This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ... iv the economic progress of the nine, teenth century A More striking growth in wealth and in the material comforts of civilization was witnessed by the nineteenth century than by any preceding century in the history of the world. This statement can be made without qualification, because of the new power brought to the aid of the human hand by machine production. The application of steam power and electricity to manufacturing and transportation has revolutionized the organization of industry, brought together distant parts of the world, and so increased the producing power of the individual arm, that the food supply, clothing, and shelter required by the community are now produced by a small portion of its members, and a larger proportion than ever before are released from these employments for the higher ones of luxury, literature, art, and ministry to the finest tastes. The changes in methods of business, in wealth, and in the general economic conditions, which have been thus brought about, are revealed chiefly through the creation of mills and factories, through the increase in their output, through the enlarged equipment for carrying this output by rail and steamship to all parts of the world, and through the great volume of commerce, banking credits, and saved capital among every civilized people. These changes in methods of production and exchange have caused not merely changes in the volume of things produced and in the rapidity of their exchange, but have tended by nearly wiping out the costs of transportation, to reduce competition in the staple articles of agriculture and manufacture to the character of competition in a single world market, where prices and conditions affecting supply and demand are brought to a focus by the q
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