There are other groups of trades in which the history of the cotton trade would be repeated, that is to say, the employer who found himself compelled to pay higher wages would at once introduce better machinery—either in the narrow sense of actual appliances or in the wider sense of improved organisation and management. Such an employer would also, as the cotton masters have done, demand better work from his employees, and would get it. At first there might be a diminution in the number of hands employed; but if, as almost always happens, the improved methods led to a considerable reduction in the cost of production and consequently to a lowered selling price, demand would immediately increase, and more workers would again be wanted. There is no reason in the nature of things why a rise of wages and a powerful labour organisation should not do for the silk trade and the woollen trade of Britain what they have already done for the cotton trade. In the first group of these trades, then, no workers would be displaced, and the conditions of the market would remain unaltered; in the second, there would, at first, probably be a displacement and afterwards, probably, a renewed, or even an increased demand for workers. We come next to a group of trades which may exist, but of the existence of which I personally am somewhat sceptical. These are the trades in which there is neither margin of profit nor room for improvements that might make up for the additional outlay upon heightened wages. In these trades—if such there be—it is undeniable that if British wages rose while foreign wages remained stationary the foreigner would be extremely likely to capture the market. But there are various matters that must be set down upon the other side of the account. To begin with, our foreign competitors are themselves uneasy about the existence of sweating within their borders. It is almost certain that German legislation directed against this evil will precede legislation in this country; while in America, as may indeed be judged by the quotations from recent American books that appear in these pages, there are many persons much concerned with the problem of underpaid labour. If our foreign competitors should keep step with ourselves in the prohibition of extreme underpayment, the balance of international trade would be in no way disturbed. Nay, if only Germany should do so, the disturbance to the English market would not be serious.