n equivalent advantage of some kind_. Ultimately
the whole subgroup will be in the state of efficiency it would have
reached if the improvement had been adopted by every _entrepreneur_ on
its first appearance.

_The Effect of an Improvement in Production which is quickly adopted
by a Whole Subgroup._--When an improvement is immediately adopted, not
by one employer merely, but by all employers in a subgroup, it is
likely to cause a quicker displacement of labor from the subgroup as a
whole. A very economical machine introduced by its inventor or
manufacturer and quickly adopted by all employers at _A''_ would
nearly always force a certain number of laborers to leave that
industry and find employment elsewhere, if it were not for one
commercial fact, namely, the reduction in the price of the product and
the consequent enlargement of the demand for it.

_How Labor may be displaced from a General Group._--The amount of _A'_
that can be created depends on the amount of _A_ that can be furnished
as material to be transformed into _A'_, and also on the amount of
_A'_ that will be taken for conversion into _A''_. This again depends
on the amount of _A''_ that will be accepted by employers at _A'''_
and sold in this last form to the consuming public. If the market for
_A'''_ cannot be much increased by a moderate reduction of the price
of it, some labor may have to go into the group of _B_'s or _C_'s; and
in any case there must be new labor in _A_, _A''_, and _A'''_ if the
product of _A'_ is increased. We can now measure the difference
between the effect of the adoption of an improvement first by one
employer and much later by others, and that of the quick adoption of
it by all. In this latter case there is not much delay in increasing
the output of the goods, and the market for them does not have time to
grow larger because of the growth in the numbers and the wealth of the
community. Unless the present market will take an enlarged quantity of
the finished goods without requiring that the price should go below
the new cost of making them, some labor will have to leave the general
group.

_How Patents may Cause an Increased Displacement of Laborers._--What
we often see is the nearly simultaneous adoption of a labor-saving
device by all leading employers in one industry. Something like this
takes place when the makers of a valuable machine retain the patent on
it in their own hands, and press the sale of it on all the producer