PART VIII: INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS.

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTORY.

§ 723. The often-used illustration of rapid growth furnished by a rolling snowball, exemplifies what may be named compound accumulation. The snowball does not gain in size by like increments but by increments of larger and larger amounts. At every roll over, its augmented weight gives it additional power of licking up the snow; and, further, at every roll over, the increase of its bulk increases the surface for the adhesion of more snow. So that the increments stand in what may be roughly called triplicate ratios. In the spread of a great fire we see a kindred instance. Observe the stages:—A spark falling on drying linen, a slow smouldering combustion, a small flame, a large flame from adjacent light fabrics that take fire, a volume of flame greatly augmented by the setting alight of furniture, a roaring flame from the burning framework of the partitions and the floor-joists. There results a conflagration of the house, then perhaps of adjacent houses, and then possibly of a whole quarter of the town: successive additions to the fire enabling it to spread not only by contact but by radiant heat, which inflames objects at a distance.

While serving to suggest the course of human progress, and more especially industrial progress, under one of its aspects, these instances serve but incompletely; for not only does industrial progress exhibit a compound acceleration resulting from increase of the operative forces, but it exhibits a further acceleration resulting from decrease of resistances. While the power of the evolving influences augments in a Edition: current; Page: [328] duplicate ratio, the power of the opposing influences diminishes in a duplicate ratio; and hence the fact that at the outset it took a thousand years to achieve a degree of improvement which is now achieved in one year.

As aids to teeth and hands, the primitive man had nothing beyond such natural products as lay around him—boulders, shells collected on the beach, bones, horns and teeth from the animals he had killed or found dead, branches torn from trees by storms. Roughly speaking, sticks and stones were his tools, and the sticks were necessarily unshapen; for he had nothing wherewith to cut their ends or smooth their surfaces. As alleged by General Pitt-Rivers, and shown by his collection, the stick was the parent of a group of implements—diggers, clubs, spears, boomerangs, throwing-sticks, shields, paddles; and only in courses of ages did the unimaginative savage produce these derived forms. Little by little he discovered how a stick or club, accidentally diverging in one or other direction from the average shape, served better for a special purpose; and he thereafter chose such sticks or clubs for such purposes: eventually falling into the habit of shaping fit pieces of wood into the fit forms.

Even this small advance was rendered possible only by the aid of rude tools, first for scraping and by and by for cutting; and the production of such tools took place almost insensibly during long periods. How many thousands of years back the Stone Age extends we do not know; but the roughly chipped flints found in geological deposits and in caves containing remains of extinct animals, imply great antiquity. Collisions of stones, now and then leaving edges fit for scraping with, and sometimes fit for cutting with, doubtless gave the first hints; and out of the breaking of many flints to get good pieces, grew, in the hands of the more skilful, the art of splitting off flakes with sharp edges, sometimes leaving a large sharp-edged core, also useful as a rough tool. From these forms, slowly differentiating from one another like the wooden implements, came definitely formed scrapers, notched Edition: current; Page: [329] pieces for saws, leaf-shaped blades, and what were apparently lance-heads. During the subsequent neolithic period the development of tools, beginning with some that were almost equally archaic, was carried, doubtless by a higher type of man, to a higher stage. Hatchets with ground edges, and then others ground all over, were made; and presently came implements through which holes were bored to facilitate attachment to handles. Inspection of one of the finished arrow-heads show that a considerable step had been made—the use of tools to produce tools. This progress, having simultaneously given the ability to shape pieces of wood effectually, made possible such large cutting implements as adzes. It needs but to consider the acts required for hollowing out a canoe from the trunk of a tree, to see what advances must have been made before even this simple appliance for traversing the water could be produced.

From contemplation of such archeological evidence may be gained an idea of the immense difficulties which, throughout a vast period, impeded advance in the arts; and even in these early stages we may see how much the progress was aided by that which we shall find to be its chief factor—the cooperation of appliances.

§ 724. By what steps the hunting stage advanced into the pastoral stage we are not likely ever to know. Domestication of herbivorous animals must have been a long process. Only when the numbers reared yielded their owners a subsistence better than that obtained by catching wild creatures and gathering wild fruits, could there arise that form of social aggregation which has so widely prevailed in Asia, and which has been so influential in initiating the structures and habits of most civilized societies.

