The inventions by which the manufacturing of the world was transformed
from the household and the workshop to the great factory were the
result of years, generations indeed, of study of conditions one by one
as they arose. “No one of the inventions which were greatest in their
effect,” says Hobson, “was in the main attributable to the effort or
ability of a single man: each represented in its successful shape the
addition of many successive increments of discovery; in most cases the
successful invention was the slightly superior survivor of many
similar attempts. This is the history of most inventions. The pressure
of industrial circumstances directs the intelligence of many minds
toward the comprehension of some single point of difficulty, the
common knowledge of the age induces many to reach similar solutions,
that solution which is slightly better adapted to the facts comes out
victorious, and the inventor, purveyor or in some cases the robber is
crowned as a great inventive genius.”
England was the earliest scene of the development of the factory 204
system, the bringing together of great buildings and centers of great
masses of machinery operated by water or steam power and manned by
great numbers of people--for however ingenious the machine a certain
amount of human intelligence is necessary for its management and the
conduct of the work which it is to perform. The reasons for the
earlier development in England are not difficult to find. It had its
colonies in all parts of the world, from which to draw the raw
material and in which to market the manufactures, for it for many
years discouraged or prohibited manufacture in the colonies; it had
great shipping facilities for transporting its products to all parts
of the world, and to bring raw material and food supplies to its
workers at home; the ownership of its lands in great estates had a
tendency to send to the cities and manufacturing centers that part of
the population which under other circumstances would have employed
itself in agriculture; the laboring population yielded more readily to
the methods of the manufacturing interests than in other countries
where trade guilds determined more definitely the occupations and
methods of occupation of the working classes; and the comparative
freedom from wars permitted a more rapid growth than that of other
countries in which disturbances of this character were more frequent
and more liable to frequency than in an insular country, England.
“When Crompton’s mule, Cartwright’s power loom and Watt’s engines were
transforming the industry of England,” says Hobson, “her continental
rivals had all their energies absorbed in wars and political
revolutions.”
Much of the wool and flax required in the English industries was
produced at home. The colonies supplied the other fibers; the ships
returning from their voyages to the colonies brought the raw silk; the
absence of mountains to separate the country and the people into
districts and classes enabled the interchange of labor and materials;
the early development of rivers and canals gave cheap transportation; 205
the plentiful supply of coal encouraged the development of steam
power; and the proximity of iron ore and coal aided in developing that
other great manufacturing industry, iron and steel. Mr. Mulhall, the
celebrated statistician, estimates the value of the manufactures of
the United Kingdom in 1780 at 177 million pounds sterling, France 147
million, Germany 50 million, Austria 30 million, Russia, Italy and
Spain 10 million each, and the United States 15 million. In 1896 he
estimated the value of the manufactures of the same countries as
follows: United Kingdom, 876 million pounds sterling; France, 596
million; Germany, 690 million; Austria, 328 million; Russia, 380
million; Italy, 190 million; Spain, 121 million; and the United
States, 1,980 million. According to his estimate the gain in the 116
years, from 1780 to 1896, was: United Kingdom, from 191 to 876 million
pounds sterling; France, from 115 to 596 million; Germany, from 50 to
690 million; Austria, from 30 to 328 million; Russia, from 10 to 380
million; and the United States, from 15 to 1,980 million. Mr.
Mulhall’s estimates put the total value of the manufactures of
continental Europe in 1780 at about 1½ times those of the United
Kingdom; in 1896 at about 3 times those of the United Kingdom. His
estimates put the value of manufactures in the United States in 1870
at about 3⅓ per cent that of all Europe; in 1896 at about 55 per
cent that of all Europe.
It must not be supposed, however, that this transformation was, by any
means, instantaneous. It was, in fact, a matter of slow growth, even
in the older countries, and still more so in those countries which had
not yet developed their natural products or their agricultural
industries. In the case of the United States, for example, the
transformation from the hand to the machine methods did not come until
many years after that of the leading countries of Europe. The reason
for this slow movement on the part of the United States is not 206
difficult to understand. Her people were chiefly engaged in
agriculture, in felling the trees and clearing the lands in the
eastern part of the country, and in opening farms on the prairies of
the great West. Those who had capital to invest in enterprises other
than that of agriculture gave their attention to the construction of
methods of transportation, first, toll roads, stage coaches and pack
trains, then, canals, and finally railways. This occupied the
attention of the people of this new country for a generation after the
people of Europe and especially England were engaged in developing
their manufacturing industries.
