main in it all their lives. To begin as hired laborers, then after a few years to work on their own account, and finally employ others, is the normal condition of laborers in a new country, rapidly increasing in wealth and population, like America or Australia. But something else is required when wealth increases slowly, or has reached the stationary state, when positions, instead of being more mobile, would tend to be much more permanent than at present, and the condition of any portion of mankind could only be desirable, if made desirable from the first.

The opinion expressed in a former part of this treatise respecting small landed properties and peasant proprietors, may have made the reader anticipate that a wide diffusion of property in land is the resource on which I rely for exempting at least the agricultural laborers from exclusive dependence on labor for hire. Such, however, is not my opinion. I indeed deem that form of agricultural economy to be most groundlessly decried, and to be greatly preferable, in its aggregate effects on human happiness, to hired labor in any form in which it exists at present, because the prudential check to population acts more directly, and is shown by experience to be more efficacious; and because, in point of security, of independence, of exercise for the moral faculties and for the intellect, the state of a peasant proprietor is far nearer to what the state of the laborers should be, than the condition of an agriculturist in this or any other country of hired labor. Where the former system already exists, and works on the whole satisfactorily, I should regret, in the present state of human intelligence, to see it abolished in order to make way for the other, under a pedantic notion of agricultural improvement as a thing necessarily the same in every diversity of circumstances. In a backward state of industrial improvement, as in Ireland, I should urge its introduction, in preference to an exclusive system of hired labor; as a more powerful instru

ment for raising a population from semi-savage listlessness and recklessness, to habits of persevering industry and prudent calculation.

But a people who have once adopted the large system of production, either in manufactures or in agriculture, are not likely to recede from it; nor, when population is kept in due proportion to the means of support, is there any sufficient reason why they should. Labor is unquestionably more productive on the system of large industrial enterprises; the produce, if not greater absolutely, is greater in proportion to the labor employed; the same number of persons can be supported equally well with less toil and greater leisure; which will be wholly an advantage, as soon as civilization and improvement have so far advanced that what is a benefit to the whole shall be a benefit to each individual composing it. The problem is, to obtain the efficiency and economy of production on a large scale, without dividing the producers into two parties with hostile interests, employers and employed, the many who do the work being mere servants under the command of the one who supplies the funds, and having no interest of their own in the enterprise, except to fulfil their contract and earn their wages.

§ 5. A solution of this problem is afforded by the extension and development of which the coöperative or joint-stock principle is susceptible. That principle supplies means by which every one who contributes to the work, whether by labor or by pecuniary resources, may have a partner's interest in it proportionally to the value of his contribution. It is already a common practice to remunerate those in whom peculiar trust is reposed by means of a percentage on the profits; and cases exist in which the principle is, with the most excellent success, carried down to the class of mere manual laborers.

In the American ships trading to China, it has long been the custom for every sailor to have an interest in the profits of the voyage; and to this has been ascribed the general good conduct of those seamen, and the extreme rarity of any collision between them and the government or people of the country. An instance in England itself, not so well known as it deserves to be, is that of the Cornish miners. "In Cornwall the miners are worked strictly on the system of joint adventure; gangs of miners contracting with the agent, who represents the owner of the mine, to execute a certain portion of a vein, and fit the ore for market, at the price of so much in the pound of the sum for which the ore is sold. These contracts are put up at certain regular periods, generally every two months, and taken by a voluntary partnership of men accustomed to the mine. This system has its disadvantages, in consequence of the uncertainty and irregularity of the earnings, and consequent necessity of living, for long periods on credit; but it has advantages which more than counterbalance these drawbacks. It produces a degree of intelligence, independence, and moral elevation, which raise the condition and character of the Cornish miner far above that of the generality of the laboring class. We are told by Dr. Barham, that 'they are not only, as a class, intelligent for laborers, but men of considerable knowledge.' Also, that 'they have a character of independence, something American, the system by which the contracts are let giving the takers entire freedom to make arrangements among themselves; so that each man feels, as a partner in his little firm, that he meets his employers on nearly equal terms.' With this basis of intelligence and independence in their character, we are not surprised when we hear that 'a very great number of miners are now located on possessions of their own, leased for three lives or ninety-nine years, on which they have built houses;' or that £281,541 are deposited in

savings banks in Cornwall, of which two thirds are estimated to belong to miners.'"*

Mr. Babbage, who also gives an account of this system, observest that the payment to the crews of whaling ships is governed by a similar principle; and that "the profits arising from fishing with nets on the south coast of England are thus divided: one half the produce belongs to the owner of the boat and net; the other half is divided in equal portions between the persons using it, who are also bound to assist in repairing the net when required." Mr. Babbage has the great merit of having pointed out the practicability, and the advantage, of extending the principle to manufacturing industry generally. I venture to quote the principal part of his observations on the subject.

"The general principles on which the proposed system is founded, are-1st. That a considerable part of the wages received by each person employed, should depend on the profits made by the establishment; and, 2d. That every person connected with it should derive more advantage from applying any improvement he might discover, to the factory in which he is employed, than he could by any other course.

"It would be difficult to prevail on the large capitalist to enter upon any system, which would change the divis ion of the profits arising from the employment of his capital in setting skill and labor in action; any alteration, therefore, must be expected rather from the small capitalist, or from the higher class of workmen, who combine the two characters; and to these latter classes, whose welfare will be first affected, the change is most important. I shall

This passage is from the Prize Essay on the Causes and Remedies of National Distress, by Mr. Samuel Laing. The extracts which it includes are from the Appendix to the Report of the Children's Employment Commission.

† Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, 3d edition, ch. 26.

therefore first point out the course to be pursued in making the experiment; and then, taking a particular branch of trade as an illustration, I shall examine the merits and defects of the proposed system as applied to it.

"Let us suppose, in some large manufacturing town, ten or twelve of the most intelligent and skilful workmen to unite, whose characters for sobriety and steadiness are good, and are well known among their class. Such persons will each possess some small portion of capital; and let them join with one or two others who have raised themselves into the class of small master-manufacturers, and therefore possess rather a larger portion of capital. Let these persons, after well considering the subject, agree to establish a manufactory of fire-irons and fenders; and let us suppose that each of the ten workmen can command forty pounds, and each of the small capitalists possesses two hundred pounds; thus they have a capital of £800, with which to commence business, and for the sake of simplifying, let us further suppose the labor of each of these twelve persons to be worth two pounds a week. One portion of their capital will be expended in procuring the tools necessary for their trade, which we shall take at £400, and this must be considered as their fixed capital. The remaining £400 must be employed as circulating capital, in purchasing the iron with which their articles are made, in paying the rent of their workshops, and in supporting themselves and their families until some portion of it is replaced by the sale of the goods produced.

"Now the first question to be settled is, what proportion of the profit should be allowed for the use of capital, and what for skill and labor? It does not seem possible to decide this question by any abstract reasoning; if the capital supplied by each partner is equal, all difficulty will be removed; if otherwise, the proportion must be left to find its level, and will be discovered by experience; and it is