fetched from the pit; in fact, all those labours are
neglected which belong to a state of agricultural industry which is
brought to perfection. _The farmer has no funds to employ in such
labours_; he is paying a great deal more than he paid before for the
same, or a less, amount of work, because his labourers choose to do
certain labours with rude tools instead of perfect ones.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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