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this particular, that a true picture of its advantages would appear to be an extravagant exaggeration. While, however, it may be laid down as a rule, to which there is almost no exception, that machinery cannot be too extensively introduced, and that the man who is constantly employed in the performance of a single operation, will do many times as much work as one who is perpetually changing his tools, and shifting from one description of employment to another, it must be obvious, upon a moment's reflection, that the present plan of the commercial society is admirably calculated to confine the operation of these very beneficial principles within the narrowest possible limits.

CHAPTER V.

Exchange-Exchange the parent of Society-The present plan of Exchange radically defective— Necessity for a measure of value— Gold, silver, and bank notes, as at present used, totally unfit for the purpose for which they are intended- The proper use and qualities of money defined — Description of an improved plan of ExchangePlan of a National Bank-Gold, silver, and copper coin-Exportation and importation.

As it is by labour that all things valuable to mankind are produced, so is it by exchange that individuals are enabled to partake of a great variety of things which their own labour could never, by any possibility, have commanded without it. In an advanced state of society, the food, clothing, and habitation, in ordinary use, amongst all classes of men, are composed of an immense number of ingredients, the result of the industry of individuals scattered over the face of half the globe; whilst it is evident, that if each person could obtain nothing but what should be immediately and

directly produced by the labour of his own hands, mankind never could have emerged from a state of the rudest ignorance and barbarism.

Exchange, therefore, may be denominated the bond and principle of society; but it is a matter of legitimate inquiry, whether the existing plan of exchange is a good one? whether it is founded in right principles ? and whether it is calculated to confer upon us all the benefits which the present advanced state of human knowledge and resource entitles us to look for and expect?

And these questions I answer with an unequivocal and emphatic No. It is our system of exchange which forms the hiding place of that giant of mischief which bestrides the civilized world, rewarding industry with starvation, exertion with disappointment, and the best efforts of our rulers to do good, with perplexity, dismay, and failure; and it is our system of exchange which has produced the worse than Babylonian confusion in the ideas of men upon the subject of their collective interests.

Give us and we have it now within our grasp―parliamentary reform-give us universal suffrage, annual parliaments, vote by ballot, free trade, an acquittal of the public

debt, freedom from all taxes, a repeal of the Union, and every other thing upon which the public has ever yet rested its disappointed hopes,—and still shall this demon of commercial error hold our prosperity in his iron grasp, and smile upon our ignorance and folly as he shall see our burdens, as we call them, one by one removed, whilst we continue to sink deeper and deeper still into the Slough of Despond, under the invisible but enormous weight that is oppressing us.

As, however, it is both desirable and customary for mankind to devote themselves to particular occupations, and for each to live by exchanging that which he produces for innumerable portions of the labour of others; and as we cannot, with any degree of convenience, make direct exchanges of produce for produce, an instrument of exchange as a measure of value, becomes an indispensable requisite in every commercial society; and a fit and proper instrument of this description has never yet been used by any nation upon the earth.

The legitimate use of money is precisely the same as that of scales and weights and measures it is to measure out and apportion exchanges, to facilitate the giving and obtaining of equivalents: money, therefore, as a

necessary of life of the most ordinary and everyday description, ought to be as cheap, as common, and as attainable, by those who have any thing that they wish to exchange, as a pair of scales, or a pound weight.

Gold coin is totally unfit for this purpose, because it is ever used upon the principle of being itself equal in value to that which it represents; and as in, at least, ninety-nine cases out of every hundred, the thing it represents is capable of being far more easily increased than gold, every increase of other produce habitually takes place at the imminent risk of being sold at a reduced money price, that is, at a loss instead of at a profit; and thus production is constantly checked and retarded by the fear that is ever present in the manufacturer's mind of producing too much. It is the quantity that can be sold at a profit, not the quantity that can be made, that is the present limit to production. 7

Bank notes are subject to precisely the same objection as gold, for they are uniformly issued upon securities, which are always, in the aggregate, of more value than the money advanced upon them. Thus, there is a constant deficiency of money, a never-failing facility of obtaining whatever we require for money, and a never-failing difficulty in obtain

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