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Show 364 ON THE IMMEDIATE CAUSES [CH • Vli, An accun1ulation, to a certain extent, of common food a~d cotnmon clothing tnight take place on both s1des; but the amount must necessarily be extremely confined. It w·ould be of no sort of use to the farmer to go on cultivatino- his land with a . 0 VIew merely to give food and clothing to his ]a-b? urers. He would be doing nothing either for lnmself or fan1ily, if he neither consumed the surplus of 'Nhat they produced himself: nor could realize it in a shape that mio-ht be transmitted to ~is descendants. If hewer~ a tenant, such additional care ~nd labour "\\'ould be entirely thrown away; and If he were a landlord, and \rVere determined, without reference to tnarkets to cultivate his estate in such a way as to make 'it yield the gre.a test ne.a t surplus with a view to the future ' it is qu~te certain that the large portion of this surplus 'vhtch was not required either for his own consumption, or to purchase clothino- for himself and ~~s labourers, would ~e .absolute~ wasted. Ifhe d not ch~ose to use It In the purchase of luxuries or. the n1a1ntenance of unproductive labourers, it nl1ght as well be thrown into the sea. 1,o save 15.) appears to me to be the most directly opposed to just theory, ·and the most uniformly contradicted by experience. Yet it di· rectlv follows from th d · .. ~ e new octrme, that commodities are to be considered on 1Y I·n th ei· r rc 1a tw· n to each other -not to the consu· mers: . Wh. a t ' I wou ld ask· , would become of th' e demand for com-modities ' If all co nsump t"w n except bread and water were sus-pend. e .d for the next ha·l f Y. e,a r r, Wh at an accumulatiO. n of com-mo. dities ! Quels d/eb ouc· k e/.s. •1 Wh at a prodJ<· rJ·O us market woul d thJs event occasion ! b SEC. 111.] OF THE PROGRESS OF 'VEALTH. s65 it that is to use it in en1ploying more labourers u~on the land would, as I. said l~efore, be to im: poverish both hin1self and h1s fam1ly. It would be still more useless to the manufac· turers to go on producing clothing beyond what was wanted by the agriculturists and then1selves. Their numbers indeed \vould entirely depend upon the demands ·,of the agriculturists, as they would have no means of purchasing subsistence, but in proportion as there was a reciprocal \Vant of their manufactures. The population required to provide sitnple clothing for such a society "rith the assistance of good machinery would be inconsiderable, and would absorb but a small portion of the proper surplus of rich and well cultivated land. There would evidently therefore be a general want of demand, both for produce and population; and \Vhile it is quite certain that an adequate passion for consumption n1ay fully keep up the proper proportion between supply and demand, whatever tnay be the po,vers of production, it appears to be quite as certain that a passion for accun1ulation n1ust inevitably lead to a supply of commodities beyond 'v~1at the. structure and habits of such a society Will penni t to be consutned. * But if this be so, surely i.t is a most important error to couple the passion for expenditure and * The reader must already know, that I do not share in the ap~rehensions of ~lr. Owen about the permanent effects of machmery. But I am decidedly of opinion, that on this point he ha~ the best of the argument with those who think that accumulatton ensures effective demand. |