And the services to the public for which he is paid are just these, that he supplies them with more things and saves time in the doing of it. Farming is an instance of the first. By an ingenious system of irrigation, by careful manuring and an intelligent rotation of crops, the Chinese have produced a return which can hardly be si But it is evident that nothing can alter the course of nature. You can double the produce, but not all the skill at your command will enable you to produce on the same piece of land two crops of wheat in one year. A cotton mill is an example of the second. If the result of spending £200,000 in erecting buildings, in buying machinery and in paying for labour and accompanying expenses, is to produce in one year the same amount of yarn which it would have taken the same number of labourers to produce by the old method in three years, it is clear that you have saved a couple of years in time. And if the sale of your yarn realises £220,000, then your profit is 10 per cent per annum, and this becomes a measure of the general rate of profit. If higher, then capital will flow into cotton spinning until profits are reduced; if lower, capital will flow from it until profits rise to the point of equilibrim.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.