Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/60

 actually reduced. Only a very small part of the labour necessary to make the cloth consisted in bringing the fibre from the place where it grew to the place where it was manufactured; nineteen-twentieths of the labour required to produce cloth was engaged in preparing the raw fibre, and in weaving it after this preparatory process was complete. A few years' experience in these manufacturing industries caused such an improvement in the implements used, and in the skill with which they were handled, that although the labour of procuring the raw fibre had increased, the total labour of producing a piece of cloth had very much diminished, and its exchange value was therefore proportionately reduced.

There is nothing more about the little colony that I can remember, except that after being on the island for twenty years, they were visited by H.M.S. Leo, the captain of which offered to take away half the colony in his vessel, and to send for the other half in a few months. Only twelve of them, however, wished to leave at all. The others thanked the captain,