Coöperation in time is of equal importance: the principle of the stability, or of the continuity of labor. When a workman dies, it is necessary to be able to calculate on a substitute. It is well known that it is much harder to begin a business, than it is, afterwards, to improve and enlarge it; and this, the more complicated it is. A new enterprise will take root easily, only where there are several similar ones already in existence; a new manufacturing establishment, for instance, where by the existence of other such establishments, the requisite habits of the workmen, of capitalists and of the public in general, have been previously developed. The skill of workmen is propagated especially by observation and the personal emulation of the young; whence it is, that the introduction of new industries is best made by the immigration of skilled workmen.(390) Hence the baleful influence of such interruptions, as for instance, the repeal of the edict of Nantes. Hence too, it is, that despotism and the reign of the populace are so unfavorable to the economy of a country, where there can be no guarantee of a consistent observance and development of the laws. To the best applications of the principle of the continuity of labor belong the church-building of the middle ages, the national canals, the street and fortification systems of modern times; all of which have been created only by the coöperation of several generations to the same end.(391) The most striking means by which such a coöperation has been advanced in modern times is public credit, “a draft on posterity;” yet, all saving is, in principle, the same. The most powerful element in the coöperation in time of labor is the economy in common of the family, although it differs in degree, according to the different kinds of family inheritance. Where, as among the English middle classes, it is customary to secure the business property of the family to one child by will, and to entrust the conduct of the business, during the life of the father, to the devisee, to provide for the other children by insurance, by savings etc., made from the surplus of the business, there may be old firms which remain always new, however; because they combine the experience of age with the energy of youth, and are never broken up by a division of the inheritance. But the compulsory equality of heirs, which actually obtains in France, compels almost every new generation to begin with a new firm. (See § 85 seq.)(392) Section LXVI. Advantage Of Large Enterprises.