caves of the earth — awaiting demand. Both waste their days in idleness, because the producers of the commodities for which they would gladly give their products, are so far distant, that commerce with them cannot be maintained. The Russian farmer, unable to send his wheat to the distant market, and unable, therefore, to obtain the clothing needed for his family and himself, wastes the power for which there is no demand. The people of Carolina are enriched by seasons in which their land is rendered comparatively unproductive; whereas, they are impoverished by fruitful seasons- the major part of their produce being then required for the payment of storage, commissions, and freights. To them, therefore, any unusual effort, resulting in increase of crop, would be cause of loss, and not of profit. So, too, is it with the intellectual faculties- never in demand among a people wholly engaged in labors of the field. Leibnitz and Newton, Watt and Fulton, would have lived and died unknown, miserable cattle-drivers, had their lot been cast among the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, or the plains of Africa. That the Carolinian or the Russian the man of physical or of mental force - may find inducement to exertion, it is required that there be that demand for individual faculty which promotes association, and thus gives rise to commerce those who spin the wool and weave the cloth taking their places by the side of the men who plant the cotton and sow the grain, in accordance with the advice of Adam Smith. Raw materials and finished commodities will then approximate the former gaining power to command the precious metals in exchange, and the latter losing it. The farmer and the planter growing rich, agriculture will then become a science. Land and labor will then rise in price, while cloth and iron will decline - such being the inevitable effects of an incrcase in the rapidity with which the demand for labor and its products follows their production. - § 4. In the physical world, the less the friction the greater is the effect of any given force. So, too, is it in the social world -power there growing with every diminution of friction, and diminishing with its increase. Friction, here, results from the necessity for employing the trader and transporter - men whose profits increase with every stoppage of the circulation, while diminishing as it becomes more rapid. Poverty and slavery advance steadily in the lands in which friction is increased, as in Ireland, India, and Jamaica; while wealth and freedom advance as stead ily in those in which it declines, as in France, Denmark, and Northern Germany. The men who traffic and transport make no addition to the quantity of commodities to be consumed. The wagoner who carries the products of the farm, gives nothing in exchange for the part that he and his horses consume on the road; whereas, were he and they employed in supplying other commodities, production would increase, and the power of consumption would be augmented. The trader at the shipping-port, the shipmaster and his sailors, the foreign trader, and the wagoner who hauls the produce to the place of consumption, all abstract their shares giving nothing in return. At the place of production, corn will feed, and wool will clothe, as many persons as they can do at that of consumption; and the more direct the exchanges, the more instantly does consumption follow upon production, with large increase of force. To the men who live by trade and transportation, increase in the rapidity of circulation is most undesirable — diminution of · friction being attended with loss of power in themselves. Half a century since, the people of India converted their cotton into cloth the loom being everywhere in close proximity to the field in which the wool was grown. Now, on the contrary, years elapse between the production of cotton and rice and their consumption, in the form of cloth, at the place at which they had been grown during all which time they are subject to charges for freight, storage, and commissions. The traders and transporters are thus enriched, but the producer of rice is unable to obtain shirts, and the producer of cotton often dies of hunger, because of inability to obtain a handful of rice. The more effectually the slave-owner can prevent all intercourse with the world except through himself, the more perfect is his power to determine what shall be his own proportion of the food and cotton, and how much he will leave to be divided among his people. The more effectually the trader can compel resort to the market he controls, the greater will be the tendency to the accumulation of large "stocks on hand," and the more perfect will be his power to determine how much cloth or iron he will consent to furnish in exchange for any given quantity of corn, cotton, or sugar. The more effectually the ship-owner can prevent intercourse among the men who produce corn and sugar, the greater must be their demand for ships, and the greater must be his power to determine what shall be the proportion of the cargo allotted to him for carrying it to market. -The slower the motion of society, the longer will be the period intervening between production and consumption, and the greater will be the power of the soldier, the slave-owner, the trader, and the shipmaster. Therefore it is that they occupy so important a position in all societies in which-there being no diversity of employment there is little development of individuality among those who labor, or those who live by the labor of others. The helot could have existed nowhere but in Sparta, whose population was by law debarred from all association among themselves. The negro slavery of Carolina could not continue to exist in any but a purely agricultural population. Italian sla very had its origin in the fact, that year after year, and century after century, there