66 "able to a great number of poor families in | But his majesty's government, as appears by the England, employed in the trade of making evidence, have, under the exigencies of the case, "such wool cards," the same were then and are thought it right from time to time, on special now allowed to be exported to all parts of the applications, to grant licenses for the exportation world. of different articles of machinery to various parts of the world. Neither the grounds on which these acts were passed and repealed, nor the advantages expected to be derived from them, appear to have been well understood; as by the 25th (c. 67) the prohibition was perpetual, whilst by the 26th (c. 89) it was provided, that the prohibition should only continue in force till the end of the next session of parliament, and no longer. Your committee beg leave to state their opinion, that changes in laws which regulate the export and import of any article should be made as seldom as possible, as by every change new establishments and connexions in commerce must necessarily be formed; and, exclusive of the loss of capital consequent thereon, the uncertainty to which they give rise in the minds of merchants and manufacturers must greatly tend to impede the commerce and check the prosperity of the country. Many able and intelligent men have even gone so far as to assert, that it is often much better to submit to inconvenience and loss than to make a sudden change in any extensive branch of the industry of the country, although that change might ultimately remove the inconvenience and loss suffered; yet so great has the uncertainty been as to what line of conduct the legislature would ultimately pursue, that the statute book affords, in the instance of machinery, a notable example of the total want of any fixed principle; exhibiting, in the same year, one act to permit the exportation of one kind of tools, because their prohibition had proved injurious to the industrious classes of the community; and another prohibiting the exportation of other kinds, because such exportation was considered to be detrimental; and the provisions of that act, which would have expired in 1787, were continued from year to year by the 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 32d, 33d, 34th, till, by the 35th Geo. III., c. 38, it was rendered perpetual. These acts also prohibit the exportation of all tools, implements, and machines used in coining money, although it would be extremely difficult to shew why any country should have impediments thrown in its way for coining money for its own use, or what possible injury this country could sustain from supplying other nations with the various and expensive machinery which is necessary in large quantities to the establishment of mints. No permission, however, appears to have been granted by legislative authority for this purpose, except in one solitary instance, namely, in that of Mr. Matthew Bolton, an engineer of Birmingham, who, by the 39th Geo. III., c. 96 (1799), was permitted to export the machinery necessary for the erection of a ་ The committee, in 1824, examined many practical men for the purpose of ascertaining how far, in their opinion, the prosperity of our manufactures had been promoted by the laws which prohibit the exportation of tools and machinery, and how far the improvement of the manufactures of other countries had been thereby retarded. Many of these witnesses were of opinion that considerable advantage had accrued to this country from the protection which these prohibitory laws gave to our manufacturers, by their operation in preventing foreign nations from becoming our rivals in several branches of manufactures: but a careful perusal of their evidence will best shew the grounds on which those opinions are founded. In addition to the examination of persons practically conversant with machinery and manufactures, that committee called before them and examined two gentlemen+ eminently qualified to determine, on general principles, the policy of prohibiting the exportation of tools and machines. These gentlemen gave their reasons at length for believing the prohibition to export tools and machines to be injurious to the commerce and manufactures of this country, inasmuch as we thereby shut ourselves out from a new branch of business which would give employment to a large number of our people, increase our own capabilities, add considerably to the amount of our productions, and consequently to the increase of capital; particularly so, as the materials of which tools and machinery are made are almost entirely the products of our own soil, and may be procured by the labour of our own people in unlimited quantities. Your committee beg leave, however, to call the attention of the house more particularly to their evidence, which contains matter of the greatest importance, as it explains many of the grounds on which, in the opinion of those gentlemen, commercial intercourse, in order to be prosperous, should be founded. Another circumstance of some moment, to which your committee beg leave to request the attention of the house, is the commercial jealousy which the prohibition to export tools and machines is calculated to perpetuate, and the effect which the repeal of these laws would produce on the policy of other nations towards us, and how far the removal of all such causes of jealousy would operate in respect to many regulations and restrictions now existing on commerce, which the members of every enlightened government must necessarily wish to see removed, Mr. S. Walker, Mr. W. Yates, Mr. P. Ewart, Mr. mint