Sec. 1. In considering the influence of Machinery upon the quality of
labour--_i.e._, skill, duration, intensity, intellectuality, etc., we
have first to face two questions--What are the qualities in which
machinery surpasses human labour? What are the kinds of work in which
machinery displaces man? Now, since the whole of industrial work
consists in moving matter, the advantage of machinery must consist in
the production and disposition of motive power. The general economies
of machinery were found to be two[198]--(1) The increased quantity of
motive force it can apply to industry; (2) greater exactitude in the
regular application of motive force (_a_) in time--the exact
repetition of the same acts at regulated intervals, or greater
evenness in continuity, (_b_) in place--exact repetition of the same
movements in space.[199] All the advantages imputed to machinery in
the economy of human time, the utilisation of waste material, the
display of concentrated force or the delicacy of manipulation, are
derivable from these two general economies. Hence it follows that
wherever the efficiency of labour power depends chiefly upon the
output of muscular force in motive power, or precision in the
regulation of muscular force, machinery will tend to displace human
labour. Assuming, therefore, that displaced labour finds other
employment, it will be transferred to work where machinery has not the
same advantage over human labour--that is to say, to work where the
muscular strain or the need for regularity of movement is less. At
first sight it will thus seem to follow that every displacement of
labour by machinery will bring an elevation in the quality of labour,
that is, will increase the proportion of labour in employments which
tax the muscles less and are less monotonous. This is in the main the
conclusion towards which Professor Marshall inclines.[200]

So far as each several industry is concerned, it has been shown that
the introduction of machinery signifies a net reduction of employment,
unless the development of trade is largely extended by the fall of
price due to the diminution in expenses of production. It cannot be
assumed as a matter of course that the labour displaced by the
introduction of automatic folders in printing will be employed in less
automatic work connected with printing. It may be diverted from
muscular monotony in printing to the less muscular monotony of
providing some new species of luxury, the