Beyond difficulties which the pastoral type encountered at the outset, difficulties ever continued to beset it. To find food for herds was a problem daily presented afresh, and necessitating perpetual migrations. Droughts, entailing Edition: current; Page: [330] losses of stock, doubtless often prompted abandonment of the pastoral life and return to the hunting life. Discouragements must have frequently resulted from inability to find adequate supplies of water for flocks and herds. Unceasing care in shepherding was a heavy tax. Predacious beasts, sometimes stealthily approaching by day and having always to be guarded against at night, caused serious losses notwithstanding constant labour. And beyond enemies of large kinds there were small enemies to be contended with—the various parasites, internal and external, and the swarms of flies, from which at certain seasons it was needful to escape, as in our own times the Kalmucks escape with their cattle to the mountains.

In addition to the brute enemies there were the human enemies. Between men who took to a pastoral life and the hunting tribes they had left, chronic enmity must have grown up, and inroads upon herds must have been frequent. Then there presently arose conflicts between the pastoral tribes themselves. The strife between the dependents of Abraham and those of Lot, growing out of rival claims to pasturage, illustrates this evil. Not only must there have been fights about feeding grounds but also about thefts of cattle; as there are now among South African tribes, and as indeed there were among ourselves on the Scottish border not many generations ago.

Beyond general resistances to progress thus entailed, there have been in some cases special resistances akin to them. The adoption of a higher form of social life by one people engenders enmity in adjacent peoples who adhere to the old. The story of Cain and Abel, described as “tiller of the ground” and “keeper of sheep” (but who cannot be regarded as actual persons, since Adam was not in a condition for suddenly establishing his sons in arable farming and stockkeeping), evidently refers to leaders of tribes between which there arose a feud, because men of the one turned to agricultural purposes lands which men of the other claimed Edition: current; Page: [331] the right to feed their flocks over. This we can scarcely doubt after learning from the ancient books of the East that this cause initiated chronic wars.

Evidently, then, the resistances to be encountered in the transition from the hunting life to higher forms of life were many and great, and doubtless caused innumerable failures. Nature shows us that many seeds are produced that a few may germinate, and that of those which germinate only some survive to maturity. With types of society the like has happened. We may safely conclude that those types out of which civilized societies came, established themselves only after countless abortive attempts.

§ 725. Like other kinds of progress, social progress is not linear but divergent and re-divergent. Each differentiated product gives origin to a new set of differentiated products. While spreading over the Earth mankind have found environments of various characters, and in each case the social life fallen into, partly determined by the social life previously led, has been partly determined by the influences of the new environment; so that the multiplying groups have tended ever to acquire differences, now major and now minor: there have arisen genera and species of societies.

Such low peoples as the Fuegians, Tasmanians, Australians, and Andaman Islanders, subsist exclusively on wild food, gathered or caught; and among the Fuegians and the Eskimo, no other food can be procured. Elsewhere, as in Australia, sustenance on tame animals and their products, is negatived by the absence of kinds fit for domestication. And these inferior varieties of hunters show us no rudiments of agriculture. It is otherwise with the superior hunting tribes of North America. While some live exclusively on game, roots, and fruits, others have partially passed from the hunting life into the agricultural life. The Dakotas in general are hunters only; but one division of them, the Mdewakantonwans, began, nearly a century since (apparently Edition: current; Page: [332] in imitation of the whites), to grow corn, beans, and pumpkins. The Mandans, too, did not live exclusively on wild food, but raised “corn and some pumpkins and squashes.” Above all the Iroquois, the most civilized in their political organization as in their habits of life, had a considerably developed agriculture, for which, judging by their traditions, they were not indebted to Europeans. Morgan, describing a village enclosure, says:—

He tells us in another place that:—

South America supplies like contrasts. Apibones and Patagonians maintain themselves on wild food only; but artificial products are used by the Guiana tribes, the Brazilian tribes, and others: different degrees of progress being shown by them. Of the Tupis we read:—

The like is said of the Guiana Indians; while of the Mundrucus it is said by Bates that—“They make very large plantations of mandioca, and sell the surplus produce.” So, too, Wallace writes concerning the Uaupés:—

Thus, keeping of animals has not everywhere preceded agriculture. In the West considerable civilizations arose which gave no sign of having had a pastoral origin. Ancient Mexicans and Central Americans carried on crop-raising Edition: current; Page: [333] without the aid of animals of draught; and lacking horses, cattle, and sheep as they did, there was no stock-farming to cooperate with arable farming by furnishing manure as well as traction. Of course a like industrial history is to be recognized among the South Sea Islanders.

