Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/195

Rh number of persons, and also because it requires a very small degree of previous instruction. It seems, in fact, to be merely the exertion of a man's physical force; and its value above that of a machine of equal power arises from its portability, and from the facility of directing its efforts to arbitrary and continually fluctuating purposes. It may perhaps be worthy of inquiry, whether a more constant average might not be deduced from combining with this species of labour those trades which require but a moderate exertion of skill, and which likewise exist in all civilized countries, such as those of the blacksmith and carpenter, &c. In all such comparisons there is, however, another element, which, though not essentially necessary, will yet add much to our means of judging. It is an estimate of the quantity of that food on which the labourer usually subsists, which is necessary for his daily support, compared with the quantity which his daily wages will purchase.

(208.) The existence of a class of middle-men, between small producers and merchants, is frequently advantageous to both parties; and there are certain periods in the history of several manufactures which naturally call that class of traders into existence. There are also times when the advantage ceasing, the custom of employing them also terminates; the middle-men, especially when numerous, as they sometimes are in retail trades, enhancing the price without equivalent good. Thus, in the recent examination