Page:Ferdinand Lassalle - The Working Man's Programme - tr. Edward Peters (1884).djvu/22

 for the market of the world, is, speaking generally, easily accomplished only on the condition that the cost of the production of this article shall be moderate, and also the transport of it cheap enough not to raise its price exorbitantly. For production in vast quantities requires an enormous sale; and the extensive sale of any kind of produce is only rendered possible by its cheapness, which makes it accessible to a large number of purchasers. Cheapness of production and transport therefore cause the production of wares of any kind to take place on a large scale. But conversely, you will at once see that it is the production of an article in large quantities which causes and increases cheapness. A manufacturer for instance who sells two hundred thousand pieces of cotton in the year, is enabled by purchasing his raw materials cheaper on so large a scale, and also because the profits on his capital and the expense of his plant and machinery are divided between so large a number of pieces, he is enabled, I say, within certain limits, to sell each piece much cheaper than a manufacturer who only produces five thousand such pieces every year. The greater cheapness of production leads therefore to production in larger quantities, and this leads again to still greater cheapness, which calls forth again a still larger production, which once more causes further cheapness, and so on.

Precisely the same thing happens with regard to the division of labour, which on its side again is the necessary condition of extensive production and of cheapness, for without it neither cheapness nor production on an extensive scale would be possible.