AND ON THE CONTINENT.
147
in its own country (29). Germany stands also in tliis respect onthe step of the economical development which England hadattained in the “ thirties.” The replacement of labour bymachinery is still comparatively slight, and therewith Germany also still lacks that operative, just as capable for labour as forconsumption, which forms to-day the strength of England . Inconsequence of this the farmer has also not yet the market for theproducts of his garden and spade which make him himself a goodcustomer, capable of paying for the productions of centralisedindustry.
IV.—Comparison of the Costs of Production in England and.
The rising markets of the world have evolved the modem methodof production on a large scale, and in the first instance in thecotton industry. But other trades have rapidly followed in thislatter’s footsteps, especially the iron industry, machine making,and shipbuilding, so that at the present time English nationaleconomy bears a centralised industrial character. Tliis progresswas a consequence of certain historical conditions arising fromcertain natural advantages of England . But the latter as per-manent elements must give way to the continuous cheapening ofthe costs of production. The industrial strength of England de-pends no longer in the first instance on those natural advantages,but rather on the fact that English national economy has farthestadvanced the technical, commercial, and social results of moderncentralised industry; and that therewith, both by employers andemployed, that psychological change has been most developed—that psychological change which, we noted above, occurred withthe departure from the customary foundations of the old methodsof trade. The onward-driving wheel of the advancement was thepressure or demands of the world’s market. Seen from this pointof view, the fact will be easily understood that at the presentmoment the costs of building and running mills, and of raw materialsand finished articles in the greatest staple industry, are thecheapest in England .