On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, Charles Babbage [classic romance novels .TXT] 📗

Chapter 15

On the Influence of Verification on Price

 

181. The money price of an article at any given period is

usually stated to depend upon the proportion between the supply

and the demand. The average price of the same article during a

long period, is said to depend, ultimately, on the power of

producing and selling it with the ordinary profits of capital.

But these principles, although true in their general sense, are

yet so often modified by the influence of others, that it becomes

necessary to examine a little into the disturbing forces.

 

182. With respect to the first of these propositions, it may

be observed, that the cost of any article to the purchaser

includes, besides the ratio of the supply to the demand, another

element, which, though often of little importance, is, in many

cases, of great consequence. The cost, to the purchaser, is the

price he pays for any article, added to the cost of verifying the

fact of its having that degree of goodness for which he

contracts. In some cases the goodness of the article is evident

on mere inspection: and in those cases there is not much

difference of price at different shops. The goodness of loaf

sugar, for instance, can be discerned almost at a glance; and the

consequence is, that the price is so uniform, and the profit upon

it so small, that no grocer is at all anxious to sell it; whilst,

on the other hand, tea, of which it is exceedingly difficult to

judge, and which can be adulterated by mixture so as to deceive

the skill even of a practised eye, has a great variety of

different prices, and is that article which every grocer is most

anxious to sell to his customers.

 

The difficulty and expense of verification are, in some

instances, so great, as to justify the deviation from

well-established principles. Thus it is a general maxim that

Government can purchase any article at a cheaper rate than that

at which they can manufacture it themselves. But it has

nevertheless been considered more economical to build extensive

flour-mills (such are those at Deptford), and to grind their own

corn, than to verify each sack of purchased flour, and to employ

persons in devising methods of detecting the new modes of

adulteration which might be continually resorted to.

 

183. Some years since, a mode of preparing old clover and

trefoil seeds by a process called doctoring, became so prevalent

as to excite the attention of the House of Commons. It appeared

in evidence before a committee, that the old seed of the white

clover was doctored by first wetting it slightly, and then drying

it with the fumes of burning sulphur, and that the red clover

seed had its colour improved by shaking it in a sack with a small

quantity of indigo; but this being detected after a time, the

doctors then used a preparation of logwood, fined by a little

copperas, and sometimes by verdigris; thus at once improving the

appearance of the old seed, and diminishing, if not destroying,

its vegetative power already enfeebled by age. Supposing no

injury had resulted to good seed so prepared, it was proved that

from the improved appearance, the market price would be enhanced

by this process from five to twentyfive shillings a hundred

weight. But the greatest evil arose from the circumstance of

these processes rendering old and worthless seed equal in

appearance to the best. One witness had tried some doctored seed,

and found that not above one grain in a hundred grew, and that

those which did vegetate died away afterwards; whilst about

eighty or ninety per cent of good seed usually grows. The seed so

treated was sold to retail dealers in the country, who of course

endeavoured to purchase at the cheapest rate, and from them it

got into the hands of the farmers; neither of these classes being

capable of distinguishing the fraudulent from the genuine seed.

Many cultivators, in consequence, diminished their consumption of

the article; and others were obliged to pay a higher price to

those who had skill to distinguish the mixed seed, and who had

integrity and character to prevent them from dealing in it.

 

184. In the Irish flax trade, a similar example of the high

price paid for verification occurs. It is stated in the report of

the committee, “That the natural excellent quality of Irish flax,

as contrasted with foreign or British, has been admitted.” Yet

from the evidence before that committee it appears that Irish

flax sells, in the market, from 1d. to 2d. per pound less than

other flax of equal or inferior quality. Part of this difference

of price arises from negligence in its preparation, but a part

also from the expense of ascertaining that each parcel is free

from useless matter to add to its weight: this appears from the

evidence of Mr J. Corry, who was, during twenty-seven years,

Secretary to the Irish Linen-Board:—

 

“The owners of the flax, who are almost always people in the lower

classes of life, believe that they can best advance their own

interests by imposing on the buyers. Flax being sold by weight,

various expedients are used to increase it; and every expedient

is injurious, particularly the damping of it; a very common

practice, which makes the flax afterwards heat. The inside of

every bundle (and the bundles all vary in bulk) is often full of

pebbles, or dirt of various kinds, to increase the weight. In

this state it is purchased, and exported to Great Britain. The

natural quality of Irish flax is admitted to be not inferior to

that produced by any foreign country; and yet the flax of every

foreign country, imported into Great Britain, obtains a

preference amongst the purchasers, because the foreign flax is

brought to the British market in a cleaner and more regular

state. The extent and value of the sales of foreign flax in Great

Britain can be seen by reference to the public accounts; and I am

induced to believe, that Ireland, by an adequate extension of her

flax tillage, and having her flax markets brought under good

regulations, could, without encroaching in the least degree upon

the quantity necessary for her home consumption, supply the whole

of the demand of the British market, to the exclusion of the

foreigners.”

