purchase of labour has no existence. Where, on the contrary, there is
a diversification of employments, there is a steady improvement in the
condition of men, as they more and more acquire the power to determine
for themselves for whom they will work and what shall be their reward,
as is seen in the rapid improvement in the condition of the people of
France, Belgium, and Germany, and especially of those of Russia, where
competition for the purchase of labour is increasing with wonderful
rapidity. Diversification of employment is absolutely necessary to
produce competition for the purchase of labour. The shoemaker does not
need to purchase shoes, nor does the miner need to buy coal, any more
than the farmer needs to buy wheat or potatoes. Bring them together,
and combine with them the hatter, the tanner, the cotton-spinner, the
maker of woollen cloth, and the smelter and roller of iron, and each
of them becomes a competitor for the purchase of the labour, or the
products of the labour, of all the others, and the wages of all rise
with the increase of competition.

In order that labour may be productive, it must be aided by machinery.
The farmer could do little with his hands, but when aided by the
plough and the harrow he may raise much wheat and corn. He could carry
little on his shoulders, but he may transport much when aided by a
horse and wagon, and still more when aided by a locomotive engine or a
ship. He could convert little grain into flour when provided only with
a pestle and mortar, but he may do much when provided with a mill. His
wife could convert little cotton into cloth when provided only with a
spinning-wheel and hand-loom, but her labour becomes highly productive
when aided by the spinning-jenny and the power-loom. The more her
labours and those of her husband are thus aided the larger will be the
quantity of grain produced, the more speedily will it be converted
into flour, the more readily will it be carried to market, the larger