was a decline in internal commerce — with steady diminution in the rapidity with which consumption followed on production. Peon slavery in Mexico must continue so long as the absence of all diversity of employments shall continue to cause so great an interval as now exists, between the production of the power to labor and the existence of a demand for the production of human effort. So is it in Jamaica and Trinidad, in Africa and India, in Portugal and Turkey, and in all countries in which, from any cause, the plough and the loom are prevented from taking their natural places by each other. Man seeks commerce, which is but another word for association with his fellowmen. Precisely as that is obtained, does he advance in his power to direct the great forces of nature to his service, with constant development of individuality — constant increase in the rapidity of the societary circulation—and in the force and influence of the community. The greater the power exercised by the trader and the soldier, the slower will be the circulation, and the larger will be the pro portion of the people engaged in blocking the wheels of com merce. Whatever tends to augmentation of their number or their force, tends to lessen the utility of raw materials, and to destroy the value of land and labor. Whatever tends to lessen their number or their power, tends to produce the reverse effects—the value of man then rising rapidly, as a consequence of increase in the rapidity with which consumption follows on production. The trader and transporter are a necessity of society in its earlier stages, when friction is always great. The more it can be increased, the greater is their power; and therefore it is that, while passively wasting their own forces, they are so invariably engaged in actively sacrificing those of the community at large. Wherever their power is most complete, there is the greatest friction between the producer and the consumer, the greatest waste of muscular and intellectual power, and the smallest amount of commerce; as is shown in the countries that have above been named. § 5. The commodity at the disposal of all men, and the one in return for which they expect to obtain supplies of the various necessaries and comforts of life, is muscular and mental effort, or labor-power. Of all, it is the most perishable-being lost for ever if not put to use, or, in other words, profitably consumed, at the instant of production. Of all, too, it is the one that least bears transportation - perishing, as it does, in the act of being removed. The man who is distant but a mile from his farm or shop, sacrifices ten or twenty per cent. of his powers on his way to and from the scene of his daily labor. Trebling or quadrupling the distance, the amount of waste becomes so great, that the labor productively applied proves insufficient to yield the fuel necessary to maintain the action of his system, and the machine is brought to a stop-its owner perishing for want of food. Bring the consumer and the producer together, and then instant consumption follows the instant production-all the power yielded by the food being thus economized. Society then tends to take upon itself the natural form, with constant decline in the proportion of those who live by means of appropriation, and increase ir. the proportion of those engaged in the work of adding to the quantity, and improving the quality, of commodities required for the use of man. The quantity of human, effort produced being dependent altogether upon the demand for its production, the demand is in like manner dependent on the power, on the part of others, to produce commodities or things to be given in exchange - thus making demand for its consumption. The whole constituting but a single circle, the more rapid the motion, the greater must necessarily be the inducement to the production of effort, and the greater the power of all to consume the commodities or things to the production of which that effort must be given. Production and consumption being, therefore, but measures of each other, both must increase with every augmentation in the number of persons who can draw support from any given surface. That number increases as man is more and more enabled to direct the forces of nature, and to subdue to cultivation the richer soilsevery stage of progress being attended with increase in the power to associate, accompanied by rapid development of the faculties by which he is distinguished from the brute. It decreases, on the contrary, as he abandons the effort to obtain control over nature, and gives himself, whether as soldier, trader, or carrier, to obtaining power over his fellow-man-every step in that direction being attended by decline in the development of his faculties, and he, himself, declining towards the condition of the beast of prey, compelled to live on the spoils of others. Looking to Athens after the battle of Salamis, we see a diminution of population and of wealth, consequent upon the devastations of Persian armies; and there, at once, we find, in diminished 'consumption, evidence of diminished productive power. Servile followers swell the trains of men like Themistocles and Cimon, Alcibiades and Pericles, while, with few exceptions, the whole people devote themselves to the management of the affairs of others—acting in the capacities of judges and jurors, and gladly accepting as compensation for their services, an obolus per day. Later, we find them in the receipt of gratuitous distributions of corn sent by distant states, anxious to secure their protection against others more rapacious, even, than Athenians. Pauperism becoming thus a privilege of freedom, thousands of citizens, heretofore reputed free, are reduced to slavery, preparatory to an effort for enslaving the whole body of artisans, to whose efforts Athens had been so much indebted. The power of voluntary |