So it is not surprising to see that Mr. Mulhall’s figures show that
English manufactures in 1820 were nearly 6 times as much as those of
the United States, and in 1840, 4 times as much as those of this
country; and even in 1860, considerably exceeded our own. But in the
next twenty-year period there came a great change. The Civil War in
the United States, with the home demands in the manufacturing section,
the North, rapidly developed the manufacturing industries, and the
development thus created continued after the close of that unhappy
period. So his figures indicate that in 1888, the next date which his
table touches, that our manufactures were 1¾ times as much as those
of the United Kingdom, and in 1896, 2¼ times as much in value as
those of the United Kingdom and half as great as those of all Europe.
Accepting the figures of Eugene Parsons, elsewhere referred to, for
the European countries in 1904, and accepting the official figures of
the United States for that same year, we find that the figures of the
value of manufactures in the United States are nearly 3 times those
accredited to the United Kingdom and but little less than those of all
Europe.
It is proper to say, however, that these statements, whether of
Mulhall, Parsons, or other authorities on this subject, are liable to
be extremely misleading unless carefully and intelligently 207
considered. The reason of this is found chiefly in the fact that the
official figures of the United States are made up on a materially
different basis from those of the other countries in question. To be
sure, the figures of the United States are official and therefore may
be considered reliable as to the facts which they purport to show, but
in fact some of the things which they purport to show are presumably
quite different from those quoted for the other countries included in
these estimates--for they can be only estimates for the other
countries, since no country other than the United States takes a
census of manufactures (England is taking one as this text is being
issued, but has not yet completed it), and the figures quoted
regarding their manufactures are necessarily estimates. Generally
speaking, it may be said that the census of the United States includes
certain articles which are not usually classified as manufactures in
other countries, such as products of slaughtering, canning, the
milling industry, etc. Aside from this it must also be remembered that
the usually quoted figures of the United States’ manufactures include
many duplications, due, as elsewhere explained, to the fact that the
total so quoted is merely an aggregation of the product of all
factories; and as the product of one factory often becomes the
manufacturing material of another, its value is again reported by the
manufacturer who reports merely the total value of his products. These
duplications are so numerous and prevail in such important and costly
articles that the census estimates the net or true value of our
manufactures at but about two-thirds as much as the usually quoted
figures of gross products. It would appear, therefore, that the
usually quoted figures of “manufactures in the United States,” when
compared with the estimate of manufacturing in other countries, should
be reduced about one-third to make them properly comparable with those
usually quoted for the other countries of the world. Even if this 208
were done, however, it would show the value of the United States’
manufactures probably about twice as great as those of the United
Kingdom and probably little less than those of continental Europe.
Taking Mulhall’s figures for the other countries which he includes, as
presented in a table on another page of this text, it will be seen
that the chief growth in manufacturing during the 116 years covered by
the table under consideration has occurred in the last third of the
period. English manufactures, he says, grew from 177 million pounds
sterling to 290 million in the 40-year period from 1780 to 1820; from
290 to 577 million in the next 40 years, from 1820 to 1860; and from
577 to 976 million in the 36 years from 1860 to 1896--a growth of 113
million pounds sterling in the first 40 years, of 287 million in the
second 40 years, and of 400 million in the third period of 36 years.
Germany showed a more rapid growth in the third period; the growth in
the first 40-year period being from 50 million pounds sterling to 85
million; in the second 40-year period, from 85 to 310 million; and in
the third period, of 36 years only, from 310 to 690 million. France
has not made as rapid a gain as Germany, the figures showing her
products in 1780, 147 million pounds sterling; in 1840, 220 million;
in 1860, 380 million; and in 1896, 596 million.
The total of Mulhall’s table, including the somewhat over-estimated
figures of the United States, and relating chiefly to the products of
Europe and the United States, show total manufactures of all the
countries named, in 1780, 480 million pounds sterling; in 1820, 865
million; in 1860, 2,404 million; and in 1896, 5,710 million, again
indicating that the chief growth has occurred in the last third of the
period under consideration, the period of transformation from the hand
industries to those of machine production in conjunction with vast
sums of capital and plentiful transportation facilities for collecting
the raw material and distributing the finished product.
