CHAPTER III: ACQUISITION AND PRODUCTION.

§ 736. Neither of these words suffices alone to cover the phenomena to be here treated of. From those early stages in which men subsist on the wild products their habitat yields, they progress to the stages in which the things they need, though produced by their habitat, are so produced only with the aid of labour; and it is this inclusion of labour as a chief factor which constitutes production, in contrast with simple acquisition.

The most conspicuous illustration is furnished by mining. Coal, ironstone, or copper ore, lies ready, and strictly speaking getting it comes under the head of acquisition; but because the required labour is great, we class coal-mining under the head of production. Again, fishermen simply appropriate what Nature furnishes in the adjacent seas; but as the catching fish by nets or otherwise is a laborious occupation, we regard fish as products of an industry.

Under one of its most general aspects, human progress is measured by the degree in which simple acquisition is replaced by production; achieved first by manual power, then by animal-power, and finally by machine-power.

§ 737. The transition is slow because among other requirements human nature has to be re-moulded, and the re-moulding cannot be done quickly. To the evidence Edition: current; Page: [363] yielded by the Paraguay Indians already named, may be joined some given by Mr. Brough Smyth in his characterization of the Australian. He “is not one to bear burdens, to dig laboriously, or to suffer restraint;” and he has no “such hands as are seen amongst the working classes in Europe. An English ploughman might perhaps insert two of his fingers in the hole of an Australian’s shield, but he could do no more.” The implied adaptation of hands to the daily use of tools among the civilized, must have been very gradual; and the disinclination to use relatively feeble hands in work, must have been a continual restraint upon production.

Again, there is the defect of emotional nature, shown, as before remarked, by inability to sacrifice present to future. Says Mr. Brough Smyth of the Australian—“He likes to exert himself when exertion is pleasurable, but not for ulterior purposes will he slave as the white man slaves, nor would he work as the Negro works, under the lash.”

Besides deficiency of the needful feeling, there is deficiency of that intellectual process whence foresight arises: there is no adequate recognition and balancing of means and ends and values. Of the North American Indian Mr. Dodge remarks:—

Yet a further hindrance arises from his readiness to bear privations, and accept the rudest satisfactions. A savage who can tolerate the falling of snow on his naked body, is less prompted than a higher man would be to exert himself in getting clothing. When Humboldt tells us that the Guahibos “would rather feed on stale fish, scolopendras, and worms, than cultivate a little spot of ground;” or when we read of the Hudson’s Bay Eskimos that “the blood of the deer is often mixed with the half-digested mass of food in the stomach of the animal, and the stomach, with its contents, Edition: current; Page: [364] with the addition of the blood, eaten raw or boiled,” we see that transition from acquisition to production is, in the lower races, hindered by the absence of feelings which in the higher races have become pronounced.

§ 738. As a means of satisfying the desires, production increases as the desires multiply and become stronger; and the order in which the different kinds of production develop, is determined by the relative strengths of the desires.

The first of these truths, sufficiently obvious, is illustrated by a statement of Rowney respecting the Gonds. After saying that “the Gond is excessively indolent and averse to labour,” he presently remarks that the Brinjáris (traders) “have succeeded in creating new wants and tastes among them,” and that payments for the satisfaction of these “have forced them to be more industrious in utilizing the produce of their forests.” So that growth of their desires, prompting surplus production, has at the same time initiated exchange.

The other truth, exemplified in certain self-evident results, is also exemplified in results that are not self-evident. Of course the primary needs for food and warmth have first to be in some degree met; and of course, the first kinds of production are those subserving these primary needs. But long before bodily wants are fully satisfied certain mental wants prompt other kinds of production. These are the desires which beget war, and the desire for admiration—the one leading to the making of weapons and the other to the making of decorations. Alien as these desires appear to be, they are yet fundamentally related; since in both is shown the ambition to be recognized as superior and to gain applause. Hence, on the production of weapons, partly for the chase but largely for war, great patience and skill are bestowed by the savage, while a pointed stick is used for digging up roots or even as an agricultural implement; and hence, during early stages of civilization, the art shown in Edition: current; Page: [365] weapons and armour is far in advance of that shown in appliances for ordinary life. In Old Japan “the occupation of a swordsmith is an honourable profession, the members of which are men of gentle blood.” The arms used by the Romans had become well shaped and finished at a time when, as we learn from Mommsen, the Roman plough still retained its primitive rude structure. Concerning a later stage we read that there were eight factories of arms in Gaul during days in which no other industrial establishments were mentioned. Then in Mediæval Europe there was the contrast between the well-made armour and weapons and the rough domestic appliances. So among ourselves. In the old English period there were “two classes of smiths, those who forged arms and weapons for military purposes, and others who were employed in fabricating . . . implements of agriculture.” After the Conquest—

And then we are told that at the beginning of the 15th century “the crafts which were occupied in working in metals were numerous. The armourers were as much distinguished as the goldsmiths for their skill and taste.” Meanwhile, as we see in museums, implements for daily use—tools, locks, latches, and so forth—were very rudely finished.

