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CHAPTER III.

EXCHANGE.

EXCHANGE is the greatest and most universal function of human life. It is a necessity of man's nature. That man was born to live in society was the profound utterance of Aristotle. This great fact he regarded as the dominant principle of human conduct, as the foundation of all political and social relations of men with one another. On it he built up political philosophy. Wild animals can live in flocks and herds; but they do not live in society. With trifling exceptions they do not minister to each other's wants. Man, on the contrary, feels wants and desires which irresistibly compel him to seek the aid of his fellow-men. He cannot live in isolation, nor can he satisfy the conditions of his existence by merely living side by side with others, with no other connection with them. He cannot by his single efforts provide for himself those things which his very being forces him to desire and to seek. If men were left to what each of them singly could procure and make, miserable indeed would be their existence. "They must combine," to use the happy phrase of Mr Danson, "and combination means exchange." "Everybody exchanges," says Professor Perry; "for, 'do something for me and I will do something for you,' is the fundamental law of society."

The same thought was very happily expressed by

Prince Albert in an address to "the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes."* "God has created man imperfect, and left him with many wants, as it were, to stimulate each to individual exertion, and to make all feel that it is only by united exertions and combined action that these imperfections can be supplied, and these wants satisfied. This presupposes self-reliance and confidence in each other."

But besides this capacity for, and consequent necessity of, living in society, a second peculiarity of human nature exercises enormous power over exchange. Man is distinguished from animals by the faculty of "progressive desire." Man's desires increase in number and range; those of animals do not. Let climate and food remain unchanged, and the buffalo will go down the ages content. He will ever live the same life; he will wish for nothing more. It is radically different with man. In him the gratification of one desire gives birth to another. He perceives some new thing to enjoy, and straightway the desire is kindled to possess it. He is thus prompted to make the effort to acquire it. Thus bread is followed by the desire to have meat; skins have to give way to wool and silk. This progressive desire is the cause of civilisation. New and better things are discovered and wished for in succession. By this force the condition of human life is raised; and it generates the necessary result of bestowing on exchange a magnitude of which it is impossible to assign the limit.

Under the action of these two forces, the social instinct and ever progressive desire, human life becomes one * The "Life of the Prince Consort," by Theodore Martin, Vol. II., P. II.

complicated mass of exchanges. Every one buys, and to buy is to exchange. Every income is, for the most part, applied to procuring things made by others. The wages on which the bulk of mankind live are given in exchange for services, and are in turn spent in obtaining necessaries and conveniences produced by others. A man buys because he can make but very little indeed of what he wants. His brother men are in the same state; so each works for others and others work for him. Thus the various trades and professions spring up into existence. The farmer and the blacksmith, the cotton-spinner and the tailor, the physician and the barrister, the artist and the singer, the merchant and the clergyman, are gradually developed as civilisation progresses; every one exchanging his services for those rendered to him by others. In the earlier stages of society, each man callsin the help of his fellows but for few things; but even at its origin exchange exhibits its most distinguishing peculiarity, that each man receives many services from the combined action of all the workers and exchangers, rendering back generally only one particular service in turn.

As a people advances in culture, this characteristic of exchange is developed to a degree that few think of. There is probably not an inhabitant of England who, however simple may be his fare, his clothing, and his shelter, does not partake of services performed for him by the combined labour of many thousands of persons, so gigantic is the machinery of exchange. There are few English men and women who do not drink tea; before the exchange of English goods for tea is completed, and each has been conveyed by railway and steamboat across the globe to their con

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sumers, the labour of many thousands of different men has contributed to bring his tea to the poorest man. To construct the mere machinery of exchange, to make the railway and the steamship, still more to provide the tools employed in their construction as well as the materials, requires labourers whose numbers are incalculable. The tendency to engage ever-expanding multitudes of combined workers in effecting the simplest exchanges, the commonest buying of daily life, is the most marked and the most wonderful feature of progressive civilisation.

The mighty instrument which exchange employs in accomplishing these marvellous results is the great economical principle of division of employments. This must be distinguished from division of labour. This latter phrase refers to many distinct operations combined to produce a single result, one commodity; division of employments tells on the simultaneous production of all commodities. Next to actual labour there is no process so prolific in producing wealth for mankind as the division of employments. It brings an enormous power to bear on the efficiency of labour, on the quantity and quality of the work done in proportion to the effort, on the amount of the things made. The secret of this power lies in the advantage which separation of employments takes of the endless variety of faculties and qualities with which nature has endowed individual men and animals, as well as different countries and climates. To China and India is

allotted the production of tea, to America cotton and corn, to France wine and silks, to England clothing and iron. In the same country the several districts divide

amongst themselves the various manufactures. Manchester undertakes cotton-spinning, Bradford woollen goods, Sheffield cutlery, Birmingham guns and nails. In the same town the distribution gains further expansion. Cotton-spinning is made up of many processes each allotted to a special body of labourers. The village follows the same rule; the blacksmith provides for the local wants for iron, the carpenter for wood.

The advantage derived from each man or group of men taking up particular work is great all round. Skill ist developed rapidly in the workmen. Each group of men learns how to do the thing well, far better than if they tried to make for themselves everything they wanted. If the blacksmith tried to make a table, he would have a worse table, and would spend a vast deal more time upon it than the carpenter. The difficulties which arise in each field of labour are more effectually dealt with when the intelligence of men who do nothing else is brought to bear upon them. Ingenious contrivances for saving labour, improving quality, and cheapening products incessantly occur to the concentrated skill of specialised workmen. All these advantages are immensely increased, as society advances, and the circle supplied by each workshop and factory becomes larger. The tendency to assign the production of commodities of a single kind to particular workmen gathers strength; and not only so, but the manufacture of each single article is broken up into parts. Division of labour comes into full play. The high skill of the workmen, the number and power of the inventions of machinery, the amount, delicacy, and excellence of the products, above all their wonderful cheapness, which Birmingham, Manchester

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