and absolute as does agriculture, they are, by a law evident in all industry, found not to be so equally diffused. Those needs which are peremptory and instant will, from that reason, tend to obtain their supply from the immediate neighborhood in which they arise. The nearer objects of desire approach to being luxuries, the more cosmopolitan they become. Other reasons, which will appear in our progress, will further account for the unequal growth of manufactures, which have yet more uniformity than is exhibited in statistical tables, or in general estimation, since the staple articles of manufacture attract more attention than those multiform smaller products which far outweigh them in value.

The distribution of manufactures is governed by a variety of conditions, among which may be briefly stated the following:

1. The industrial genius of a people. Without plunging into the deep questions of ethnical differences, or compensations in the whole of character, it is yet evident beyond discussion, that the active powers of every people have something of their own which they do not fully share with others. Were all the nations of the earth possessed of mental, moral, and physical qualities which could be positively estimated to be, in the sum of them, equal, it is quite certain that they would be far from similar: their energies would develop in different lines towards different objects. Patience and a kind of business faith distinguish some peoples, mark their features, and are impressed distinctly in the results of industry. Activity and daring speculation no less characterize others. To a class of minds thoroughly representative of more than one nation, mechanical contrivance gives the same glow of pleasure that rewards the painter for his years of toil. A distrustful, reserved, secretive disposition may be observed through the entire industry of another country, tending to individualize efforts and discourage combination. The catalogue of

traits has been extended sufficiently to account for much of the inequality which exists in the distribution of manufactures among the nations of the civilized world.

2. The territorial advantages of a people, which are both positive and negative in their nature,-positive, as a people is endowed with water-power, and with the collocation of necessary materials, as of ore, coal, and lime for making iron; negative, as a people is not attracted to other branches of production by superior facilities. It is estimated that Holland has not agricultural capacities to supply a third of its population. With some peoples, this niggardliness of soil would have been a reason for emigration or starvation; but there, uniting with the peculiar genius of the inhabitants, this necessity has produced a wealthy and flourishing state. It has ever been held by moral writers, that such unkindness of Nature develops the industrial energies of a people, where it is not so extreme as to destroy even the conditions of production. But the inquiry is too abstruse for our purpose.

3. Great accidents, belonging neither to the essential genius of the people, or its territorial endowments. Such are the transcendent discoveries in the sciences and the arts. Such are wars which exhaust nations, leaving them weak for generations. Such are persecutions, like that which scattered over the continent six hundred thousand Huguenots, the cunning artisans of France; like that which wrought devastation still greater in the "reconciled" provinces of Spain.* Such was the windfall of the Indies in the lap of Europe. The desirableness of such a distribution of manufactures will be discussed elsewhere. Our purpose here is only to show by what means it comes about so unequally.

Passing now from this question, and looking only to the aggregate of such industries, we find it to be small, if we

"Our manufactures were the growth of the persecutions in the Low Countries."-EDMUND BURKE, in his speech to the electors of Bristol.

consider only the number of those employed. But labor here acts in connection with a greater amount of capital than in agriculture, and avails itself of more and mightier agencies of Nature. The factor into which labor is multiplied is vastly increased when we enter the workshop and the mill.

But man modifies matter or changes its condition,

Thirdly, by transportation.

The merchant does not primarily create value in objects, but enhances that already existing by transporting such objects from one locality to another.

The characteristic illustration is of the most familiar kind. Cotton bought at New Orleans, in 1860, for twelve cents per pound, transported to Liverpool, would have sold, say, for fifteen cents. By his capital and skill, the merchant has added twenty-five per cent to the value or exchangeability of the cotton. He has increased the wealth of the world so much. He, therefore, has produced value. Such transactions are useful alike to the producer and to the consumer of the articles transported.

In so far as the transportation of products gives them value, it belongs to the present general division of the subject; but its methods and agencies are so unlike those of the other forms of production, it is governed by laws so peculiar and complete in themselves, it composes so large and easily separate a department of inquiry, that it is, for the discussion of its principles, placed as a general division of the science under the title of "Exchange." To complete the sphere of production, we recognize here the share it has in creating values; but the means by which this is effected, and the impressive phenomena exhibited in the operation of this agency throughout the entire world, are set apart for special consideration?

We have thus gone through the three forms in which man modifies matter to create values,- transmutation, transformation, and transportation. The inquiry will at once

occur, whether these exhaust all possible efforts in production. The answer may come out more clearly if we proceed by an illustration.

The chemist, what is his position in the world of values? He has been ranked, by some scientific writers, among the agricultural class, because he so aids and directs the processes of Nature as to produce objects of value by changing the elementary powers of acids and alkalies into salts, &c. That is, he transmutes. It seems more accurate to say, that he belongs among producers just so far as he assists in any one of the three forms defined. He works by the side of the agriculturist, helping how best to direct the labor of the farm. Here the chemist produces value. He works by the side of the manufacturer, with lubricants and solvents, removing obstacles which no muscular strength could shake; and here, again, he produces values. He may, also, labor by the side of the merchant, making much cunning use of Nature; and here, again, he produces values, in the form of transportation. From each he receives remuneration in proportion as he renders service.

The division we have made of production into three modes seems to afford the best view attainable of the subject. It will be observed, that these are not distinct forms in which labor appears, as in so many moulds; but that they result from an arbitrary classification of individual efforts, according to the best reason of the case. The whole authority of such a classification consists in this, that it is more complete and definite than any other which is offered.

All these forms of productive effort may be united in a single commodity; and, indeed, there are but few products which do not contain them all. To the agriculturist has been attributed the work of transmutation. Yet, practically, he performs every function of human labor; and, directly or indirectly, uses nearly every known agency of Art or Nature. The manufacturer has the work of trans

formation; but he can only create values by mingling his labor with that of the agriculturist and the merchant, and thus the final product is the property of all. By what principle, and through what force, the remuneration of each is determined, will appear under the title of "Distribution." Such, then, are the general forms in which man. puts forth his efforts for the satisfaction of his desires.

CHAPTER II.

CONDITIONS OF THE HIGHEST PRODUCTION.

IF labor, through some form, produces all wealth, we are led to inquire into the circumstances and conditions that increase or diminish the efficiency of this great force. That there are mighty variations as it appears in different countries, and even in adjacent communities, is so manifest as hardly to require mention or illustration.

If the wealth of any nation cannot be determined merely by the proportion of its population to that of the world, or of its territory to the general mass of the globe, as it clearly cannot, the question, Why? introduces us to the discussion of all those influences which directly or indirectly, immediately or remotely, make one to differ from another. These may be classed as follows:

DIVISION Of Labor.

CO-OPERATION OF CAPITAL.

ECONOMIC CULTURE.