In the same way
the superior efficiency of carriers by railway over the old road
carriers has diminished the cost of coal and all articles (the bulky
ones most sensibly) in all parts of England. There thus arises the
instructive result that handicrafts in which there has been no
improvement in the last forty years have obtained a rise of real
wages (amounting in some cases to 50 per cent) by the improvements in
efficiency in all the trades around them.
To sum up: No man in ordinary business will give a price for anything
that he intends to sell again unless he expects to profit by selling
it again. No capitalist will pay a workman to make a table unless he
expects to sell the table for a sum somewhat exceeding the cost of
the wood and the workman's labour. It follows directly that the one
grand object of the workman, both as an individual, a trade, and a
class, should be to improve the efficiency of his labour. He may gain
something by combination and higgling for the turn of the market, but
the limit to what he can get is the value of his labour to his
employer.
In order to attain this improved efficiency the most important
practical aid is piecework. This has done much even in agriculture:
the turnip-hoer by the acre earns more, while he does his work at his
own time with more comfort to himself than the old day-labourer.
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