Chapter I: Front Matter

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER:

A VIEW OF

THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES OF MODERN SOCIETY,

AND THE

RESULTS OF LABOUR, CAPITAL, AND SKILL.

BY CHARLES KNIGHT.

Illustrated with numerous Woodcuts.

"The empire of man over material things has for its only foundation
the sciences and the arts."--BACON.

_THE SECOND EDITION._

WITH TWENTY-FOUR ADDITIONAL CUTS OF MANUFACTURING PROCESSES.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1859.

_The right of Translation is reserved._

EXTRACT FROM THE INTRODUCTION.

"Without attempting to give this volume the formal shape of a
treatise on _Political Economy_, it is the wish of the author to
convey the broad parts of that science in a somewhat desultory
manner, but one which is not altogether devoid of logical
arrangement. He desires especially to be understood by _the young_;
for upon their right appreciation of the principles which govern
society will depend much of the security and happiness of our own
and the coming time."

LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD-STREET,
AND CHARING CROSS.

TO

NEIL ARNOTT, ESQ., M.D.,

WITH SINCERE ADMIRATION OF THE DISINTERESTED SPIRIT IN WHICH HE HAS DEVOTED HIS SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE TO THE PUBLIC GOOD; AND IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS NEVER-FAILING KINDNESS DURING A LONG FRIENDSHIP,

THIS VOLUME

IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION Page 1

CHAPTER I.

Feeble resources of civilized man in a desert--Ross Cox,
Peter the Wild Boy, and the Savage of Aveyron--A Moskito
Indian on Juan Fernandez--Conditions necessary for the
production of utility 6

CHAPTER II.

Society a system of exchanges--Security of individual
property the principle of exchange--Alexander Selkirk and
Robinson Crusoe--Imperfect appropriation and unprofitable
labour 14

CHAPTER III.

Adventures of John Tanner--Habits of the American
Indians--Their sufferings from famine, and from the absence
among them of the principle of division of labour--Evils of
irregular labour--Respect to property--Their present improved
condition--Hudson's Bay Indians 23

CHAPTER IV.

The Prodigal--Advantages of the poorest man in civilized life
over the richest savage--Savings-banks, deposits, and
interest--Progress of accumulation--Insecurity of capital,
its causes and results--Property, its constituents--
Accumulation of capital 38

CHAPTER V.

Common interests of Capital and Labour--Labour directed by
Accumulation--Capital enhanced by Labour--Balance of rights
and duties--Relation of demand and supply--Money
exchanges--Intrinsic and representative value of money 49

CHAPTER VI.

Importance of capital to the profitable employment of
labour--Contrast between the prodigal and the prudent man:
the Dukes of Buckingham and Bridgewater--Making good for
trade--Unprofitable consumption--War against capital in the
middle ages--Evils of corporate privileges--Condition of the
people under Henry VIII. 60

CHAPTER VII.

Rights of labour--Effects of slavery on production--Condition
of the Anglo Saxons--Progress of freedom in England--Laws
regulating labour--Wages and prices--Poor-law--Law of
settlement 71

CHAPTER VIII.

Possessions of the different classes in England--Condition of
Colchester in 1301--Tools, stock-in-trade, furniture,
&c.--Supply of food--Comparative duration of human life--Want
of facilities for commerce--Plenty and civilization not
productive of effeminacy--Colchester in the present day 82

CHAPTER IX.

Certainty the stimulus to industry--Effects of
insecurity--Instances of unprofitable labour--Former notions
of commerce--National and class prejudices, and their remedy 96

CHAPTER X.

Employment of machinery in manufactures and
agriculture--Erroneous notions formerly prevalent on this
subject--Its advantages to the labourer--Spade-husbandry--The
principle of machinery--Machines and tools--Change in the
condition of England consequent on the introduction of
machinery--Modern New Zealanders and ancient Greeks--
Hand-mills and water-mills 106

CHAPTER XI.

Present and former condition of the country--Progress of
cultivation--Evil influence of feudalism--State of
agriculture in the sixteenth century--Modern
improvements--Prices of wheat--Increased breadth of land
under cultivation--Average consumption of wheat--Implements
of agriculture now in use--Number of agriculturists in
Great Britain 124

CHAPTER XII.

Production of a knife--Manufacture of iron--Raising coal--The
hot-blast--Iron bridges--Rolling bar-iron--Making
steel--Sheffield manufactures--Mining in Great
Britain--Numbers engaged in mines and metal manufactures 139

CHAPTER XIII.

Conveyance and extended use of coal--Consumption at various
periods--Condition of the roads in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries--Advantages of good roads--Want of roads
in Australia--Turnpike-roads--Canals--Railway of
1680--Railway statistics 157

CHAPTER XIV.

Houses--The Pyramids--Mechanical power--Carpenters'
tools--American machinery for building--Bricks--Slate--
Household fittings and furniture--Paper-hangings--Carpets--
Glass--Pottery--Improvements effected through the
reduction or repeal of duties on domestic requirements 174

CHAPTER XV.

Dwellings of the people--Oberlin--The Highlander's
candlesticks--Supply of water--London waterworks--
Street-lights--Sewers 199

CHAPTER XVI.

Early intercourse with foreign nations--Progress of the
cotton manufacture--Hand-spinning--Arkwright--Crompton--
Power-loom--Cartwright--Especial benefits of machinery in
this manufacture 213

CHAPTER XVII.

The woollen manufacture--Divisions of employment--Early
history--Prohibitory laws--The Jacquard loom--Middle-age
legislation--Sumptuary laws--The silk manufacture--
Ribbon-weaving--The linen manufacture--Cloth-printing--
Bleaching 233

CHAPTER XVIII.

Hosiery manufacture--The stocking-frame--The circular
hosiery-machine--Hats--Gloves--Boots and shoes--Straw-plat--
Artificial flowers--Fans--Lace--Bobbin-net machine--Pins--
Needles--Buttons--Toys--Lucifer-matches--Envelopes 255

CHAPTER XIX.

Labour-saving contrivances--The nick in Types--Tags of
laces--Casting shot--Candle-dipping--Tiring a wheel--
Globe-making--Domestic aids to labour--Aids to mental
labour--Effects of severe bodily labour on health and
duration of life 276

CHAPTER XX.

Influences of knowledge in the direction of labour and
capital--Astronomy: Chronometer--Mariner's compass--
Scientific travellers--New materials of manufactures--
India-rubber--Gutta-percha--Palm-oil--Geology--Inventions
that diminish risk--Science raising up new employments--
Electricity--Galvanism--Sun-light--Mental labourers--
Enlightened public sentiment 295

CHAPTER XXI.

Invention of printing--Effects of that art--A daily
newspaper--Provincial newspapers--News-writing of former
periods--Changes in the character of newspapers--Steam
conveyance--Electric telegraph--Organization of a London
newspaper-office--The printing-machine--The
paper-machine--Bookbinding--Paper-duty 323

CHAPTER XXII.

Power of skill--Cheap production--Population and
production--Partial and temporary evils--Intelligent
labour--Division of labour--General knowledge--'The Lowell
Offering'--Union of forces 344

CHAPTER XXIII.

Accumulation--Productive and unproductive consumption--Use of
capital--Credit--Security of property--Production applied to
the satisfaction of common wants--Increase of
comforts--Relations of capitalist and labourer 361

CHAPTER XXIV.

Natural law of wages--State-laws regulating wages--Enactments
regulating consumption--The labour-fund and the
want-fund--Ratio of capital to population--State of industry
at the end of the seventeenth century--Rise of
manufactures--Wages and prices--Turning over capital 381