Next, as regards the competence of our artisans, London of itself answers, the greatest port and the greatest city in the world. Having no coal and no cheap iron, London, when material bulks large in manufacture, has a relatively weak economic hold. But all is compensated by her wonderful workmen. Thanks to them, she is the best finisher of manufactures, the best fitting shop and repairing shop ever known. Without a staple industry, or a dominant group of trades, exposed at every point to universal competition, she is still super-eminent in variety, as she turns the rare luxuries of yesterday into the universal necessaries of to-morrow, and constantly raises the standard of living for all the peoples of the globe.
To look at our artisans from another point, the author of Industrial Efficiency concludes that, judging from a close comparison of work done in a representative business in the north with that done elsewhere, "it takes eleven men in America to do the work of ten in England." The American flags, and the German lags, behind the Englishman.
But, in order to realise more comprehensively the capacity of our artisans, we must consider the industrial strength of the nation as a whole.
It may be measured in the first place, and mainly, by the degree in which it can provide warmth to its citizens. This can best be verified by opening the weekly budgets of the people. These will show that we spend the overwhelming proportion of our outlay upon procuring warmth
