On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures by Charles Babbage
page 12 of 394 (03%)
page 12 of 394 (03%)
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advantages. The luxurious natives of the East,(1*) and the ruder
inhabitants of the African desert are alike indebted to our looms. The produce of our factories has preceded even our most enterprising travellers.(2*) The cotton of India is conveyed by British ships round half our planet, to be woven by British skill in the factories of Lancashire: it is again set in motion by British capital; and, transported to the very plains whereon it grew, is repurchased by the lords of the soil which gave it birth, at a cheaper price than that at which their coarser machinery enables them to manufacture it themselves.(3*) 3. The large proportion of the population of this country, who are engaged in manufactures, appears from the following table deduced from a statement in an Essay on the Distribution of Wealth, by the Rev. R. Jones: For every hundred persons employed in agriculture, there are: Agriculturists Non-agriculturists In Bengal 100 25 In Italy 100 31 In France 100 50 In England 100 200 The fact that the proportion of non-agricultural to agricultural persons is continually increasing, appears both from the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons upon Manufacturers' Employment, July, 1830, and from the still later |
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