in the dominions of the emperor of Russia, J. Kennedy, Mr. Thomas Osler, Mr. William Brunton. and to send workmen there to erect the same. + Mr. M.Culloch, and the Rev. Mr. Malthus. and which the legislature appears to have had were also apprehensive that the orders which in view in the late various important alterations in the commercial relations of this country. The evidence taken by the committee in the last session was such as to induce them, at that time, to decline recommending any measure to the house beyond that of a renewal of the inquiry in the present session; and in order to make this inquiry as complete as possible, the chairman of your committee caused a notice (inserted in the Appendix) to be sent to the principal municipal officer and chambers of commerce in many of the great manufacturing towns of the United Kingdom; some of whom, it appears, caused it to be inserted in several of the provincial newspapers. might be received from abroad for tools and machines would raise their price at home, and prevent our own manufacturers from being supplied with the machinery they wanted; and several manufacturers concurred in these opinions. The objections made by the machine-makers and manufacturers were thus reduced to two; viz. 1st. That in consequence of the large foreign orders which would probably be sent from abroad, the price of the tools and machines, if the free exportation were permitted, would be considerably and permanently raised at home. 2d. That it was to be feared that, in a short time after the repeal of those laws, foreigners would be able to undersell us in cotton goods, in lace made in frames, and in some other branches of manufacture. To these two principal objections your com mittee more particularly turned their attention; and in the evidence of all the London engineers it is distinctly stated, that they do not believe that any considerable rise of price would, for any length of time, follow the repeal of the prohibiting laws. On this subject, however, your committee submit to the consideration of the house an extract from the evidence of Mr. Alexander Galloway. It is necessary to observe, that, notwithstanding this public notice, no person from any of the manufacturing districts has requested to be examined before your committee; and that only two answers to his circular were received by the chairman; one from the chamber of commerce in Birmingham, inclosing a copy of the resolution of that chamber, of the 12th of March, 1824, which objected both to the emigration of artisans and to the exportation of machinery; and as the evidence of the witnesses deputed by that chamber at that time will be found in the minutes of the committee of last year, it is presumed that they had no additional evidence to offer; the other, from the master cotton-spinners of the county of Renfrew, appointing Mr. Dunlop (whose evidence on the " subject will be found in the minutes of last" year) to oppose any bill for permitting the exportation of machinery. As no person, therefore, came forward from the country to offer evidence to your committee, it was necessary more particularly to revert to the evidence taken" tures, I should say I should be very much beby the committee in the last session, for the purpose of more fully shewing its tendency. "Do you then think that we should secure a very considerable and profitable branch of permanent manufacture, without injuring our "home manufacturers, if this law was repealed? "I am decidedly of opinion we should improve our condition; and if I was a considerable "machine user in any of our principal manufac "nefited by taking off the prohibiting laws, as it "would ultimately lessen the price of machinery. Almost all the principal engineers whose "Do you mean by the increased competition factories are situated in the metropolis were" and skill that would be brought into action? examined. Their evidence tends to shew the "Yes; and that will all end in making mainjurious consequences of the laws which pro-"chines cheaper. At first it may increase the hibit the exportation of tools and machines, and" price with certain individuals, but not with all of them concurred in recommending their "the manufacturers generally; and ultimately repeal. Several machine-makers resident in the" it will increase the means by which machinery country were also examined before the com-" is produced." mittee, all of whom agreed in recommending a revision of the laws, or that particular kinds of machinery might still be legally exported, while other kinds might be prohibited. They also concurred in opinion that much of the machinery at present prohibited might be advantageously exported; but gave it as their opinion that other kinds of machinery, and particularly those used in the manufacture of cotton goods, should not be permitted to be exported. This opinion was grounded on an apprehension that foreigners might in time be able to manufacture such goods, not only for their own use, but also for exportation, cheaper than we could, and might thus supersede us in the foreign market. They The principal difficulty which seemed to your committee likely to occur, from any considerable increased demand for machines from abroad, was the number of hands which could in a compara. tively short space of time be procured to meet the demand. It has always hitherto happened, and on general principles it may safely be affirmed, that it will always happen, that where a commodity can be supplied in unlimited quantities (which machinery may be in this country) a large increase in the demand never fails, after a very short period, to reduce the price; but the ne cessity of instructing men in machine-making seemed to oppose an obstacle which it would re The "Do you conceive that if the French were to acquire equally good machinery with ourselves "that it would be injurious to our manufactures? No, I do not think it would. quire much time to overcome; and it was appre-" them in the art of making machines?