hand-loom weavers with their families still numbered 800,000,¹⁵⁰ not to mention those thrown out of work in Asia, and on the Continent of Europe.

In the few remarks I have still to make on this point, I shall refer to some actually existing relations, the existence of which our theoretical investigation has not yet disclosed.

So long as, in a given branch of industry, the factory system extends itself at the expense of the old handicrafts or of manufacture, the result is as sure as is the result of an encounter between an army furnished with breach-loaders, and one armed with bows and arrows. This first period, during which machinery conquers its field of action, is of decisive importance owing to the extraordinary profits that it helps to produce. These profits not only form a source of accelerated accumulation, but also attract into the favoured sphere of production a large part of the additional social capital that is being constantly created, and is ever on the look-out for new investments. The special advantages of this first period of fast and furious activity are felt in every branch of production that machinery invades. So soon, however, as the factory system has gained a certain breadth of footing and a definite degree of maturity, and, especially, so soon as its technical basis, machinery, is itself produced by machinery; so soon as coal mining and iron mining, the metal industries, and the means of transport have been revolutionised; so soon, in short, as the general conditions requisite for production by the modern industrial system have been established, this mode of production acquires an elasticity, a capacity for sudden extension by leaps and bounds that finds no hindrance except in the supply of raw material and in the disposal of the produce. On the one hand, the immediate effect of machinery is to increase the supply of raw material in the same way, for example, as the cotton gin augmented the production of cotton.¹⁵¹ On the other hand, the cheapness of the articles produced by machinery, and the improved means of transport and communication furnish the weapons for conquering foreign markets. By ruining handicraft production in other countries, machinery forcibly converts them into fields for the supply of its raw material. In this way East India was compelled to produce cotton, wool, hemp, jute, and indigo for Great Britain .¹⁵²

 EXPORT OF WOOL FROM INDIA TO GREAT BRITAIN. 1846. — 4,570,581 lbs. 1860. — 20,214,173 lbs. 1865. — 20,679,111 lbs. By constantly making a part of the hands "supernumerary," modern industry, in all countries where it has taken root, gives a spur to emigration and to the colonisation of foreign lands, which are thereby converted into settlements for growing the raw material of the mother country; just as Australia, for example, was converted into a colony for growing wool.¹⁵³

 EXPORT OF WOOL FROM AUSTRALIA TO GREAT BRITAIN. 1846. — 21,789,346 lbs. 1860. — 59,166,616 lbs. 1865. — 109,734,261 lbs. A new and international division of labour, a division suited to the requirements of the chief centres of modern industry springs up, and converts one part of the globe into a chiefly agricultural field of production, for supplying the other part which remains a chiefly industrial field. This revolution hangs together with radical changes in agriculture which we need not here further inquire into.¹⁵⁴

 EXPORT
OF COTTON FROM THE UNITED STATES TO GREAT BRITAIN    1846. - 401,949,393 lbs. 
1852. -   765,630,543 lbs.      1859. - 961,707,264 lbs.  1860. - 1,115,890,608 lbs.    

       EXPORT OF CORN,
&c., FROM THE UNITED STATES                             TO GREAT BRITAIN                                                                        1850         1862  Wheat, cwts                           16,202,312   41,033,503  Barley,
cwts                           3,669,653    6,624,800  Oats, cwts                             3,174,801    4,496,994  Rye, cwts                                388,749        7,108  Flour, cwts                           
3,819,440    7,207,113  Buckwheat, cwts                            1,054       19,571  Maize, cwts                            5,473,161   11,694,818  Bere or Bigg (a
sort of Barley), cwts      2,039        7,675  Peas, cwts                               811,620    1,024,722  Beans, cwts                            1,822,972    2,037,137  ——————————————————————————————-
 Total exports                         35,365,801   74,083,441  

On the motion of Mr. Gladstone, the House of Commons ordered, on the 17th February, 1867, a return of the total quantities of grain, corn, and flour, of all sorts, imported into, and exported from, the United Kingdom, between the years 1831 and 1866. I give below a summary of the result. The flour is given in quarters of corn. (See the Table on p. 42.6.)