On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures Part 11

DIMENSIONS LONDON PARIS BERLIN PETERSBURG Height Breadth 1771 1794 1832 1825 1835 1828 1825 in inches in inches L s d L s d L s d L s d L s d L s d L s d 16 16 0103 0101 0176 087 076 081 0410 30 20 146 232 2610 11610 1710 0106 1210 50 30 24 2 4 11 5 0 6 12 10 9 0 5 5 0 3 8 13 0 5 15 0 60 40 67 14 10 27 0 0 13 9 6 22 7 5 10 4 3 21 18 0 12 9 0 76 40 43 6 0 19 2 9 36 4 5 14 17 5 35 2 11 17 5 0 90 50 84 8 0 34 12 9 71 3 8 28 13 4 33 18 7 100 75 275 0 0 74 5 10 210 13 3 70 9 7 120 75 97 15 9 354 3 2 98 3 10

The price of silvering these plates is twenty per cent on the cost price for English gla.s.s; ten per cent on the cost price for Paris plates; and twelve and a half on those of Berlin.

The following table shews the dimensions and price, when silvered, of the largest plates of gla.s.s ever made by the British Plate Gla.s.s Company, which are now at their warehouse in London:

Height Breadth Price when silvered Inches Inches L s. d.

132 84 200 8 0 146 81 220 7 0 149 84 239 1 6 131 83 239 10 7 160 80 246 15 4

The prices of the largest gla.s.s in the Paris lists when silvered, and reduced to English measure, were:

Year Inches Inches Price when silvered L s. d.

1825 128 80 629 12 0 1835 128 80 136 19 0

207. If we wish to compare the value of any article at different periods of time, it is clear that neither any one substance, nor even the combination of all manufactured goods, can furnish us with an invariable unit by which to form our scale of estimation. Mr Malthus has proposed for this purpose to consider a day's labour of an agricultural labourer, as the unit to which all value should be referred. Thus, if we wish to compare the value of twenty yards of broad cloth in Saxony at the present time, with that of the same kind and quant.i.ty of cloth fabricated in England two centuries ago, we must find the number of days' labour the cloth would have purchased in England at the time mentioned, and compare it with the number of days' labour which the same quant.i.ty of cloth will now purchase in Saxony.

Agricultural labour appears to have been selected, because it exists in all countries, and employs a large number of persons, and also because it requires a very small degree of previous instruction. It seems, in fact, to be merely the exertion of a man's physical force; and its value above that of a machine of equal power arises from its portability, and from the facility of directing its efforts to arbitrary and continually fluctuating purposes. It may perhaps be worthy of enquiry, whether a more constant average might not be deduced from combining with this species of labour those trades which require but a moderate exertion of skill and which likewise exist in all civilized countries, such as those of the blacksmith and carpenter, etc.(1*) In all such comparisons there is, however, another element, which, though not essentially necessary, will yet add much to our means of judging.

It is an estimate of the quant.i.ty of that food on which the labourer usually subsists, which is necessary for his daily support, compared with the quant.i.ty which his daily wages will purchase.

208. The existence of a cla.s.s of middlemen, between small producers and merchants, is frequently advantageous to both parties; and there are certain periods in the history of several manufactures which naturally call that cla.s.s of traders into existence. There are also times when the advantage ceasing, the custom of employing them also terminates; the middlemen, especially when numerous, as they sometimes are in retail trades, enhancing the price without equivalent good. Thus, in the recent examination by the House of Commons into the state of the coal trade, it appears that five-sixths of the London public is supplied by a cla.s.s of middlemen who are called in the trade Bra.s.s plate coal merchants: these consist princ.i.p.ally of merchants' clerks, gentlemen's servants, and others, who have no wharfs of their own, but merely give their orders to some true coal merchant, who sends in the coals from his wharf: the bra.s.s plate coal merchants, of course, receiving a commission for his agency.

209. In Italy this system is carried to a great extent amongst the voituriers, or persons who undertake to convey travellers. There are some possessed of greater fluency and a more persuasive manner who frequent the inns where the English resort, and who, as soon as they have made a bargain for the conveyance of a traveller, go out amongst their countrymen and procure some other voiturier to do the job for a considerably smaller sum, themselves pocketing the difference. A short time before the day of starting, the contractor appears before his customer in great distress, regretting his inability to perform the journey on account of the dangerous illness of a mother or some relative, and requesting to have his cousin or brother subst.i.tuted for him. The English traveller rarely fails to acquiesce in this change, and often praises the filial piety of the rogue who has deceived him.

NOTES:

1. Much information for such an enquiry is to be found, for the particular period to which it refers, in the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on Manufacturers' Employment, 2 July, 1830.

Chapter 18

Of Raw Materials

210. Although the cost of any article may be reduced in its ultimate a.n.a.lysis to the quant.i.ty of labour by which it was produced; yet it is usual, in a certain state of the manufacture of most substances, to call them by the term raw material. Thus iron, when reduced from the ore and rendered malleable, is in a state fitted for application to a mult.i.tude of useful purposes, and is the raw material out of which most of our tools are made.

In this stage of its manufacture, but a moderate quant.i.ty of labour has been expended on the substance; and it becomes an interesting subject to trace the various proportions in which raw material, in this sense of the term, and labour unite to const.i.tute the value of many of the productions of the arts.

