Millicent Garrett Fawcett

“ The Srimats would have done the best thing possible with their capital and labour if they had cultivated the spices, for which their land was particularly well suited. They threw away the advantages which nature had freely bestowed upon them, and by one of the most extraordinary cases of protection in the world imprisoned their capital and labour in an industry where it was absolutely unproductive of wealth to themselves or anyone else. And this in a modified degree is what happens in every case where a native industry is protected against foreign competition. ”

“ Inconvenience, similar in character, though not so great in degree, was now felt to attend the steady rise in the value of gold and silver in Isle Pleasant. If a man made an agreement to pay a certain sum of money, say 10l. a-year, for ten years as the rent of a house that had been built by one of his neighbours, it was quite certain that, owing to the gradual rise in value of gold, his rent would in reality increase each year; till at the end of the ten years the same amount of money would perhaps represent twice as much value in goods and labour as it did when the bargain was struck. ”

“ He was only prevented acting on this opinion by the stubborn resistance that was shown to it on the part of his comrades; and he had to learn by degrees that a demand for commodities is not a demand for labour; and that the only demand for labour is that which is ready to supply commodities to the labourer in exchange for those which his toil produces. If you demand commodities, you must supply the labourer who produces them with an equivalent value of some other commodities or services. So demand and supply cannot increase independently of each other. ”

“ The brewers were a little jealous at first of the favour with which the plantain-beer and plantain-wine were received; but they gradually learnt that they did not profit by the poverty, but by the prosperity of their neighbours: every discovery or invention that made the community richer made each one among them easier in his circumstances: each one had more time to devote to other kinds of industry; there was, consequently, a greater supply of commodities, and those who possessed this increased supply were anxious to dispose of what they did not require for their own consumption ”

“ He said, "I am not going to deny, and I think no one will deny, that those among us who have ripe corn now in the market will not get in exchange for it what they would have got if these plantain-trees had not been found, and that the labour it has been necessary to give to the cultivation of corn will be needed no longer. But that is not everything that we ought to think of. We do not live to labour, but we labour in order to live—that is, we labour to supply our wants. ”

“ But they say, "No; we won't be under such an obligation to nature, we will not take from her more help than she can give us in our own country." And so they refuse the greater and accept the smaller gift; just as the Srimats refused to take their light as a free gift from the sun, although they could not have grown their palm trees without his aid. ”

“ The trade of Isle Pleasant therefore presented the spectacle of steady growth, of a continual increase in wealth and prosperity, together with a correspondingly steady decline in general prices. This is no exceptional phenomenon. The same tendency for an increasing trade to produce a decline in prices exists in all countries, but it is counteracted by the circumstance that the supply of money and of the substitutes for money is capable of being increased in a degree corresponding, or even more than corresponding, with the increased use for money caused by commercial development. ”

“ It is a first condition of any kind of permanent trade that each party to it shall be really benefited by the transaction; otherwise the one who is not benefited will withdraw from the trade, which would consequently come to an end. We have seen, then, that foreign trade, although the amount of it may be measured in money, must in reality be an exchange of commodities for commodities. ”

“ The corn-growers, so far as they are corn-consumers, will profit as much as all the rest of us in obtaining food as an almost free gift, as it were, from nature; every mouthful of bread which they eat in future will represent only a hundredth part of the sacrifice of labour and abstinence which was required to produce the wheaten bread. They will also share to the full the advantage which the discovery of the plantain-tree gives us in obtaining a new beverage, a much needed means of replenishing our clothing, and in preparing a great variety of vegetable food. ”

“ The effect of the duty is that all people who live in France pay more dearly for their sugar than they otherwise would; and that a certain amount of French capital and labour is driven into an industry in which it can only be made profitable by taxing those who consume the commodity produced by it. Nature gives more help to the production of sugar in the West Indies than in France. Just as the sun was ready to supply the Srimats gratuitously with light, so the sun, the soil, and the climate, in the West Indies, perform gratuitously a great part of the work of producing sugar. ”

“ It is evident that the amount of money in circulation must have an influence on general prices. Suppose that the same number of people are receiving wages, that the same quantity of commodities are bought and sold the same number of times, and that the money used for paying wages and buying commodities is suddenly doubled, is it not evident that under these circumstances prices and wages would go up, or, in other words, that the purchasing power of money would go down? When the islanders tried to use cocoa-nuts for money, this fact was perfectly well understood. ”

“ Allow the sun to flood our market with his light! Our island would be ruined: our most important industry would be destroyed in a day. We should have 400 people, who now work in the palm plantations and in the oil presses, reduced to beggary at one blow! ”

“ In this way there was a great saving of time and trouble, and thus another addition was made to the industrial well-being of Isle Pleasant. For among the services which labour renders to production, must not be forgotten that of bringing commodities to the places where they are wanted, and to places where people who want them know where to find them. It is a great waste if a man, whose labour can in one day produce commodities worth 10s., is compelled to spend an hour every day in seeking about for people who will sell him what he wants for his daily food. ”

