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    THE OPINIONS OF JOHN STUAUT MILL. 195

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    .. * • Part Ii. Co-Operation. Neail The ...

    men in this direction : the first of which is the immense importance now attachinto the production of wealth . It is quite a modern

    ideaat least g in its modern sense . Of course individuals at all times liked , riches ; plenty to eat , to drink , and to spend ; but if they failed

    to acquire them they acquiesced more quietly than they do now . Commerce ran more in a groove : there was a commercial class , and

    there were commercial cities par excellence . Every city is now commercial , or struggling to become so . The modern idea of capital

    was formerly pretty much confined to Jews and Lombards , and burghers of the middle class . Now , every gentleman considers

    how he may best lay his out to advantage . But what is the result of money thus rolling over and over , and

    accumulating like a snowball at every revolution ? There is immenselmore goldalso more meat and drink and clothes ; and

    yet somehow y the distribution , among the increased population is not quite satisfactory ; since Mr . Fawcett says in _ukfacmillan's Magazine

    for October , that the laborer has not as much to eat and drink as he had in the reign of Henry VIII . The money and the food

    must lie somewhere in drifts ; and as neither the aristocracy of rank nor the aristocracy of trade can eat and drink and wear more than

    a limited amount in a year , it behoves us to seek some method of spreading the necessaries of life over a larger class . When we

    begin to investigate causes , it appears that one great power underlies all modern trade—the power of capital . Plenty of capital , absolute

    security for that capital , and rapid contrivances to make that capital turn round and double itself at every turn , these are the

    Articles of Trade . Now mark the result : the man with capital is not merely a double

    manbut a tenfold man : he is not merely a man and money , but a moneyed , man . His power has increased in a geometrical ratio . If

    you want the proof , it lies in this , that a man with £ 100 , 000 can use up the labor of say Rye thousand of his fellow-creatures _,,

    pay ing what them a is fraction to be done of what ? His he gets advantage _Jiimself is perfectly fair . He :

    saved his money , and his money has made him equal to ten men . He has made a huge leverand of course he can lift immense weights .

    If he chooses to buy up , the Highlands and turn off the cottars , can hardlinterfere with him tinder the present laws of

    men you prope must rty ; and to if y the he union takes . a freak Of course and shuts it is up very his unlikel mill , t y he that work he

    will do any go thing very unreasonable . He has his interests and also his character to consult ; and it is possible that he is one of the

    best of men , and that he and his family are doing all they can for the comfort and instruction of the workpeople . All I wish to point

    out isthat he actually does possess an enormous power ; that thousands , of his fellow-creatures are in his hand ; and that , in the

    words of a French thinkerles barons de la FeodaliU are only re-, placed by les barons de VIndustrie ,

    o 2

    The Opinions Of John Stuaut Mill. 195

    THE OPINIONS OF JOHN STUAUT MILL . 195

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1860, page 195, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111860/page/51/