untrained hands would have to be employed. Machinery also, if kept idle, frequently suffers great injury. The fluctuation in the demand, when it is small, is comparatively much greater than when the demand is large.
Production on a small scale may maintain itself, though at a disadvantage.Even if production on a large scale is very advantageous, production on a small scale may still be very much practised. Let us again use our previous example, and suppose that a cotton mill containing 20,000 spindles can be worked at a much cheaper rate than one containing 5,000; but a capital of nearly 40,000l. may perhaps be required to work a mill with 20,000 spindles, whereas a capital not much exceeding ll,000l. would probably suffice for a mill with 5,000 spindles. The number of individuals who possess a capital of 40,000l., and who are willing to invest it in a cotton mill, is very limited, and therefore there can only be a limited number of mills with 20,000 spindles. These mills may not suffice to spin all the cotton for which there is a demand, and therefore other and smaller mills must be worked. It is true that the small mills could not remain open if they had to compete with an unlimited number of large mills; but as the number of these is virtually restricted, the small mills may be still worked at an advantage, although the profits obtained by these mills may fall for short of the profits obtained by the larger ones. Large capitals thus obtain an advantage, and possess as it were a monopoly; we shall treat this subject at considerable length in our chapters on profits.
The advantages of production on a large scale only partly attainable by joint-stock companies.It may naturally be supposed that, in a wealthy country like England, production on a large scale when advantageous will never be restricted by the causes to which we have just alluded, for it may be said that if the individuals who have sufficient capital to work large mills are limited in number, there will be no difficulty in gathering together the requisite capital by means of joint-stock companies, and that such companies will avail themselves or the advantages of a large production, and thus drive the small producers out of the market. But joint-stock companies labour under many difficulties: and although they secure the advantages of producing on a large scale, yet in many industrial occupations, joint-stock companies cannot compete with the energy