ork, and are also removed
from the market, and so it goes on, always the same old round, or rather,
so it would go if other circumstances did not intervene. The
introduction of the industrial forces already referred to for increasing
production leads, in the course of time, to a reduction of prices of the
articles produced and to consequent increased consumption, so that a
large part of the displaced workers finally, after long suffering, find
work again. If, in addition to this, the conquest of foreign markets
constantly and rapidly increases the demand for manufactured goods, as
has been the case in England during the past sixty years, the demand for
hands increases, and, in proportion to it, the population. Thus, instead
of diminishing, the population of the British Empire has increased with
extraordinary rapidity, and is still increasing. Yet, in spite of the
extension of industry, in spite of the demand for working-men which, in
general, has increased, there is, according to the confession of all the
official political parties (Tory, Whig, and Radical), permanent surplus,
superfluous population; the competition among the workers is constantly
greater than the competition to secure workers.

Whence comes this incongruity? It lies in the nature of industrial
competition and the commercial crises which arise from them. In the
present unregulated production and distribution of the means of
subsistence, which is carried on not directly for the sake of supplying
needs, but for profit, in the system under which every one works for
himself to enrich himself, disturbances inevitably arise at every moment.
For example, England supplies a number of countries with most diverse
goods. Now, although the manufacturer may know how much of each article
is consumed in each country annually, he cannot know how much is on hand
at every given moment, much less can he know how much his competitors
export thither. He can only draw most uncertain inferences from the
perpetual fluctuations in prices, as to the quantities on hand and the
needs of the moment. He must trust to luck in exporting his goods.
Everything is done blindly, as guess-work, more or less at the mercy of
accident. Upon the slightest favourable report, each one exports what he
can, and before long such a market is glutted, sales stop, capital
remains inactive, prices fall, and English manufacture has no further
employment for its hands. In the beginning of the d