XXVI

INTRO  D  UCTION

possess  great  technical  knowledge,  and  have  the  will  necessary
to  make  himself  obeyed  by  his  numerous  employés  ;  he  must
know  the  needs  of  foreign  countries,  the  extent  of  the  market,
and  the  vicissitudes  of  commerce,  not  only  in  his  own  immediate ­
  neighbourhood,  but  over  the  entire  globe.  For  to-day
all  countries  are  mutually  dependent,  and  a  crisis  occurring  even
over  the  seas,  in  either  hemisphere,  re-echoes  everywhere  in  ruins
and  failures.  By  his  education,  his  position,  his  way  of  life,  by
the  very  necessity  of  exercising  his  authority,  the  head  of  a
factory  belongs  to  quite  another  world  from  that  in  which  the
operatives  move.  His  Christian  feelings  as  a  man  may  lead
him  to  regard  them  as  brothers  ;  nevertheless,  he  has  nothing
in  common  with  them,  they  are  strangers  to  each  other.  In
vain  he  may  wish  to  increase  their  wages  or  improve  their
condition,  he  cannot  do  it.  Competition  forces  him,  in  spite
of  himself,  to  reduce  the  cost  of  production  as  much  as
possible.
The  relations  which  the  present  industrial  system  has
established  between  capitalist  and  labourer  have  been  detailed
with  perfect  exactness  by  the  celebrated  mechanical  engineer
and  manufacturer,  James  Nasmyth,  in  his  evidence  before  the
committee  appointed  in  England  to  inquire  into  trades-unions.
He  showed  that  it  was  for  the  advantage  of  trade  that  large
numbers  of  workmen  should  be  seeking  employment,  because
the  price  of  labour  is  thus  lowered  and  with  it  the  cost  of
production.  He  added  that  he  had  frequently  increased
his  profits  by  putting  apprentices  to  work  in  the  place  of
grown-up  workmen.  When  asked  what  he  supposed  had
become  of  the  workmen  thus  dismissed,  and  their  families,  he
replied,  “  I  do  not  know  j  I  can  only  leave  it  to  the  action  of
those  natural  laws  which  govern  society.”  In  speaking  thus,
Nasmyth  formulated  the  purely  economic  doctrine.  Christianity, ­
  however,  would  have  used  other  language.
Thus,  while  perfecting  its  methods  and  extending  the  use
of  machinery  and  division  of  labour,  the  large  system  of
manufacture  has  improved  the  condition  of  the  lower  classes
by  giving  them  cheaper  goods,  but  at  the  same  time  the  gulf
that  separates  capitalist  and  labourer  has  been  increased.  The