 

185. The lace trade affords other examples; and, in enquiring

into the complaints made to the House of Commons by the framework

knitters, the committee observe, that, “It is singular that the

grievance most complained of one hundred and fifty years ago,

should, in the present improved state of the trade, be the same

grievance which is now most complained of: for it appears, by the

evidence given before your committee, that all the witnesses

attribute the decay of the trade more to the making of fraudulent

and bad articles, than to the war, or to any other cause.” And it

is shewn by the evidence, that a kind of lace called “single-press”

was manufactured, which, although good to the eye, became nearly

spoiled in washing by the slipping of the threads; that not one

person in a thousand could distinguish the difference between

“single-press” and “double-press” lace; and that, even workmen and

manufacturers were obliged to employ a magnifying glass for that

purpose; and that, in another similar article, called “warp lace,”

such aid was essential. It was also stated by one witness, that

 

“The trade had not yet ceased, excepting in those places where the

fraud had been discovered; and from those places no orders are

now sent for any sort of Nottingham lace, the credit being

totally ruined.”

 

186. In the stocking trade similar frauds have been practised. It

appeared in evidence, that stockings were made of uniform width

from the knee down to the ankle, and being wetted and stretched

on frames at the calf, they retained their shape when dry, but

that the purchaser could not discover the fraud until, after the

first washing, the stockings hung like bags about his ankles.

 

187. In the watch trade the practice of deceit, in forging

the marks and names of respectable makers, has been carried to a

great extent both by natives and foreigners; and the effect upon

our export trade has been most injurious, as the following

extract from the evidence before a committee of the House of

Commons will prove:—

 

“Question. How long have you been in the trade?

Answer. Nearly thirty years.

Question. The trade is at present much depressed?

Answer. Yes, sadly.

Question. What is your opinion of the cause of that distress?

Answer. I think it is owing to a number of watches that have been

made so exceedingly bad that they will hardly look at them in the

foreign markets; all with a handsome outside show, and the works

hardly fit for anything.

Question. Do you mean to say, that all the watches made in this

country are of that description?

Answer. No; only a number which are made up by some of the Jews,

and other low manufacturers. I recollect something of the sort

years ago, of a falloff of the East India work, owing to there

being a number of handsome-looking watches sent out, for

instance, with hands on and figures, as if they shewed seconds,

and had not any work regular to shew the seconds: the hand went

round, but it was not regular.

Question. They had no perfect movements?

Answer. No, they had not; that was a long time since, and we had

not any East India work for a long time afterwards.”

 

In the home market, inferior but showy watches are made at a

cheap rate, which are not warranted by the maker to go above half

an hour; about the time occupied by the Jew pedlar in deluding

his country customer.

 

188. The practice, in retail linen-drapers’ shops, of calling

certain articles yard wide when the real width is perhaps, only

seven-eighths or three-quarters, arose at first from fraud, which

being detected, custom was pleaded in its defence: but the result

is, that the vender is constantly obliged to measure the width of

his goods in the customer’s presence. In all these instances the

object of the seller is to get a higher price than his goods

would really produce if their quality were known; and the

purchaser, if not himself a skilful judge (which rarely happens

to be the case), must pay some person, in the shape of an

additional money price, who has skill to distinguish, and

integrity to furnish, articles of the quality agreed on. But as

the confidence of persons in their own judgement is usually

great, large numbers will always flock to the cheap dealer, who

thus, attracting many customers from the honest tradesman,

obliges him to charge a higher price for his judgement and

character than, without such competition, he could afford to do.

 

189. There are few things which the public are less able to

judge of than the quality of drugs; and when these are compounded

into medicines it is scarcely possible, even for medical men, to

decide whether pure or adulterated ingredients have been

employed. This circumstance, concurring with the present

injudicious mode of paying for medical assistance, has produced a

curious effect on the price of medicines. Apothecaries, instead

of being paid for their