Countless anecdotes about savages who barter valuable produce for beads, gaudy fabrics, and other things used for display, show how strong among them is the wish to distinguish themselves by wearing things that are beautiful or costly. The histories of civilized peoples exhibit the same wish. “The trade of goldsmith,” says Mommsen, “existed in Rome from time immemorial.” References to gold ornaments and precious stones meet us everywhere in the records of early historic peoples; and everywhere we see that these things, significant of large possessions, were marks of class Edition: current; Page: [366] superiority, and helped to subordinate inferiors. From our own history here is a fact showing the consequent demand:—

Most marked, however, is the effect where the two motives combine; as illustrated in ancient times by the carved and chased shields of distinguished warriors, and as illustrated in feudal times by the elaborately inlaid swords and armour used by kings and wealthy nobles.

How greatly, even now, production subserves desires of this class, we see in our own households, where every glance around proves that the thought of usefulness is dominated by the thought of appearance.

§ 739. The antagonism between the militant and industrial kinds of activity and types of society, here meets us again. For though militant activity fosters those industries which appliances for attack and defence imply, and conduces to development of certain arts, so that for the making of hundred-ton guns and armour-plates fifteen inches thick, there have been invented methods which have beneficially influenced various peaceful businesses; yet in most respects the destroying activities have been antagonistic to the productive activities. Chronic wars in early European days repeatedly broke up the industrial organization. Between the 5th and 10th centuries in France, the greater number of trades ceased to flourish, or even disappeared altogether. In the 16th century “the highways were so overrun with briars and thorns that it was difficult to discover the tracks.” The Thirty Years’ War in Germany produced a social chaos: men went fully armed to their fields to resist marauders. Not only in this direct way is the antagonism manifested but even more in indirect ways. Many examples have shown us that in savage and semi-civilized societies all over the Edition: current; Page: [367] world, the men, hunting when not fighting, leave to the women whatever production is carried on. The immediate effect is that production is greatly restricted in amount. The remote effect is that population is checked and the strength of the society kept down, not only by deficiency of produce but also by infertility; for the power of women to produce children is diminished if they are overburdened by labours.

A more distant evil arises. Improvements in production are impeded. During early stages opposition to change is extreme: the very thought of improvement does not exist. And if barbarian men are conservative, barbarian women are still more conservative. Down even to our own day this contrast between the sexes is manifested. Hence the abstraction of men from the body of producers not only directly diminishes the quantity of products but also, by non-adoption of better methods, arrests increase of quantity while stopping the bettering of quality.

Nor is improvement retarded in this way alone. In proportion as the militancy of a society is pronounced, the contempt felt for all occupations other than war is great. Production is left to the lowest intelligences, and the higher intelligences cannot help them save under penalty of disgrace. Even the acquisition and diffusion of such knowledge as serves for the better guidance of industry, is continually checked by the scorn which the fighters pour upon the thinkers and teachers.

Looking at the facts in the broad, and dividing the social organism into the sustaining part and the expending part, of which last the fighting body is the chief component, we may say that this last, living on the first, continually restrains its growth, and occasionally, by the excessive demands it makes, causes dwindling and decay.

§ 740. The progress of industrial activity is thus in several ways dependent on the decline of militant activity. Edition: current; Page: [368] While war increases the mortality of men, it decreases by overwork the fertility of women and so checks population; it here abstracts and there destroys the surplus produce or capital which industry has accumulated; and it breeds contempt for peaceful occupations and hence leaves them without good guidance.

Peace, conducing to pressure of population and consequent difficulty in satisfying wants, prompts continuous application, prompts economy, prompts better methods. Stress of needs leads men severally to adopt occupations for which they are best adapted and by which they can make the most; and it becomes possible for the number of special occupations to increase as the increase of population affords men for each business. Once more the greater specialization of industries not only develops skill in each and consequently better products, but each kind of better product serves more or less to facilitate production in general.

Thus in all ways increase of population by its actions and reactions develops a social organism which becomes more heterogeneous as it grows larger; while the immediate cause for the improvement in quantity and quality of productions is competition.