terms, he seems to have had no further trouble with his people. The business went on quietly with a steady increase. New workmen were employed every year; and in 1398 seventeen men were employed there, with three women to sort rags, and a book-keeper. These were all sworn in as solemnly as the first work-men. Among the later hands were three carpenters, each of whom received fifteen pennies a day. A comparison of these wages with the price at which paper was then sold—about forty groschen a ream for writing-paper in 1426—suggests that Stromer's profits were exceedingly large. There was no competition so long as he lived, and his mill continued to be the only one in Germany, a fact which may be ascribed to his careful proceedings in hiring workmen. The year of his death, 1407, was also the year of the beginning of the second authenticated paper-mill, at Ravensburg, which is then first mentioned in the records of the city. A paper-mill went into operation the next year at Strasburg, and others at Liegnitz in 1420, Basle in 1440, Bautzen in 1443, and Augsburg in 1468; after which, the art of printing having been introduced, the demand that arose for paper caused factories to increase very rapidly. There are now in operation in Germany about nine hundred and twenty-five paper-mills, which produce more than 400,000,000 kilogrammes of paper a year.—Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from Daheim.
| ARE BUSINESS PROFITS TOO LARGE? |
By J. B. MANN.
THERE are four essentials to any successful business—viz., capital, labor, skill, and opportunity. The first three of these must be paid, and our question relates to the proportion of compensation to be awarded.
We must start by considering the circumstances of the case. If we take an ordinary country village, we will find several boys with the capacity to labor, but without capital and skill to conduct a large business, and from necessity they become laborers. Then we find two or three perhaps with business ability, but no capital, and if they can not borrow capital—and most of them can not at first—they become laborers also. Occasionally one is found like W. H. Vanderbilt, having both capital and skill, and he steps to the front and does business enough, or more than enough, for several villages. His wealth increases rapidly, and his power to accumulate gains all the time.
Now the laborer looks at Vanderbilt as a capitalist chiefly, and knowing that labor is just as essential to business as capital,
