Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/324

310 of vast capital in the erection of costly machinery for the working of the mines, for the construction of adequate means of transportation, thereby making remote deposits accessible, and enabling capitalists to work the mines at the minimum of cost, which never would have been done had not the vast consumption of coal rendered it wise and practicable to do so. It is true the consumption of coal is increased by cheapness; but it is only by extravagance, so to speak, by free and extensive use of coal, that the machinery by which it is made cheap is put in operation. We have an immense wealth of coal because we consume coal so extensively; if we used but little we should have little, and this little would be dear.

This rule works in all or nearly all our staples. Cotton fabrics are a marvel of cheapness and abundance. The consumption and the possibilities of extended consumption have stimulated invention and industry so greatly that the world has become wealthy in its supply of this staple alone. Rarely, indeed, is there a woman so poor that she cannot own a calico gown; few are the men so destitute as to be without cotton shirts. We have this staple in almost unlimited abundance, as the direct result of the most extended consumption. It is the same thing with wool, with flax, with paper, with iron, with brick, with many other things.

So peculiarly different is the operation of expenditure with a community from that of an individual, that it is worth while to trace it still further. Let us suppose a town about to erect a grand cathedral, or some other public structure that requires a very large quantity of stone. At first flush it would seem as if a great deal of valuable material would be used in a purpose unnecessary and unproductive; but, as a practical fact, the building-material is likely to become more abundant and cheaper than it ever was before. The unusually large consumption of stone would lead either to the opening of new quarries or the erection of improved machinery for working the stone, and to the construction of railways, boats, etc., for facilitating its transportation; so that stone for building purposes would thereafter be cheaper and more abundant as the consequence of what at first sight appeared a wasteful consumption. In all staple things, at least, a nation is richer because it consumes, while a man is richer by what he saves. We are better housed, better fed, better clothed, we have a thousand things of taste and pleasure, because our eager and devouring appetites have stimulated energy, skill, invention, to their utmost to cater for us.

We say nothing as to which is the wisest direction for consumption to take, with all it stimulating power; we do not deny that consumption may make champagne, diamonds, silks, broadcloth, fine furniture abundant, at the cost of more useful and desirable things. The thing is simply that the energy, the zeal, the exertion of men are so expansive, that great demand compels to great production; and, of course,