xxiv

AMERICAN  PREFACE.
s.
aceelerates  procluction  tends  to  lower  prices.  The  skill  which
devises  labor-saving  machinery,  and  then  tends  it,  must  of  necessity
diminish  the  value  added  to  raty  material  by  manufacture  ;  and,  the
greater  the  expenditure  of  skill  in  this  direction,  the  less  it’will
manifest  itself  in  the  price  of  products.  It  is  not  enough,  however,
to  exercise  skill  to  cheapen  produetion  ;  it  should  also  be  exercised
to  improve  the  quality  of  things  made,  and  thus  to  advance  prices.
But  it  is  taste  especially  which  can  contribute  to  the  value  of
innumerable  manufactures  ;  which  always  tends  to  enhance,  never
to  diminish,  prices.  True,  it  does  not  necessarily  require  more
labor  to  make  an  object  beautiful  than  to  make  it  liomely;  but  the
beautiful  object  always  commands  the  higher  price,  and  so,  while
the  consumer  is  better  pleased,  the  producer  is  better  paid.  That
is  the  way  of  it.
Now,  Americans  have  especially  distinguished  themselves  in
devising  labor-saving  machinery,  and  have  been  abundantly  *
rewarded  for  thus  cheapening  produetion.  Hence  it  does  not  follow
that  but  little  skill  has  been  expended  on  American  manufactures,
because  the  value  added  by  manufacture  is  so  much  less  than  the
value  of  raw  material  consumed.  There  has  been  little  lack  of
skill  that  increases  quantity.  But  what  is  said  of  Swiss,  English,
11  euch  manufactures,  as  a  whole,  should  also  be  said  of  American
manufactures,  namely,  that  their  price  is  advaneing 1  in  spite  of
cheapened  produetion  ;  and  this  will  be  said  of  them  when  we  give
as  much  thought  to  improving  their  quality  as  we  have  given  to
augmenting  their  quantitj-,  Though  there  is  ample  room  for  further
cheapening  produetion,  yet  we  shall  find  it  quite  as  much  to  our
advantage  to  improve  the  qualitj’  of  our  products.
OUR  EXPORTS  AND  IMPORTS  COMPARED.
If  we  now  turn  to  our  foreign  trade,  and  compare  our  exports
with  our  imports,  we  find  that,  to  speak  in  general  terms,  we
export  breadstuffs  and  raw  materials,  and  import  skill  and  taste.
1  It  is  estimated  that  in  England  alone  the  force  ofitained  from  coal,  and
applied  to  mechanical  pnrposes,  does  the  work  of  one  hundred  inillions  of  men
wuthout  any  off-setting  demand  for  food  and  clotking.  And  yet  the  prices
of  English  products,  as  a  -whole,  are  said  to  advance,  because  they  are  so
greatly  nnproved  in  quality.