Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/354

320 author employs either publisher or printer to purchase it, they ought to receive a moderate remuneration for the risk, since they become responsible for the payment; but there is no reason why, if the author deals at once with the paper-maker, he should not purchase on the same terms as the printer; and if he choose, by paying ready money, not to avail himself of the long credit allowed in those trades, he ought to procure his paper considerably cheaper.

(386.) It is time, however, that such conventional combinations between different trades should be done away with. In a country so eminently depending for its wealth on its manufacturing industry, it is of importance that there should exist no abrupt distinction of classes, and that the highest of the aristocracy should feel proud of being connected, either personally or through their relatives, with those pursuits on which their country's greatness depends. The wealthier manufacturers and merchants already mix with those classes, and the larger and even the middling tradesmen are frequently found associating with the gentry of the land. It is good that this ambition should be cultivated, not by any rivalry in expense, but by a rivalry in knowledge and in liberal feelings; and few things would more contribute to so desirable an effect, than the abolition of all such contracted views as those to which we have alluded. The advantage to the other classes, would be an increased acquaintance with the productive arts of the country,—an increased attention to the importance of acquiring habits of punctuality and of business,—and, above all, a general feeling that it is honourable, in any rank of life, to increase our own and our country's riches, by