Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 445 | Page 3

misery, which, being
brought upon themselves by ignorance, and the want of a right spirit of
enterprise, can only be banished or lessened by their being rightly
informed, and induced to enter upon a proper course.
If there were a right knowledge and just views of these subjects
diffused through the community, a man would be ashamed to enter
upon a business in which a sufficient number of persons was already
engaged, knowing that he was thereby trifling with his time and
fortunes, and perhaps encouraging in himself a love of ease, or some
other desire which he was not entitled to gratify. He would rather go to
some new country, where he might eat in rough independence the
rewards of an actual toil. What is really required, however, is not that

men should leave their own country, but enter upon such pursuits there
as may preserve an equal instead of an unequal distribution of industry
throughout the various fields in which there is something to be done for
the general advantage. Distribution should be less a favourite
department, and production more so. With more producers and fewer
distributers, the waste we have endeavoured to describe would be so far
saved, and there would be fewer miserable people on the earth.
Even amidst all the delusions which prevail upon the subject, it is
curious to observe that there is a strong current towards a rectification
of what is amiss. The interests of the individual, which produce so
much fallacy, after all bring a correction. The active, original-minded
tradesman, seeing that, with an ordinary share of the entire business of
his department, he can scarcely make bread and butter, bethinks him of
setting up a leviathan shop, in which he may serve the whole town with
mercery at a comparatively small profit to himself, looking to large and
frequent returns for his remuneration. The public, with all its
sentimentalisms, never fails to take the article, quality being equal, at
the lowest price, and accordingly the leviathan dealer thrives, while
nearly all the small dealers are extirpated. Now this is a course of
things which produces partial inconveniences; but its general effect is
good. It lessens the cost of distribution for the consumer, and it decides
many to take to new and more hopeful courses, who otherwise might
cling to a branch of business that had become nearly sapless.
Underselling generally has the same results. When in a trade in which
distribution usually costs 43 per cent., one man announces himself as
willing to lessen this by 15 or 20 per cent., his conduct is apt to appear
unbrotherly and selfish to the rest; but the fact is, that for goods of any
kind to cost 43 per cent., in mere distribution, is a monstrosity; and he
who can in any measure lessen that cost, will be regarded by the
community as acting in the spirit of a just economy, and as deserving of
their gratitude. These may be considered as the rude struggles of
competition towards a righting of its own evils. The public sees two
selfishnesses working in the case, and it naturally patronises that which
subserves its own interest.
The waste arising from an over-costly system of distribution, will

probably lead to other correctives of even a more sweeping kind than
that of underselling, or the setting up of leviathan shops. For the greater
number of the articles required for daily use, men begin to find that a
simple co-operative arrangement is sufficient. A certain number agree
to combine in order to obtain articles at wholesale prices; after which a
clerk, shopman, and porter suffice to distribute them. They thus save, in
many trades, as much as 15 per cent. So far from their being under any
peculiar disadvantage as to the quality of the articles, they are rather
safer than usual in that respect; and indeed a freedom from the danger
of getting adulterated or inferior goods is one of the recommendations
of the system. It would probably extend more rapidly, were it not for
the difficulties attending the law of partnership, which, however, will in
all likelihood be speedily removed.
We make these remarks on distribution mainly in the hope of saving
individuals from entering upon a career in which, not being truly useful
to their fellow-creatures, they have little to expect of good for
themselves. At present, shopkeeping is limited by what an able writer
of the day calls the bankruptcy check;[1] that is, men go into it, and
remain in it, while they can just barely sustain themselves, not
regarding that they do not and cannot thrive, and that they are only
adding to a mass of idleness already burdensome to the community.
What we desire is, to see men so far enlightened in the principles of