list2-第12章
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agricultural power of a nation; and gradually to apply a remedy to
that evil in so far as it is the result of previous institutions;
no better means exists (apart from the promotion of emigration)
than to establish an internal manufacturing power; by which the
increase of population may be gradually drawn over to the latter;
and a greater demand created for agricultural produce; by which
consequently the cultivation of larger estates may be rendered more
profitable; and the cultivator induced and encouraged to gain from
his land the greatest possible amount of surplus produce。
The productive power of the cultivator and of the labourer in
agriculture will always be greater or smaller according to the
degree in which the exchange of agricultural produce for
manufactures and other products of various kinds can proceed more
or less readily。 That in this respect the foreign trade of any
nation which is but little advanced can prove in the highest degree
beneficial; we have shown in another chapter by the example of
England。 But a nation which has already made considerable advances
in civilisation; in possession of capital; and in population; will
find the development of a manufacturing power of its own infinitely
more beneficial to its agriculture than the most flourishing
foreign trade can be without such manufactures; because it thereby
secures itself against all fluctuations to which it may be exposed
by war; by foreign restrictions on trade; and by commercial crises;
because it thereby saves the greatest part of the costs of
transport and commercial charges incurred in exporting its own
products and in importing manufactured articles; because it derives
the greatest advantages from the improvements in transport which
are called into existence by its own manufacturing industry; while
from the same cause a mass of personal and natural powers hitherto
unemployed will be developed; and especially because the reciprocal
exchange between manufacturing power and agricultural power is so
much greater; the closer the agriculturist and manufacturer are
placed to one another; and the less they are liable to be
interrupted in the exchange of their various products by accidents
of all kinds。
In my letters to Mr。 Charles J。 Ingersoll; President of the
Society for Promoting Arts and Industries in Philadelphia; of the
year 1828 (entitled; 'Outlines of a New System of Political
Economy'); I tried to explain the advantages of a union of the
manufacturing power with agriculture in one and the same country;
and under one and the same political power; in the following
manner。 Supposing you did not understand the art of grinding corn;
which has certainly been a great art in its time; supposing further
that the art of baking bread had remained unknown to you; as
(according to Anderson) the real art of salting herrings was still
unknown to the English in the seventeenth century; supposing;
therefore; that you had to send your corn to England to be ground
into flour and baked into bread; how large a quantity of your corn
would not the English retain as pay for the grinding and baking;
how much of it would the carters; seamen; and merchants consume;
who would have to be employed in exporting the corn and importing
the bread; and how much would come back into the hands of those who
cultivated the corn? There is no doubt that by such a process the
foreign trade would receive a considerable impetus; but it is very
doubtful whether this intercourse would be specially advantageous
to the welfare and independence of the nation。 Consider only in
case of a war breaking out between your country (the United States)
and Great Britain; what would be the situation of those who
produced corn for the English mills and bakehouses; and on the
other hand the situation of those who had become accustomed to the
taste of the English bread。 Just as; however; the economical
prosperity of the corn…cultivating interest requires that the corn
millers should live in its vicinity; so also does the prosperity of
the farmer especially require that the manufacturer should live
close to him; so also does the prosperity of a flat and open
country require that a prosperous and industrial town should exist
in its centre; and so does the prosperity of the whole agriculture
of a country require that its own manufacturing power should be
developed in the highest possible degree。
Let us compare the condition of agriculture in the vicinity of
a populous town with its condition when carried on in distant
provinces。 In the latter case the farmer can only cultivate for
sale those products which can bear a long transport; and which
cannot be supplied at cheaper prices and in better quality from
districts lying nearer to those who purchase them。 A larger portion
of his profits will be absorbed by the costs of transport。 He will
find it difficult to procure capital which he may employ usefully
on his farm。 From want of better examples and means of education he
will not readily be led to avail himself of new processes; of
better implements; and of new methods of cultivation。 The labourer
himself; from want of good example; of stimulus to exertion; and to
emulation in the exercise of his productive powers; will only
develop those powers inefficiently; and will indulge himself in
loitering about and in idleness。
On the other hand; in the proximity of the town; the farmer is
in a position to use every patch of land for those crops which best
suit the character of the soil。 He will produce the greatest
variety of things to the best advantage。 Garden produce; poultry;
eggs; milk; butter; fruit; and especially articles which the farmer
residing at a distance considers insignificant and secondary
things; will bring to the farmer near the town considerable profit。
While the distant farmer has to depend mainly on the mere breeding
of cattle; the other will make much better profits from fattening
them; and will thereby be led to perfect his cultivation of root
crops and fodder。 He can utilise with much profit a number of
things which are of little or no use to the distant farmer; e。g。
stone; sand; water power; &c。 The most numerous and best machines
and implements as well as all means for his instruction; are close
at hand。 It will be easy for him to accumulate the capital
necessary for the improvement of his farm。 Landed proprietors and
workmen; by the means of recreation which the town affords; the
emulation which it excites among them; and the facility of making
profits; will be incited to exert all their mental and bodily
powers for the improvement of their condition。 And precisely the
same difference exists between a nation which unites agriculture
and manufactures on its own territory; and a nation which can only
exchange its own agricultural products for foreign manufactured
goods。
The whole social state of a nation will be chiefly determined
by the principle of the variety and division of occupations and the
cooperation of its productive powers。 What the pin is in the pin
manufactory; that the national well…being is to the large society
which we term 'the nation。' The most important division of
occupations in the nation is that between the mental and material
ones。 Both are mutually dependent on one another。 The more the
mental producers succeed in promoting morality; religion;
enlightenment; increase of knowledge; extension of liberty and of
perfection of political institutions