XIV 
AMERICAN P RE FACE. 
In thc second place, rüde manufactures not only have the pref 
erence of tlie consumer against them, but transportation also puts 
tliem at a disadvantage. Every one must pay for gettiug whatever 
he produces to market; and the real market in which he sells is 
the place whence come the products he receives, directl}' or indi- 
rectly, in exchango for his own. Hence the rüde laborer who 
exchanges his products for the less bulky products of the skilled, 
artistic laborer must coutribute the most towards effecting the 
exchange. By way of illustration, take a Geneva watch that has 
cost the producer two hundred and fifty dollars by reason of its 
skilful workmanship ; suppose ßve dollars to be the expense of 
getting it to market; then transportation adds two per cent to 
the original cost of the watch. But transportation would add 
twenty per cent in the case of a twenty-five dollar watch. Again : 
take a Turkish rüg that has cost the producer five hundred dollars^ 
by reason of its beauty, and another rüg of the same weight, that 
has cost the producer only ten dollars ; call the expense of trans 
portation five dollars for each ; one per cent is added to the origi 
nal cost of the rüg in the first instance, and fifty per cent in the 
second. Bolder contrasts miglit be named, but these are enougli 
to illustrate the fact that transportation even for great distancCs 
can but slightly affect those manufactures which are the most 
desirable. In a word, it costs but little to transport skill and 
taste, but much, comparatively, to transport ignorance and raw 
material. 
In 1873, according to the Statement of the American Cousul at 
Basle, thc watches sent from Switzerland to the United States 
were valued at $2,520,104 at the point of shipment. To pay for 
them it would have taken in Illinois, say, 5,000,000 busheis of corn. 
Now, as each party must pay, by deducting from the home price, 
for getting his own products to market, at what a disadvantage 
transportation, in the supposed case, would have placed the Illinois 
farmer ! The Swiss, making no allowance for distancc, would have 
paid no more for corn coming from Illinois than for other corn 
coming only from France. Little wonder, then, that the Illinois 
farmer converts his corn into pork and lard, so far as possible, 
before sending it across the Atlantic, that he may put into his own 
pocket the difference in transportation. Again : in 1873 the United