SAVING  AND  INCREASED  EMPLOYMENT  75

true,  the  “  saving  ”  which  employs  labour  to  build  a  factory
and  stock  it  with  machinery  will  cause  as  much  employment ­
  as  the  same  amount  of  spending,  though  not  more
employment,  as  J.  S.  Mill  sought  to  maintain.  Moreover,
in  the  one  case,  when  the  money  is  “spent”  there  is
nothing  to  show  for  it,  in  the  other  case  there  is  a  factory
and  machinery.  But  when  our  theoretic  friend  goes  on
to  assume  that  this  factory  can  be  profitably  worked,  and
that  the  work  it  affords  signifies  a  net  increase  of  employment ­
  both  of  labour  and  capital,  he  jumps  to  a  conclusion ­
  which  is  quite  unwarranted.  It  can  only  be
profitably  worked  on  one  of  two  suppositions.  It  may  by
successful  competition  obtain  the  orders  which  would  have
gone  to  another  factory,  ousting  from  employment  the
capital  and  labour  there  engaged.  In  this  case  it  is  clear
that  no  general  increase  of  employment  has  taken  place.
An  individual  has  made  good  his  “saving,”  but  has  done
so  by  negativing  the  previous  “  saving  ”  of  some  one  else  ;
the  productive  power  of  the  community  is  increased,  but
no  more  actual  production  than  before  is  brought  about.
The  other  supposition  is  that  the  demand  for  the  class
of  commodities  which  the  factory  makes  will  be  greater
in  the  future,  and  that  more  capital  and  labour  can
therefore  be  employed  in  the  trade.  So  far  as  this
supposition  is  valid,  the  “saving”  is  socially  useful,  and,
indeed,  necessary;  but  it  should  be  plainly  recognised  that
the  dependence  of  capital  and  labour  for  employment
upon  a  rising  standard  of  consumption  places  an  absolute
limit  at  any  given  time  upon  socially  useful  saving.
It  is  therefore  not  true  that  the  existence  of  a  general
desire  for  increased  consumption  is  any  sufficient  guarantee
that  too  much  saving  will  not  take  place.  Even  if  it  be