WEALTH AND MISERY.

BY ROBERT DALE OWEN.

But, shall it ever thus remain?

Shall man contented be

To starve, creating wealth for those
Who mock his misery?

No! ev'ry hour of time improves

The mighty wing of Mind,

And Man shall learn his power and leave
His woes and wants behind."

C. COLE.

London:

J. WATSON, 15, CITY ROAD, FINSBURY.

WEALTH AND MISERY.

The aggregate of those objects that supply the wants and contribute to the comforts of man, is WEALTH.

A man who has a regular supply of the objects of necessity and comfort is a wealthy man. He who has them not, is a poor

man.

It has been found convenient to represent weaith by portions of the precious metals, and by pieces of paper called monev, MONEY, then, is a conventional representative of wealth; adopted, in many nations, principally because it is more portable than wealth itself.

Money is not wealth, no more than words are ideas, or the painting of a horse is the animal itself. Yet, in consequence of the facility to exchange money for wealth, which at present exists in this and other countries, called civilized, many of us have become accustomed to regard these two as synonymous terms; and even to say wealth when we mean money, and money when we mean wealth.

Let us carefully avoid this error; for, gross as it appears, when stated, it is yet often unconsciously made; and, once adopted, it effectually excludes from the mind all correct ideas on the subject we are about to treat. Let us recollect, that if a man were cast away like Defoe's Robinson Crusoe on a desert island, and had found there a million of dollars, they would not enable him to procure even a draught of cold water: he would not be richer or poorer on account of their possession. And, on the other hand, one whose wants and comforts are regularly satisfied is a rich man, though he possess no money; all we can say is, his riches have not been represented by any artificial sign; but they are not the less valuable on that account.

The objects which supply man's wants and comforts are very various and numerous. Wealth, then, consists of a great variety of products; some of them are more, and some less difficult to produce and prepare.

In the rudest state of society, each man produced for himself whatever he consumed: but by degrees it was discovered, that many more comforts could be obtained by a division of labour. One man, for instance, was found to excel in hunting,

another in erecting huts, to defend from the inclemency of the weather; and the one agreed to hunt for his neighbour, while the latter constructed a habitation for the hunter. Thus originated professions, trades, and a division of labour. The advantages thence obtained were great: steady uninterrupted employment resulted in increased skill and facility of production. In consequence, barter became general, and was gradually changed through a long series of intricate and complimented modifications, till it assumed its present commercial form and character. Its object, however, still remained, or ought to have remained, the same, viz. to PRODUCE and DISTRIBUTE wealth in the most advantageous manner.

One of these objects has been obtained by commercial rivalry. Wealth is produced most abundantly. Competition has urged the human mind to the invention and application of mechanical improvements and chemical discoveries, till these have been made to create wealth for man to an enormous extent.

What that extent is at present in Great Britain, no one, that I know of, has ever endeavoured to ascertain, except my father, Robert Owen. He saw the vast results to be obtained even from a rough estimate of this immense and continually increasing power; and he possessed all the advantages for the task, which an extensive personal experience as a manufacturer, and an access to the most authentic statistical documents, could furnish.

Although he soon discovered that all the documents he could obtain, were insufficient to furnish a perfectly correct estimate, yet he saw enough to convince him that, whatever the exact amount of Britain's scientific power might be, at least it exceeded the manual labour of FOUR HUNDRED MILLIONS of working adults. That is to say: to create as much wealth without labour-saving machines and apparatus, as Great Britain's five millions of work-people produce with these artificial aids, would require an additional population of four hundred millions of workmen. And he has further ascertained, that, nineteen twentieths, at least, of this artificial power have been created within the last century.

These are all-important facts. Those who have not investigated the matter, may read them with incredulity. But the following statement will probably produce a conviction that the amount is not below that now stated:

Some years ago, three of the principal British manufacturers of cotton yarn made in different parts of the kingdom separate estimates of the quantity each workman in their establishments produced, compared with the average production of one person on the plan formerly pursued, that is, with hand cards and single spinning-wheel. They found, on examination, that they agreed in the conclusion that the proportion between the

quantity produced by one person with the present machinery and one on the former plan-was as 120 to 1; subsequent improvements have since raised the proportion to that of 150 to 1. But suppose the former; then, as there are about 300,000 persons employed in cotton-spinning in Great Britain, it follows that it would require 36,000,000 of work-people to produce, unaided by the late mechanical improvements, as much cotton yarn as 300,000 persons do actually produce. Now 36,000,000 is nearly one tenth of the whole amount as estimated by Robert Owen; and yet cotton-spinning is only one branch of one manufacture.

This estimate, therefore, cannot be very far wide of the truth; at all events, it is abundantly sufficient for our purpose.

I have stated, that the amount of scientific power now employed by Great Britain, to aid her working population in producing wealth, is equal, according to the estimate of Robert Owen, to the unaided manual labour of four hundred millions of workmen. Although I have given this estimate as an approximation only to the exact amount, yet I am convinced that it is not far from the truth; and I think it is more likely to be below than above the reality.

Still to avoid all possible cavil or charge of exaggeration, we will take the amount at one half of the above, or at two hundred millions only. This estimate, though probably so much below the truth, is quite sufficient for our argument.

The present population of Great Britain may be about 20,000,000. One fourth of this number is a large proportion of the whole to estimate as actual producers; but say one fourth, or 5,000,000. Then it follows, that each producer in Great Britain creates in any given period of time as much wealth, as at an earlier period of the world forty workmen produced in the same time. Great Britain is therefore forty times more wealthy now than she was then. Yet at that earlier period of the world, her population found means to subsist, and comfortably too; much more comfortably than her working class subsists to day: for starvation and a famine fever were evils scarcely known to their simple ancestors.

Or, to regard the subject from another point of view, the change to Great Britain, by the accession of modern scientific labour-saving power is the same as if each one of her work people had forty slaves labouring for him day after day, from morning till night, without a moment's idleness; YET REQUIRING

NEITHER FOOD NOR CLOTHING FOR THEIR SERVICES.

Strange, almost incredible, as it may appear, this is literally true and any one, who will take the trouble to examine the subject attentively, may satisfy himself that it is so. The fact, we are convinced, admits not of denial; and, what a lesson does it read to us!