211. Gold leaf consists of a portion of the metal beaten out to so great a degree of thinness, as to allow a greenish-blue light to be transmitted through its pores. About 400 square inches of this are sold, in the form of a small book containing 25 leaves of gold, for 1s. 6d. In this case, the raw material, or gold, is worth rather less than two-thirds of the manufactured article. In the case of silver leaf, the labour considerably exceeds the value of the material. A book of fifty leaves, which would cover above 1000 square inches, is sold for 1s. 3d.

212. We may trace the relative influence of the two causes above referred to, in the prices of fine gold chains made at Venice. The sizes of these chains are known by numbers, the smallest having been (in 1828) No. 1, and the numbers 2, 3, 4, etc., progressively increasing in size. The following table shews the numbers and the prices of those made at that time.(1*) The first column gives the number by which the chain is known; the second expresses the weight in grains of one inch in length of each chain; the third column the number of links in the same length; and the last expresses the price, in francs worth tenpence each, of a Venetian braccio, or about two English feet of each chain.

Venetian gold chains Price of a Venetian Braccio, equal to Weight of Number of links two feet 1/8 inch No. one inch, in grains in one inch English 0.44 98 to 100 60 francs 1.56 92 40 1 1/2.77 88 26 2.99 84 20 3 1.46 72 20 4 1.61 64 21 5 2.09 64 23 6 2.61 60 24 7 3.36 56 27 8 3.65 56 29 9 3.72 56 32 10 5.35 50 34 24 9.71 32 60

Amongst these chains, that numbered 0 and that numbered 24 are exactly of the same price, although the quant.i.ty of gold in the latter is twenty-two times as much as in the former. The difficulty of making the smallest chain is so great, that the women who make it cannot work above two hours at a time. As we advance from the smaller chain, the proportionate value of the work to the worth of the material becomes less and less, until at the numbers 2 and 3, these two elements of cost balance each other: after which, the difficulty of the work decreases, and the value of the material increases.

213. The quant.i.ty of labour expended on these chains is, however, incomparably less than that which is applied in some of the manufactures of iron. In the case of the smallest Venetian chain the value of the labour is not above thirty times that of the gold. The pendulum spring of a watch, which governs the vibrations of the balance, costs at the retail price two pence, and weighs fifteen one-hundredths of a grain, whilst the retail price of a pound of the best iron, the raw material out of which fifty thousand such springs are made, is exactly the same sum of two pence.

214. The comparative price of labour and of raw material entering into the manufactures of France, has been ascertained with so much care, in a memoir of M. A. M. Heron de Villefosse, Recherches statistiques, sur les Metaux de France.(2*) that we shall give an abstract of his results reduced to English measures. The facts respecting the metals relate to the year 1825.

In France the quant.i.ty of raw material which can be purchased for L1, when manufactured into

Silk goods is worth L2.37 Broad cloth and woollens 2.15 Hemp and cables 3.94 Linen comprising thread laces 5.00 Cotton goods 2.44

The price of pig-lead was L1 1s. per cwt; and lead of the value of L1 sterling, became worth, when manufactured into

Sheets or pipes of moderate dimensions L 1. 25 White lead 2.60 Ordinary printing characters 4.90 The smallest type 28.30

The price of copper was L5 2s. per cwt. Copper worth L1 became when manufactured into

Copper sheeting L1.26 Household utensils 4.77 Common bra.s.s pins tinned 2.34 Rolled into plates covered with 1/20 silver 3.56 Woven into metallic cloth, each square inch of which contains 10,000 meshes 52.23

The price of tin was L4 12s. per cwt. Tin worth L1 when manufactured into

Leaves for silvering gla.s.s became L1.73 Household utensils 1.85

Quicksilver cost L10 16s. per cwt. Quicksilver worth L1 when manufactured into

Vermilion of average quality became L1.81

Metallic a.r.s.enic cost L1 4s. per cwt. a.r.s.enic worth L1 when manufactured into

White oxide of a.r.s.enic became L1.83 Sulphuret (orpiment) 4.26

The price of cast-iron was 8s. per cwt. Cast-iron worth L1 when manufactured into

Household utensils became L2.00 Machinery 4.00 Ornamental. as buckles. etc 45.00 Bracelets. figures, b.u.t.tons. etc. 147.00

8ar-iron cost L1 6s. per cwt. Bar-iron worth L1 when manufactured into

Agricultural instruments became L3.57 Barrels, musket 9. 10 Barrels of double-barrel guns. twisted and damasked 238.08 Blades of penknives 657.14 razor. cast steel 53.57 sabre, for cavalry. infantry, and artillery. etc. from 9.25 to 16.07 of table knives 35.70 Buckles of polished steel, used as jewellery 896.66 Clothiers' pins 8.03 Door-latches and bolts from 4.85 to 8.50 Files, common 2.55 flat, cast steel 20.44 Horseshoes 2.55 Iron, small slit, for nails 1. 10 Metallic cloth, iron wire, No. 80 96.71 Needles of various sizes from 17.33 to 70.85 Reeds for weaving 3-4ths calico 21.87 Saws (frame) of steel 5. 12 for wood 14.28 Scissors, finest kind 446.94 Steel, cast 4.28 cast, in sheets 6.25 cemented 2.41 natural 1.42 Sword handles, polished steel 972.82 Tinned iron from 2.04 to 2.34 Wire, iron from 2. 14 to 10.71

215. The following is stated by M. de Villefosse to be the price of bar-iron at the forges of various countries, in January, 1825.

per ton L s. d.

France 26 10 0 Belgium and Germany 16 14 0 Sweden and Russia, at Stockholm and St Petersburg 13 13 0 England, at Cardiff 10 1 0

The price of the article in 1832 was 5 0 0