— hended that in the mean time the price of ma- "Unquestionably." chines might be considerably increased. opinion, however, of the London engineers was, that no difficulty whatever would exist as to the procuring of hands capable of constructing machinery in any quantity which could be required; and that, too, greatly to the advantage of a large number of persons. "By their obtaining our machinery, so as to "be able to meet us in the market for cotton "and other goods, will not that be injurious to Messrs. Martineau, Bramah, Maudslay and "us? I do not think the circumstance of getGalloway, all of them eminent in their profes-"ting our machinery would enable them to sion as engineers, affirm that men and boys in" meet us in the market with cottons, or any almost any number may be readily instructed in "other goods with advantage. the making of machines, and that the great im- "Will you state what it is that would give provement of the tools used for making machines," England the advantage in that case over the and for the abridgment of labour in many im-" foreign manufacturers? — In the first place, portant parts of the business (which enables them" the French manufacturer would not have the to employ common labourers, who may rapidly" same degree of security that the English become skilful workmen), furnish reasons for "manufacturer has; in the next place, you believing that the price of machinery is much" have the advantage of better communications more likely to be reduced, and that in a short" throughout the country, the advantage of time, than increased by any considerable exten- "trained workmen, habituated to all industrious sion of the business of machine-making. Your " employments, and of a better division of lacommittee would, however, call the attention of "bour; so that, though the French imported the house to the evidence of Messrs. Ewart," from us as good machinery as we have, you Kennedy, and other witnesses from the country, "would still have many incommunicable adwho have expressed a contrary opinion, in order "vantages which they could not have, and you that a correct judgment may be formed on the "would always have cheaper machinery in prosubject. "portion to the cost of the transfer of the ma"chines into France. 66 With respect to the second objection, the apprehension of being undersold in the foreign "Will you have the goodness to state to the market, the evidence of those witnesses in whom" committee the advantages that would accrue this apprehension is most prevalent, contains" to England from the exportation of its mamuch which seems to incline in a contrary direc-"chinery?-The advantages would be, that in tion to the inferences drawn by them. It is ad-" addition to all our present manufactures we mitted by them that we possess many facilities" should have an additional branch of manufacwhich foreigners do not, and may not for ages ture, corresponding in extent to the extent possess. Our minerals are generally in imme-" that the foreigner took machines from us. diate neighbourhood, whence, from the proximity" You would thus have a new field created for of rail-roads, canals, and rivers, they may be con- "the profitable employ of capital and industry, veyed with great facility to all parts of the king- "which you have not now." dom, either for home manufacture or exportation. Almost all our great manufacturing towns, and establishments for the construction of machines, enjoy similar facilities; and thus, with the continual improvement of machinery, enable us to keep down the cost of production. Upon this subject your committee beg to refer to the following extracts from the evidence of Mr. M'Culloch, which, in their opinion, deserves the most serious consideration. "Do you conceive that the laws rather assist "the French, than otherwise, in being able to "establish manufactories of machinery of their own? I should think our preventing the "exportation of machinery to France has a ten"dency to force the French to become machine"makers themselves, and to rival us in a branch "of industry, into which, if they could get "machines from England, they would have no "motive to come into competition. "Those laws make it more a matter of ne"cessity on the part of the French to induce our "machine-makers to go to France, to instruct Your committee think proper to notice, as a third objection entertained by many of the witnesses, viz. that, in consequence of the low rate of wages paid on the continent of Europe, manufacturers in foreign countries would be enabled to sell their goods cheaper than we could sell ours. Your committee are sensible of the propriety of paying due attention to this objection; as not only many of the witnesses whom they have examined form their opinion of the impolicy of allowing machinery to be exported on the grounds that the low wages of France and other nations secure to those countries advantages over England, but almost all persons of all descriptions consider this doctrine of the advantage of low wages as forming a settled axiom in political economy, and therefore as one which admits of no question whatsoever; but so far from this being a doctrine that ought to be universally received as sound and