[Pg i]
BY CHARLES KNIGHT.
Illustrated with numerous Woodcuts.
"The empire of man over material things has for its only foundationthe sciences and the arts."—Bacon.
THE SECOND EDITION.
WITH TWENTY-FOUR ADDITIONAL CUTS OF MANUFACTURING PROCESSES.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1859.
The right of Translation is reserved.[Pg ii]
"Without attempting to give this volume the formal shape of a treatiseon Political Economy, it is the wish of the author to convey the broad partsof that science in a somewhat desultory manner, but one which is not altogetherdevoid of logical arrangement. He desires especially to be understood by theyoung; for upon their right appreciation of the principles which govern societywill depend much of the security and happiness of our own and the comingtime."
LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD-STREET,
AND CHARING CROSS.
[Pg iii]
TO
NEIL ARNOTT, ESQ., M.D.,
WITH SINCERE ADMIRATION OF THE DISINTERESTED SPIRIT INWHICH HE HAS DEVOTED HIS SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE TO THEPUBLIC GOOD; AND IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HISNEVER-FAILING KINDNESS DURING A LONG FRIENDSHIP,
THIS VOLUME
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.
[Pg iv]
[Pg v]
Feeble resources of civilized man in a desert—Ross Cox, Peter the Wild Boy,and the Savage of Aveyron—A Moskito Indian on Juan Fernandez—Conditionsnecessary for the production of utility6
Society a system of exchanges—Security of individual property the principleof exchange—Alexander Selkirk and Robinson Crusoe—Imperfect appropriationand unprofitable labour14
Adventures of John Tanner—Habits of the American Indians—Their sufferingsfrom famine, and from the absence among them of the principle ofdivision of labour—Evils of irregular labour—Respect to property—Theirpresent improved condition—Hudson's Bay Indians23
The Prodigal—Advantages of the poorest man in civilized life over the richestsavage—Savings-banks, deposits, and interest—Progress of accumulation—Insecurityof capital, its causes and results—Property, its constituents—Accumulationof capital38
Common interests of Capital and Labour—Labour directed by Accumulation—Capitalenhanced by Labour—Balance of rights and duties—Relationof demand and supply—Money exchanges—Intrinsic and representativevalue of money49
Importance of capital to the profitable employment of labour—Contrastbetween the pr