Here, however, we are concerned not so much to note this independent origin of agriculture (which in the stages indicated is a kind of developed gardening) as to note the immense obstacles to cultivation in early stages. Some idea of these may be formed from the description given by Mr. James Rodway, F. L. S., of “Man’s conflict with Nature” in South America, where clearings are soon re-conquered by the invading vegetal life around. Speaking of an “ordinary squatter’s clearing,” he says:—

Various hill-tribes in India yield illustrations of rude agriculture and its difficulties. Concerning the Lepchas, who “rarely remain longer than three years in one place,” we read that the process of clearing consists “in cutting down the smaller trees, lopping off the branches of the large ones, which are burnt, and scratching the soil with the ‘bân,’ after which, on the falling of a shower of rain, the seed is thrown into the ground.” Of the Bobo and Dhimáls it is said:—“The characteristic work is the clearing of fresh land, which is done every second year . . . Firing is the last effectual process.” “The Kookies,” says Butler, “raise only one crop, and then relinquish the land and cut down Edition: current; Page: [334] new forests of bamboo for the cultivation of the succeeding year.” Concerning men of another tribe, Masters writes:—

And Mason says of the Karens:—

How laborious is their husbandry is proved by photographs illustrative of Karen life, kindly sent to me from Maulmain, Burma, by Mr. Max Ferrars. In them is shown the clearing of a patch of forest, which, after one crop of rice, must be left fallow for 10 to 20 years; there is the stage made on a steep hill-side for threshing; and there are the huts for watching: some of them of special construction to meet danger from tigers. Similarly among the Gonds. Notwithstanding that he has already made a fence round his clearing, “sometimes the owner of a dhya will watch at night on a platform in the middle of the field and endeavour to save it from wild animals.”

When we remember that such rude agriculture as these hill-tribes carry on, is made possible by an implement for which they are indebted to more advanced peoples—the axe—we may form some idea of the almost insurmountable obstacles which had to be overcome at the outset, when there were no implements but pointed sticks and hoes made of the blade-bones of animals, and when there was no knowledge of plant-culture. Indeed, it is surprising that agriculture ever arose at all: the reward was so uncertain and the labour required so great. And here is observable an instance of that increasing rapidity of progress referred to at the outset as arising from decrease of resistance. While rude cultivation was limited to little scattered spots amid vast tracts covered with forest, wild Nature continually overwhelmed Edition: current; Page: [335] the husbandman’s artificial Nature. But the antagonism of wild Nature became gradually less effective as fast as the cleared areas became larger and the uncleared smaller. Even still, however, weeding while the crops are growing forms a considerable element in the cost of farming; and clearing the ground and burning the weeds after harvest forms a further element of cost: to which add that large parts of crops are often destroyed by injurious insects. Thought of these facts will still more impress us with the immense natural opposition to the cultivation of the soil in its early stages.

§ 726. To that developed system now named agriculture, in which the rearing of animals and plants is carried on simultaneously in such manner that each aids the other, more obstacles still were at the outset opposed. The supporting of animals on wild pastures widely scattered was excluded when cultivation of the ground began. Only such habitats were available as furnished grass or roots within a moderate area. A constant supply of water, too, became needful, since the daily driving of cattle and sheep to remote drinking places was impracticable. Further, it was needful that at no great distance there should be wood for fuel, implements, and the building of habitations. Hence the fit localities were comparatively few. There was requisite, too, some progress in the arts. Before the advantages yielded by animals of draught could be made available, a rude implement for turning up the soil had to be invented; and cutting tools of such kinds as admitted of considerable force being used had to be fashioned. No considerable area could be properly cultivated until some appliance for diminishing the labour of carrying in crops and carrying out manure, had been devised: probably at first a sledge. Then, too, the protection of domestic animals from robbers, brute and human, required a fold; where, also, manure could be collected.

In our own time Africa furnishes sundry transitional forms. The Hottentots and Damaras are pastoral and nomadic only. The Bechuanas “lead their herds to pasture, and construct enclosures for them;” and, besides their gardens, “their fields are commonly fenced round.” Thompson says of them:—

Of the Kaffirs we read that they secure a continuous supply of green grass by burning the old grass; that they dig with little spades of hard wood; that they have fences round villages and sometimes round cornfields; and that they have subterranean granaries like the Iroquois. The Coast-negroes “have neither plough nor beasts of burden to assist in the operations of the field:” their agriculture “consists in throwing the rice upon the ground, and slightly scratching it into the earth with a kind of hoe;” and they “never raise two successive crops from the same plantation.” In Congo the land is manured only with the ashes obtained by burning the long reedy grass: they have no draught animals and therefore no ploughs. Agriculture among the Ashantis has not progressed beyond clearing and burning followed by a rude breaking up and scattering of seed. The Inland negroes, who cultivate many plants, are more advanced in their modes of operation, as well as in the variety of their animals: camel, horse, ass, ox, pig, goat, sheep, turkeys, ducks, geese, and fowls. A people near the Gambia visited by Mungo Park “collect the dung of their cattle for the purpose of manuring their land.” A race of higher type, the Fulahs, who have horses as well as cattle, “raise successive crops from the same ground . . . they collect the weeds, &c. . . . and burn them . . . hoe into the ground the ashes, after having mixed them with the dung of cattle.” Still more developed is agriculture among the most powerful of the African peoples, the Dahomans; who have cattle, sheep, Edition: current; Page: [337] goats, and poultry. “Some, more industrious, dispose over their crofts the huge heaps of kitchen-midden that have grown about their houses.” In some cases two crops are obtained from the same ground annually. And then the Abyssinians have made a further step. Harris says:—