settled, your committee are of opinion that many facts exist to shew that doubts may be justly entertained respecting its validity. Experience proves, that in those country advantages in carrying on manufactures, countries where wages are low, the workmen there exist the reasonings and conclusions of are often indolent, and so unskilful as to be those learned and observing persons (who during incapable of producing any commodities but the last fifty years have reduced the rules that such as are of the rudest and coarsest kind; one govern the operations of industry and trade to workman is employed in two or more different a science) to explain in what way they consider operations in the same fabric, and little or no this doctrine to be wholly untenable. These assistance is given to manual labour by inven- eminent persons undertake to shew, by argu tions to abridge and economise it; whereas, in ments and facts, that the effect of low wages is those countries where wages are high, the work- not a low price of the commodity to which they men are generally active, spirited, persevering, are applied, but the raising of the average rate and exceedingly skilful;-no article is too dif- of profits in the country in which they exist. ficult or delicate for them to make; the principle The explanation of this proposition occupies a of division of labour is in full operation, and large portion of the justly-celebrated work of the every description of machinery is made to con- late Mr. Ricardo, on the principles of political tribute extensively to the diminution of manual economy, and is also ably set forth in the fol labour. lowing evidence of Mr. M'Culloch, to which your committee particularly desire to draw the attention of the house: "Have you turned your attention to the effect of fluctuations in the rate of wages on the price of commodities ?—I have. It is well known to those who have attended to what has taken place in respect to the cotton manufacture in Ireland (and it has been alluded to in the evidence), that when Mr. Pitt, in 1788" and at the union, proposed to lower the duties" on cotton goods imported from Ireland into "Do you consider that when wages rise, the England, the witnesses who were then examined" price of commodities will proportionally inbefore committees of this house resisted his "crease?—I do not think that a real rise of plans on the same grounds that the witnesses wages has any effect whatever, or but a whom your committee have examined object to very imperceptible one, on the price of com the exportation of machinery, namely, the ad-"modities." 66 66 vantages which a country with low wages has "Then supposing wages to be really lower in over a country in which wages are high. But" France than in this country, do you think although Mr. Pitt, at the union, lowered the" that that circumstance would give the French duties on cotton goods imported from Ireland" any advantage over us in the foreign market? into England to ten per cent; and that cotton -No, I do not; I do not think it would give goods could be sent from Ireland to foreign" them any advantage whatever. I think it countries, to be sold there in free competition" would occasion a different distribution of the with English cotton goods; and although Ire-" produce of industry in France from what land has imported from time to time the best" would obtain in England, but that would be English machinery, and employed the best "all. In France the labourers would get a less English workmen to instruct the Irish work-“ proportion of the produce of industry, and men, yet Ireland, under all these circumstances" the capitalists a larger proportion. (with an average rate of wages of 3d. or 4d. a day, as proved in evidence before the committee on the state of Ireland), was not able to do any thing worthy of notice in the cotton manufacture, till the repeal of the duty of ten per“ labour and profit, the whole and only effect cent in 1823, led to the sending of English yarn "of a French manufacturer getting his labour into Ireland, to be wove there and returned to "for less than an English manufacturer, is to England, and till English capital was employed" enable him to make more profit than the in Ireland to promote the industry of her "English manufacturer can make, but not to people, by giving orders for goods to be sent to "lower the price of his goods. The low rate of England to enable the English manufacturers" wages in France gues to establish a high to make good those orders which they could not" rate of profits in all branches of industry in execute in England. "France. 66 "Could not the French manufacturer, if he gets his labour for less than the English ma "nufacturer, afford to sell his goods for less?"As the value of goods is made up wholly of The case of England herself is also in point, "What conclusion do you come to in making to shew that low wages may be counterbalanced" a comparison between wages in England and by other circumstances; for though wages in" wages in France?