Of the Addition made during the last Hundred Years by Ability to the Product of the National Labour. This Increment the Product of Ability.
◆1 Let us now turn to the history of production in this country during the past hundred years;
◆¹ I have already said something—but in very general terms—of what, at the close of the last century, the wealth of this country was. Let us now consider the subject a little more in detail, though we need not trouble ourselves with a great many facts and figures. The comparatively backward state of Ireland makes it easier to deal with Great Britain only; and the income of Great Britain was then, as I have said already, about a hundred and forty million pounds annually. This amount was, as has been said already, also produced by Land, Capital, and Human Exertion, or, as we are now able to put it, by Land, Labour, Capital, and Ability; and according to the principles which I have already carefully explained, had the statistics of industry been recorded as fully as they are now, we should be able to assign to each cause a definite proportion of the product. Of what the Land produced, as distinct from the three other causes, we are indeed able to speak with sufficient accuracy as it is. It was practically the amount taken in rent; and the amount taken in rent was about twenty-five million pounds, or something between a fifth and sixth of the total. But the proportion produced respectively by Labour, Capital, and Ability cannot be determined with the same ease or exactness. There are, however, connected with this question, a number of well-known and highly significant facts, to a few of which I will call the reader’s attention.
◆1 And consider the enormous increase both in agricultural production,
◆¹ Between the years 1750 and 1800, the population of Great Britain increased by barely so much as twenty-five per cent. It rose from about eight millions to about ten. Now during that period the number of hands employed in manufactures increased proportionally far faster than the total population. The cotton-spinners, for instance, increased from forty to eighty thousand.[32] Such being the case, it is of course evident that the increase of agricultural labourers cannot have been very great. It can hardly have been, at the utmost, so much as eighteen per cent.[33] And now let us glance at the history of agricultural products, as indicated by a few typical facts. In the year 1688, the number of sheep in Great Britain was estimated at twelve millions. In the year 1774, the number was estimated at almost the same figure; but between the years 1774 and 1800, this twelve millions had risen to twenty millions. During the same twenty-six years, the number of cattle had increased in almost the same proportion. That is to say, live-stock had increased by seventy-five per cent. Between the years 1750 and 1780 there was an average annual increase in agricultural capital of seven million three hundred thousand pounds. But from the years 1780 and 1800 there was an average annual increase of twenty-six million pounds; whilst between the years 1750 and 1800 the farmer’s income had very nearly doubled,[34] and the total products of agriculture had increased sixty per cent.
◆1 And in manufactures,
◆2 That had recently taken place at the close of the last century.
◆¹ And now let us turn to manufactures. These, as a whole, had advanced more slowly; but the advance of certain of them had been yet more rapid and striking. It will be enough to mention two: the manufacture of cotton, to which I have called attention already; and an industry yet more important—the manufacture of iron. ◆² The amount of pig-iron produced annually in Great Britain during the earlier part of the last century was not more than twenty thousand tons;[35] at the close of the century it was more than a hundred and eighty thousand. What may have been the increase in the amount of labour employed, cannot be said with certainty; but it cannot have been comparable to the increase of the product, which was, as we have just seen, eight hundred per cent; and it may again be mentioned that one single set of inventions, in the course of eight years, nearly doubled the product of each individual smelting furnace.[36] As to the cotton industry, our information is more complete. The amount of labour was doubled in forty years. The product was increased fifteen-fold in twenty-five.
◆1 We shall see how obviously a part at least of this increase must have been due to Ability and Capital.
◆2 And that Labour cannot really have produced the whole.