38  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED
comforts  and  luxuries  which  are  more  amenable  to  the
caprices  of  the  consumer  or  of  the  dealers  who  are
responsible  for  changes  in  fashion.  The  silk  trade  has
always  been  more  irregular  in  its  prices  and  its  employment ­
  than  the  cotton  or  the  woollen  trades,  and  that
irregularity  is  increasing  as  the  refinement  and  rapidity
of  fashion-changes  obtain  a  hold  over  a  larger  proportion
of  the  consuming  public.  Formerly  there  was  a  constant
and  fairly  steady  demand  for  certain  kinds  of  silk  ribbon
which  it  was  safe  to  make  “  to  stock,”  now  changes  of
fashion  spread  so  rapidly  and  reach  so  quickly  the  mass
of  the  consumers  that  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  make
to  stock.  The  same  holds  generally  of  articles  of  convenience ­
  or  luxury.  These  rapid  changes  of  taste  can  of
course  only  find  satisfaction  on  the  assumption  that  there
either  exists  a  great  surplusage  of  productive  power  which
only  obtains  full  use  at  certain  periods  and  is  kept  in
abeyance  at  other  times,  or  that  the  transferability  of
capital  and  labour  is  so  great  as  to  enable  production  to
follow  the  changes  of  consumption  without  any  considerable ­
  waste.  No  one  acquainted  with  trade  will  assert
the  validity  of  this  latter  supposition.  It  follows  thus
that  with  the  increased  control  of  taste  and  fashion  over
industry  and  the  increased  adaptability  of  industry  to  this
control  which  arises  from  the  great  expansion  of  productive
power,  irregularity  of  employment  tends  to  grow.
§  5.  Transferability  of  Labour.—  General  versus
Special  Ability.
It  is  sometimes  held  that  any  increased  irregularity  of
employment  thus  caused  is  more  than  compensated  by
the  greater  facilities  which  labour  possesses  for  transferring