Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/401

Rh in order to produce a more extended sale. It is in this stage that the manufacturer in the poor country first feels the effect of the competition; and if we suppose only two or three years to elapse between the first application of the new improvement in the rich country, and the commencement of its employment in the poor country, yet will the manufacturer who contrived the improvement (even supposing that during the whole of this time he has made only one step) have realized so large a portion of the outlay which it required, that he can afford to make a much greater reduction in the price of his produce, and thus to render the gains of his rivals quite inferior to his own.

(441.) It is contended that by admitting the exportation of machinery, foreign manfacturersmanufacturers [sic] will be supplied with machines equal to our own. The first answer which presents itself to this argument is supplied by almost the whole of the present volume; That in order to succeed in a manufacture, it is necessary not merely to possess good machinery, but that the domestic economy of the factory should be most carefully regulated.

The truth, as well as the importance of this principle, is so well established in the Report of a Committee of the House of Commons "On the Export of Tools and Machinery," that I shall avail myself of the opinions and evidence there stated, before I offer any observations of my own:

"Supposing, indeed, that the same machinery which is used in England could be obtained on the Continent, it is the opinion of some of the most intelligent of the witnesses that a want of arrange-