This use of a soil-turning implement and this use of manure coming from animals, are steps in civilization of extreme importance; chiefly because they make possible a large population in a fixed habitat. Egyptian wall-paintings show that a plough, drawn by oxen, was early in use. When escaping from their captivity the Hebrews carried with them the agricultural knowledge gained; and while some of the tribes returned to their primitive shepherd-life, others, settling, fell into an advanced agricultural system and consequent development of city-life. The account of their doings during the periods of the Judges and Kings, implies ploughing, manuring, sowing, reaping, binding in sheaves, treading out corn, threshing, irrigation, terracing of hill sides; and at the same time the growth of vines, olives, and various fruits. The like happened with the Aryan races. Originally pastoral, they spread through Europe and, subjugating the indigenous races, fell into a mode of life in which there was a like union of these two leading processes—rearing herds and growing crops,—with similar effects: a settled life and an urban civilization.

But though the highest results have been thus reached, we must remember that, as shown by the ancient American peoples, great advances may be otherwise made.

§ 727. The foregoing rude outline will serve its purpose if it yields a general impression of early industrial progress Edition: current; Page: [338] as having been met by many and great obstacles, and as having increased its rate when it surmounted one after another of these: the power of dealing with Nature having step by step increased while the resistances offered by Nature have step by step decreased.

But nothing like a complete conception of the impediments which it has taken many thousands of years to overcome, can be formed until we have observed those arising from human nature itself. The original traits of this were in various ways adverse to improvement. Chronic war which characterizes hunting tribes (originally prompted by increase of numbers and consequent lack of food) hinders the settled industrial life. It does this by drafting off men from peaceful pursuits; by generating a contempt for all occupations but that of fighting and a pride in robbing; and by entailing frequent destructions of settlements and losses of produce. Thus Barrow states that the Kaffirs were sometimes compelled, on account of war, to suspend agricultural operations for several years. The primitive Greeks, who took their arms with them to the fields, must have been much discouraged from farming by the raids which the tribes made on one another. Of the legendary period Grote writes—

Clearly, while the predatory instincts are predominant, they stand in the way of those habits which initiate a higher social state.

The mental and bodily constitution fitted to a wild life, can be re-moulded to fit a settled life only by slow steps. Desires which find satisfaction in the chase, in adventures, in wandering, not dead even in ourselves, are so strong in the Edition: current; Page: [339] savage as to make quietude intolerable; and the change which not only denies him activities appropriate to his powers and feelings, but forces on him monotonous labour, is both negatively and positively repugnant. Sudden transition from uncivilized to civilized life is, indeed, fatal; as was shown when, by the Jesuits in Paraguay, the natives were drilled into regular industry. They became infertile, and the numbers of the colony diminished.

Provident habits have to be acquired. The lowest types of men, revelling in abundance when accident brings it to them, thereafter remain idle until hunger compels activity. Though the higher hunting races display this trait less markedly, yet in them too there lacks that constant foresight, and subordination of the present to the future, which are required for the agricultural life.

Once more, there has to be profoundly modified that early type of nature over which custom is so tyrannical. The tribal practices, cruel though they may be, are submitted to by the young savage at his initiation without a murmur; and the sacredness attaching to usages of this kind, attaches to usages in general. Even by the lower civilized races the methods sanctified by tradition are adhered to spite of proof that other methods are much better. The thought of improvement, now so dominant with us, does not exist at first; and when by some accident better ways are suggested they are obstinately opposed.

In various ways, then, industrial progress, in common with progress at large, originally insensible in its rate, has become appreciable only in the course of ages, and only in modern times has become rapid. While the forces conducive to it have been continually increasing, resisting forces, both external and internal, have been continually decreasing; until at length the speed has become such that the improvements which science and enterprise have achieved during this century, are greater in amount than those achieved during all past centuries put together.