this cannot be the case, except the labour, as has been said before, is actually directed to produce them, which can only be done by agriculture, and the coarser manufactures; or when such things as their labour does produce, are exchanged for the necessaries. To conceive that trade can operate in any other way, is somewhat like reviving the old exploded notions of occult qualities.
The refined manufactures are all produced by long-continued labour—the labour increasing according to the fineness of the article. A point-lace veil, worn by the ladies, is, perhaps, the work of many years of the lace-maker: in the same manner, all the exquisitely-finished articles of dress, equipage, the table, furniture, &c., are the productions of long time and tedious application.[1] The rich, by the use of these, consume, in a short time, the work of many people, continued for many days, months, and years; and this is the principal effect of refined manufactures—the enabling of the rich to consume the produce of great labour in a short time; or, in other words, to commit greater waste than it would otherwise be in their power to do. We have heard of great men's cooks
- ↑ Another instance of this may be found in the expensive Indian shawls, to produce one of which has been said to occupy the lifetime of the labourer.