When we consider nations or groups of people and their use of modern 209
methods of manufacturing, we may properly say that the principal
manufacturing sections of the world are western Europe and the United
States, and that, as above indicated, the bulk of the world’s
manufactures by the factory process are now produced in those two
sections of the world. Manufacturing by machinery may perhaps be said
to have originated in England, spreading thence to France, to Germany,
and westward to the United States. More recently it has extended in a
somewhat limited form into Canada in the west and India and Japan at
the extreme east. India has utilized modern methods of manufacture,
especially in cottons and certain other industries, for more than a
score of years, while the one other country of the Orient which has as
yet entered the field of machine manufacture, Japan, though somewhat
later in adopting machine methods, has been more active and extended
modern manufacturing to a much greater variety of industries than have
the people of India.
While certain of the European countries were earlier in the
manufacturing field than the United States, the larger population, the
greater supply of natural materials, the larger supplies of fuel for
cheap power, the ingenuity of the American workman, and the enormous
domestic demand of an active and prosperous people, have brought the
United States clearly to the head of the list of manufacturing
nations. It may safely be said that the value of manufactures produced
in the United States is approximately twice as great as that of any
other manufacturing nation, and that the stated value of our
manufactures is nearly as great as the estimated value of the
manufactures of all Europe. The latest official figures on the value
of the manufactures of the United States are those of the Census
Bureau, which put the value of manufactures produced in the calendar
year 1904, as recorded by the Census of 1905, at 16,867 million
dollars, including in this an estimate of a little more than 2 210
billion dollars’ worth of manufactures classed as “mechanical and
neighborhood industries,” which were included in all former census
reports, but not recorded by the Census of 1905, which was by law
merely a census of manufactures produced under “the factory system.”
No other country than the United States takes a periodic census of its
manufactures. The United Kingdom is at the present time about taking
for the first time a census of its manufactures, but no figures with
reference thereto are as yet available. As a consequence all
statements regarding the value of manufactures of European countries,
or indeed of any country other than the United States, are estimates
and estimates only. True, they are based upon certain known facts of
quantities of raw materials consumed in manufacturing, values of
manufactures exported, and the estimated proportion which these form
of the total manufactures; but in no other country than the United
States are there available official statements of the total value of
manufactures produced in the country in question. Therefore the
estimates of the value of the manufactures produced by European
countries which are quoted from time to time and which are presented
elsewhere in this text, must be accepted as merely estimates. A
comparatively recent estimate, and one which has been given wide
publicity, and appears to have been generally accepted, is that of
William J. Clark, published in The Engineering Magazine in 1904, which
put the value of the manufactures of the United Kingdom at 5 billion
dollars, Germany 4,600 million, France 3,450 million, Austria-Hungary
2 billion, Russia 1,980 million, Italy 1,700 million, Belgium 750
million. These estimates, if accepted, would bring the value of the
manufactures of the countries enumerated to a figure slightly in
excess of that officially reported by the Census Office as the value
of the product of all manufacturing establishments of the United
States in 1904. The figures above quoted for certain European countries 211
present however no estimate of the value of the product of
Switzerland, Spain, Holland and the Scandinavian countries, so that it
probably might be said with greater accuracy that the stated value of
the manufactures of the United States is about equal to the estimated
value of continental Europe, and about three times as great as the
estimated value of the manufactures of the United Kingdom.
