Principles of Political Economy / Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical, and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy

by John Stuart Mill

§ 4. —In Manufactures.

From similar considerations, it appears that many purely mechanical improvements, which have, apparently, at least, no peculiar connection with agriculture, nevertheless enable a given amount of food to be obtained with a smaller expenditure of labor. A great improvement in the process of smelting iron would tend to cheapen agricultural implements, diminish the cost of railroads, of wagons and carts, ships, and perhaps buildings, and many other things to which iron is not at present applied, because it is too costly; and would thence diminish the cost of production of food. The same effect would follow from an improvement in those processes of what may be termed manufacture, to which the material of food is subjected after it is separated from the ground. The first application of wind or water power to grind corn tended to cheapen bread as much as a very important discovery in agriculture would have done; and any great improvement in the construction of corn-mills would have, in proportion, a similar influence.

Those manufacturing improvements which can not be made instrumental to facilitate, in any of its stages, the actual production of food, and therefore do not help to counteract or retard the diminution of the proportional return to labor from the soil, have, however, another effect, which is practically equivalent. What they do not prevent, they yet, in some degree, compensate for.[136]

Chart VII.

Ratio of Miles of Railroad to the Areas of States and Countries—United States and Europe. The relative proportion is 1 Mile Railroad to 4 Square Miles of Area.

No.	Name.	Rank in Size.	Relative.
1	Massachusetts	67	98
2	Belgium	62	96
3	England and Wales	29	88
4	New Jersey	62	81
5	Connecticut	68	80
6	Rhode Island	71	65
7	Ohio	44	60
8	Illinois	32	59
9	Pennsylvania	40	55
10	Delaware	69	53
11	Indiana	50	52
12	New Hampshire	65	45
13	Switzerland	59	44
14	New York	39	41
15	Iowa	33	39
16	German Empire	4	38
17	Scotland	52	37
18	Maryland	63	36
19	Vermont	64	35
20	Ireland	51	29
21	Michigan	31	28
22	France	5	27
23	Denmark	60	26
24	Netherlands	57	25
25	Missouri	26	24
26	Wisconsin	34	23
27	Austrian Empire	3	21
28	Virginia	45	19
29	Italy	13	18
30	Georgia	30	17
31	Kansas	22	16
32	Kentucky	46	15
33	South Carolina	49	14
34	Tennessee	42	14
35	Minnesota	21	13
36	Alabama	36	13
37	West Virginia	55	12
38	Roumania	41	12
39	North Carolina	37	12
40	Maine	48	12
41	Nebraska	23	10
42	Mississippi	38	9
43	Spain	6	9
44	Portugal	47	9
45	Sweden	7	9
46	Arkansas	35	8
47	Louisiana	43	8
48	Colorado	16	8
49	California	8	7
50	Turkey	27	7
51	Texas	2	7
52	Utah	20	6
53	Florida	28	6
54	Dakota	7	6
55	Russia in Europe	1	5
56	Nevada	15	5
57	Norway	11	5
58	Oregon	18	4
59	Bulgaria	54	4
60	New Mexico	12	3
61	Wyoming	17	2
62	Indian Territory	25	2
63	Washington	24	1
64	Arizona	14	1
65	Idaho	19	1
66	Greece	58	0
67	Montana	10	0
68	Bosnia and Herzegovina	53	0
69	Servia	56	0
70	Eastern Roumelia	61	0
71	Montenegro	70	0
72	Andorra	72	0

(The United States have substantially one mile of railway to each 540 inhabitants. Europe has one mile to each 3,000 inhabitants, if Russia be included; about one mile to each 2,540, exclusive of Russia.)

The materials of manufactures being all drawn from the land, and many of them from agriculture, which supplies in particular the entire material of clothing, the general law of production from the land, the law of diminishing return, must in the last resort be applicable to manufacturing as well as to agricultural history. As population increases, and [pg 142] the power of the land to yield increased produce is strained harder and harder, any additional supply of material, as well as of food, must be obtained by a more than proportionally increasing expenditure of labor. But the cost of the material forming generally a very small portion of the entire cost of the manufacture, the agricultural labor concerned in the production of manufactured goods is but a small fraction of the whole labor worked up in the commodity.

Mr. Babbage[137] gives an interesting illustration of this principle. Bar-iron of the value of £1 became worth, when manufactured into—