“ The changes introduced into Isle Pleasant through the use of money and credit in carrying on exchanges were very important. Division of labour prevailed much more completely than before. The risk, in the days of barter, of not being able to get immediately the things that you wanted in exchange for the things you were willing to dispose of, was so great that people did not like to be entirely dependent for their supplies of food, for instance, on the labour of others. Hence, nearly everyone, no matter what his or her regular occupation was, devoted some time to the cultivation of food stuffs. ”

“ A man who had done nothing to obtain a dinner for himself would give a sovereign to share in the meal prepared by his neighbour, rather than remain hungry when he had a bag full of gold. Gradually, however, as the money became more evenly distributed, the relative prices of things settled down into correspondence with their real value. Thus in the old days of barter, a pair of oars, which represented one day's work of the carpenter, would exchange for twice as much plantain bread as a wooden bowl which only cost the carpenter half a day's work ”

“ Although the San Franciscans have the advantage in every kind of industry, their advantage is less in some industries than in others; and if their advantage over the islanders is less, for instance, in the production of matting than in the production of leather goods, a trade might be set up which would be permanently advantageous to each country in which San Franciscan leather was exchanged for the matting produced on the island. Let it be supposed that in San Francisco leather can be made for one-fifth of the sacrifice of labour and capital that is necessary to its production on the island ”

“ But when two countries exchange with each other the commodities which each has some comparative facility for producing, each country is permanently benefited, and therefore such a trade will be lasting and stable in its character. ”

“ If the people on the island had carried on their exchanges by the means of money, we should say that the price of wheat went down very rapidly when a greater quantity was grown and when improved methods of cultivation were adopted. As, however, they did not use money, but exchanged commodities for commodities, we cannot speak of price declining; for price means the value of anything measured in money. ”

“ If it fails, of course there will be a loss to be endured; then the growing of wheat will have to be given up, and those who have till now been our wheat-growers will be able to give their labour to some other industry. Depend upon it, it will not be difficult to find new kinds of paying work; making the fibre of the plantain into cloth will require a vast amount of patient industry, and any labour that can be saved in other employments will be most profitably occupied in weaving, and first of all in manufacturing the necessary apparatus for weaving. ”

“ Her demand for these products therefore increases in consequence of the increased productiveness of her own labour. It accordingly happens that general prosperity and an increased demand for commodities nearly always go together; but the increased demand is not the cause of the increased prosperity. On the contrary, the increase of production gives those who benefit by it greater power to purchase the products of other kinds of labour; in other words, increased prosperity makes a greater demand for commodities possible. ”

“ For when the islanders could obtain no more money for their goods in San Francisco than at home, they naturally preferred to sell them at home rather than to run the risk and to bear the delay of sending their commodities to a distant country. When foreign trade is not reciprocal (that is, when one country only sends commodities and is paid by the other in money) the advantage is all on one side, and therefore it has no permanence or stability ”

“ Almost all grain can be turned into malt. Malting is a very simple process; and if when the malt is made, the brewing is successfully carried out, I am sure the value of the beer to its owners will more than compensate them for any inconvenience that they may suffer from being suddenly deprived of their usual means of selling their wheat. If the brewing is a success, the wheat-growers will be able to exchange the beer for the best of everything that we all produce. ”

“ But they will obtain something, and the increased wealth with which these plantain-trees have suddenly endowed us will enable us to give more in exchange for what we want than we could otherwise have done. There is no fear that our home-grown wheat will be wasted. As the demand for bread has been satisfied in a cheaper market, let me recommend those who are the possessors of wheat to try if they cannot turn their property to good account, both for themselves and us, by introducing a luxury that we should all very much appreciate ”

“ Therefore a profitable trade to both countries can be established if San Francisco sends boots to Isle Pleasant, and receives plantains in return. This is very true, but it does not always happen that one country has an absolute advantage over the other in any one particular branch of industry. Sometimes, owing to the greater fertility of the soil and other natural advantages, such as geographical position and the skill and industry of the population, one country has greater facility than the other with which it trades in producing every kind of commodity ”

“ As division of labour thus became more and more complete, shops were opened, so that everyone who wanted food, clothing, fishing-tackle, or any other commodity that was made by the inhabitants of the island, knew exactly where to go to buy it. ”

“ Captain Adam soon found that the question of the oil stood in the way of his being able to effect his object of setting up a communication for the exchange of merchandize and agricultural produce between the Srimats and the rest of the world. One of the old chiefs, to whom he broached the subject, pointed out, with much gravity, that his project was impracticable. "Two-thirds of our people," he said, "are occupied in our most important industry, the making of palm oil; the other third work hard to provide enough food and raiment for us all. ”

“ These various misfortunes made everybody see how much better things would go on if the carpenter did all the carpentering that was needed by the little colony. If the carpenter hired the tools of Green, Green would lose nothing, for the carpenter could give him more for the loan of them than anyone else, because no one could make such good use of them as the carpenter. The carpenter would also be a gainer, because he would then be able to turn his skill in his trade to the best account, and would get all his wants supplied by his companions in return for the services he rendered to them. ”