Chapter 4 Chapter Three: The Division of Labor is Restricted by the Scope of the Market

The division of labor arises from the exchange capacity, and the degree of the division of labor is always limited by the size of the exchange capacity, in other words, by the size of the market.If the market is too small, it will not encourage people to specialize in a career for life.Because in this state, they cannot use the surplus of their own labor products that they cannot consume to exchange for the surplus of other people's labor products that they need. Some businesses, even the most mundane ones, can only be run in the big cities.For example, porters can only live in the metropolis.Needless to say, small villages; even ordinary markets are too small to provide him with continuous work.Whoever is the farmer in the sparsely populated little villages scattered about the desolate Scottish Highlands cannot fail to be butcher, baker, and brewer for his family.It is not easy to find two blacksmiths, carpenters, or plasterers within twenty miles of such a place.The scattered households, at least eight or nine miles away from the artisans, were compelled to do many little things with their own hands; and in a populous country such little things would necessarily call for the assistance of professional workmen.The country laborers are almost everywhere employed by the same trade in several trades so similar in nature that they employ the same materials.The country carpenter will make everything made of wood; the country blacksmith will make everything made of iron.The rural carpenter is not only a carpenter, but also a joiner, a cabinetmaker, a carver, a wheel maker, a plow maker, and even a cart maker.The work of a carpenter is as complicated as that of a blacksmith.In such a remote interior as the Highlands of Scotland, it is impossible to maintain a single workman who specializes in making iron nails.Because even if he can only make 1,000 nails a day and work only 300 days a year, he can still make 300,000 nails a year.But there, he couldn't sell his daily production amount in a year, that is to say, he couldn't sell a thousand pieces.

Water transportation has opened up a much wider market than land transportation. Therefore, the division of labor and improvement of various industries have naturally started along the coast and along the river.This kind of improvement often spread to the interior slowly after a long time.Now, it takes six weeks to travel between London and Edinburgh with two horses and eight horses, driving a wide-spoke four-wheeled truck, carrying about four tons of goods.However, a ship with six or eight men driving a ship carrying 200 tons of cargo between London and Leith requires the same schedule.Therefore, what needs one hundred men, four hundred horses, and fifty four-wheeled wagons to carry goods can be carried by six or eight people by taking advantage of water transportation.Moreover, to transport 200 tons of goods from London to Edinburgh, based on the minimum land freight, it also needs to bear the living expenses of 100 people for three weeks, and the maintenance expenses of 400 horses and 50 wagons, and almost as much as the maintenance expenses. equal consumption.If it is transported by water, what should be borne is at best the living expenses of six to eight people, the consumption cost of a cargo ship with a load of 200 tons, and the relatively large insurance premium, that is, the difference between the insurance premium for water transportation and the insurance premium for land transportation.If, therefore, there were no other means of communication between these two towns than by land transport, no commodity could be transported from one to the other, except those goods of light weight and high price.In this way, the commerce between the two places is only a small part of what it is today, and the incentives provided by the two places for the development of industry in each other are only a small part of the present day.If there were only land transportation in the world, commerce between remote areas would definitely be impossible.Is there any cargo which can afford to be transported overland from London to Calcutta, and if there is such a cargo, what means of conveying it can safely pass through the territories of the many savage peoples intervening between the two places? Cities conduct large-scale trade with each other, provide each other with markets, and give each other great encouragement for each other's industrial development.

Because of the great convenience of water transportation, the improvement of crafts and industries will naturally occur where water transportation is convenient.It will always take a long time for such improvements to spread to the interior.Due to the isolation from the rivers and seas, the interior can only sell most of its products in neighboring places, but not in other places for a long time.The sales of its goods, therefore, must, in the long run, be in proportion to the wealth and population of the neighbourhood.Consequently, its improvement always lags behind that of its neighbours.The great plantations developed by our colonization of North America have been along the coasts and river banks, and have rarely extended very far from these.

According to the most reliable historical records, the earliest civilizations were the countries around the Mediterranean Sea.The Mediterranean Sea is the largest inland sea in the world today, and has no tides, so there are no terrible waves except wind and waves.In the Mediterranean Sea, due to the smooth sea surface, dotted islands, and very close to the shore, the compass needle has not been invented, shipbuilding is not yet perfect, people are unwilling to stay away from the coast, and regard the raging waves as dreadful, so it is most suitable for initial navigation.In antiquity, sailing past the ends of the world, in other words, sailing westward through the Strait of Gibraltar, was long considered the most dangerous and fearsome endeavor in navigation.Even the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, who were famous for their shipbuilding and navigation at that time, took a long time before they dared to try.Moreover, people from other countries dared to take it after they had tried it for a long time.

Among the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt was the first to develop agriculture or manufactures and improve the most.The prosperous areas of Upper Egypt were all within a few miles of the banks of the Nile.In Lower Egypt, the Nile River is divided into countless tributaries, large and small, distributed throughout the whole territory; these tributaries, as long as a little artificial work is done, can not only provide water for the major cities in the territory, but also for the important villages, and even for the farms in the villages. The convenience of transportation.This convenience is almost exactly the same as the Rhine and Maas rivers in Holland today.Inland navigation is so extensive and easy, no wonder Egypt advanced so early.

The provinces of Bengal in the East Indies, and several of the provinces of Eastern China, also appear to have been improved in agriculture and manufactures at a very early age, though as to the truth of this ancient deed my authoritative historians of Europe have not yet been able to ascertain. be corroborated.The Ganges and other great rivers in India branch off into many navigable tributaries, not unlike the Nile in Egypt.There are also several great rivers in the eastern provinces of China, which are divided into many tributaries and waterways, which communicate with each other and expand the scope of inland navigation.The scope of this navigation is not only comparable to that of the Nile or the Ganges, but even the combination of these two rivers cannot match.Strangely enough, the ancient Egyptians, Indians, and Chinese did not reward foreign trade.Their wealth seems to have been derived entirely from inland voyages.

In the interior of Africa, in Asia beyond the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the ancient Scythia, which is now Tartar and Siberia, seems to have always been barbaric.The Tartar Sea is an ice ocean that is not navigable. Although several world-renowned rivers flow through Tartar, most of them are not conducive to commerce and transportation due to the distance from each other.In Europe, there are the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic Sea; between the two continents of Europe and Asia, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea;But in Africa, there is no large inland sea, and the major rivers in the territory are too far apart, so there cannot be large-scale inland navigation.In addition, even if there is a large river running through the territory of a country, if there are no tributaries, and its downstream must flow through the borders of other countries before it flows into the sea, this country will still be unable to have large-scale commerce. Ocean traffic is subject to the domination of downstream countries at any time. As far as Bavaria, Austria, and Hungary are concerned, the utility of the Danube is extremely limited. It's not the same.Chapter Four