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
We will imagine that this state of things continues till the next
spring. All this while the price of grain has been rising. Many farmers
have ceased to employ capital at all upon the land. The neat inventions,
which enabled them to make a living out of their business, being
destroyed, they have abandoned the business altogether. A day's work
will now no longer purchase as much bread as before. The horse, it might
be probably found out, was as great an enemy as the drill-plough; for,
as a horse will do the field-work of six men, there must be six men
employed, without doubt, instead of one horse. But how would the fact
turn out? If the farmer still went on, in spite of all these losses and
crosses, he might employ men in the place of horses, but not a single
man more than the number that would work at the price of the keep of one
horse. To do the work of each horse turned adrift, he would require six
men; but he would only have about a shilling a-day to divide between
these six--the amount which the horse consumed.
As the year advanced, and the harvest approached, it would be discovered
that not one-tenth of the land was sown: for although the ploughs were
gone, because the horses were turned off, and there was plenty of
_labour_ for those who chose to labour for its own sake, or at the price
of horse-labour, this amazing employment for human hands, somehow or
other, would not quite answer the purpose. It has been calculated that
the power of horses, oxen, &c., employed in husbandry in Great Britain
is ten times the amount of human power. If the human power insisted
upon doing all the work with the worst tools, the certainty is that not
even one-tenth of the land could be cultivated. Where, then, would all
this madness end? In the starvation of the labourers themselves, even if
they were allowed to eat up all they had produced by such imperfect
means. They would be just in the condition of any other barbarous
people, that were ignorant of the inventions that constitute the power
of civilization. They would eat up the little corn which they raised
themselves, and have nothing to give in exchange for clothes, and coals,
and candles, and soap, and tea, and sugar, and all the many comforts
which those who are even the worst off are not wholly deprived of.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account