It is proper, however, before leaving this question of the relative
value of the manufactures of the various countries, to again call
attention to the fact that the official figures of the value of
manufactures produced in the United States include certain articles
not classed in certain other countries as manufactures, and in
addition to this contain many duplications due to the fact that the
products of one manufacturer frequently become the raw material of
another, and thus the grand totals which merely combine the stated
value of the product of each manufacturer necessarily include a second
and in some cases a third valuation of the products thus utilized. The
manufacturer of yarn, for example, reports to the Census Office the
full value of the product of his factory. The manufacturer of cloth,
who utilized that yarn, also reports the full value of the product of
his factory, and thus includes in that valuation the value of the yarn
purchased by him but already reported by the manufacturer of yarn. The
manufacturer of clothing, in stating the value of the product of his
factory, includes the sums which he paid for the cloth already
reported by the manufacturer of clothing and included in his
statement. Thus many duplications occur in our census statement of the
gross value of the products of the manufacturing industries of the
United States. “This gross value,” says the Census Report of 1900,
page cxxxix, “does not represent the final value of the manufactured
products of the country. It does fairly represent the total value of 212
commercial transactions involved in manufacturing enterprises…. As
the finished products of one branch of manufacture are constantly used
as materials in other branches, in the ascending scale of modern
industry, it follows that they are counted over and over again,
swelling in this manner the gross total value of products. Thus in
cotton manufacture, the product of the yarn mill, manufacturing yarn
for sale as the material of the cloth mill, and the product of the
cloth mill as the material for the manufacturer, so that by the time
the aggregate is made the value of the yarn has been counted three
times and the value of the cloth twice…. Duplications and
re-duplications of this sort run all through the total value of
products as reported by this (the Census) office. * * * The net or
true value of the products is found by subtracting from the gross
value the cost of all materials purchased in a partially manufactured
form. In 1900 the cost of these manufactures was $4,633,804,967 and”
(subtracting this sum from the gross value, $13,004,400,143), “the net
value of products was therefore $8,370,595,176.”
When it is further considered that the Census of Manufactures in the
United States includes in its list of manufactures all products of
slaughtering and meat-packing establishments wholesale, valued in 1905
at 112 million dollars, the product of printing and publishing
newspapers and periodicals only, valued at 309 million, and the
product of canning and preserving fish, oysters and vegetables, valued
at over 100 million--it will be seen that an effort to determine even
approximately the share of the world’s manufactures produced by the
United States or by the various manufacturing nations of the world is
a difficult--an impossible--task.
It may safely be asserted, however, that the United States is the
world’s greatest manufacturing nation, and that the value of our
manufactures exceeds those of any other country. This is due, as
already indicated, to the fact that our supply of raw materials is 213
greater than that of any other country, our supply of materials for
producing power also greater than that of any other country, our use
of machinery for manufacturing far in advance of that of any other
nation, the activity of our inventors and the skill of our workmen
quite equal to those of any other part of the world, and the demands
of our home population upon our own manufacturers far in excess of
those of any other country, both by reason of the large population and
high purchasing power of a people prosperous and active in all lines
of industry--agriculture, transportation, manufacture. The country
which produces three-fourths of the world’s cotton, twice as much iron
and steel as any other single nation, as much copper as all of the
remainder of the world combined, more of wood suitable for use in
manufacturing than any other country, more wool than any other of the
manufacturing nations, and a population much larger than that of any
other country actively engaged in the manufacturing industries, has
quite naturally and almost necessarily become the leading manufacturer
of the world.
The growth of the manufacturing industry in the United States has been
phenomenal. Stated in the methods of valuation followed by the census
above referred to--the gross valuation--the value of manufactures
produced in the United States has been, speaking in round terms, in
1850, 1 billion dollars, in 1860, a little less than 2 billion, in
1870, 4¼ billion, in 1880, 5⅓ billion, in 1890, 9⅓ billion,
in 1900, 13 billion, and in 1905, a little less than 17 billion,
though the figures usually quoted for 1905 are 14.8 billion, owing to
the fact that the Census of 1905 only included factory products, and
added parenthetically an estimate of 2 billion as the probable value
of the “mechanical and neighborhood industries,” thus bringing up to
nearly 17 billion the total properly comparable with the totals of 214
earlier periods, which in all cases included the mechanical and
neighborhood industries.
That this rapid growth in the value of manufactures has been far in
excess of the consuming capacity of the home population is evidenced
by the growth in exportation of manufactures, which aggregated in
1880, 122 million dollars, in 1890, 179 million, in 1900, 484 million,
and in 1908, 750 million. Manufactures formed in 1880 but 15 per cent
of the total exports, in 1890, 23 per cent, in 1900, 35 per cent, and
in 1908, 41 per cent of the total merchandise exported from the United
States.