—I come to this conclusion, England are much higher than wages in other" that if it be true that wages are really higher countries in Europe, yet almost every kind" in England than in France, the only effect of of manufactured goods that are required in" that would be to lower the profits of capital great quantities can be made so much cheaper" in England below their level in France, but and better in England as to find a market in" that will have no effect whatever on the almost every foreign country. price of the commodities produced in either country. But besides these facts, tending to disprove" the doctrine that low wages always give to a "When you say that wages do not affect 66 "prices, what is it that does affect prices?" this opinion principally consist in the natural "An increase or diminution of the quantity" advantages that England possesses, from the "of labour necessary to the production of the" circumstance of the iron-stone and coal being "commodity." "invariably found in the same spot, and thus "Supposing that there was a free export of" affording a means of manufacturing iron at a "machinery, so that France could get that" cheap rate; the talent and ingenuity of the "machinery, do you think that under those" workmen; the immense spare capital we "circumstances we should retain those advan-" have in this country; the circumstance of 66 tages which we possess at the present mo- our canals and rail-roads, already established, “ment ?—Yes, we should; for the export of" enabling us to bring the raw material from "the machinery would not lower our wages, or "the interior of the country at a very low rate: "increase the wages in France, so that we "it would, of course, take a considerable time "should preserve that advantage to the full" before France or any other country could "extent that we have it at this moment." possess any of those advantages, even those which cannot be considered as peculiar only to us, such as canals and rail-roads." Supposing, indeed, that the same machinery which is used in England could be obtained on the Continent, it is the opinion of some of the most intelligent of the witnesses that the want of arrangement in foreign manufactories, of division of labour in their work, of skill and perseverance in their workmen, and of enterprise in the masters, together with the comparatively low estimation in which the master manufacturers are held on the Continent, and with the comparative want of capital, and of many other advantageous circumstances detailed in the evidence, would prevent foreigners from interfering in any great degree by competition with our principal manufacturers; on which subject the committee submit the following evidence as worthy the attention of the house :"I would ask whether, upon the whole, you 66 66 "Will you explain to the committee why" "you are of opinion that the French manu"facturer would not undersell the English, seeing that his profits are larger than the "English manufacturer ?—Because if he were to offer to undersell the English, he can only "do it by consenting to accept a less rate of profit on his capital than the other French capitalists are making on theirs, and I cannot 66 suppose a man of common sense would act upon such a principle." 66 66 "Are the committee to understand, that "although a French manufacturer pays half “the wages to his men in France which our "manufacturers do in England, yet that his wages being on a par or level in general with "the other wages in France, will render his profits on a par with them, and consequently “he would not undersell the English merchant "by lowering his profits below the average rate "of profits in France?-Precisely so. I believe," consider any danger likely to arie to our “in point of fact, there is no such difference; "but he could not undersell the English manu“facturer unless he took lower profits than all “other producers in France were making. I "might illustrate this by what takes place every 66 " manufactures from competition, even if the "French were supplied with machinery equally good and cheap as our own?-They will always be behind us until their general habits approximate to ours; and they must behind us for many reasons that I have "Why must they be behind us?-One other day in England, where you never find the pro-be "prietor of rich land, in order to get rid of his " before given. "produce, offering it in Mark-lane at a lower "rate than that which is got by a farmer or "proprietor of the very worst land in the "kingdom." reason is, that a cotton-manufacturer, who left Manchester seven years ago, would be "driven out of the market by the men who are now living in it, provided his knowledge had not kept pace with those who have been during that time constantly profiting by the pro "vantage." "Would it not produce a larger sale if the "French manufacturer were to sell at a less "price? Supposing that to be so, the greater« "the sale, the greater would be the loss of "gressive improvements that have taken place "profit." "in that period: this progressive knowledge It is the opinion of many of those who object" and experience is our great power and adto the exportation of machinery, that Great Britain owes her present superiority in manufactures solely to the excellence of her machinery; but the evidence already noticed, as well as that of Mr. Martineau and others, would incline your committee to believe that many other circumstances had tended to produce that effect, and that if the exportation of machinery was generally permitted, English engineers would supply the greater part of the world, without endangering her present superiority. "My reasons," Mr. Martineau says, "for forming It should also be observed, that the constant, nay, almost daily improvements which take place in our machinery itself, as well as in the mode of its application, require that all those means and advantages alluded to above should be in constant operation; and that, in the opinion of several of the witnesses, although Europe were possessed of every tool now used in the United Kingdom, along with the assistance of English artisans, which she may have in any number, By Mr. Alexander Galloway. |