will be, that the looms can be driven by the engine nearly twice as fast as before:  and as each man, when relieved from bodily labour, can attend to two looms, one workman can now make almost as much cloth as four.  This increase of producing power is, however, greater than that which really took place at first; the velocity of some of the parts of the loom being limited by the strength of the thread, and the quickness with which it commences its motion:  but an improvement was soon made, by which the motion commenced slowly, and gradually acquired greater velocity than it was safe to give it at once; and the speed was thus increased from 100 to about 120 strokes per minute.

267.  Pursuing the same principles, the manufactory becomes gradually so enlarged, that the expense of lighting during the night amounts to a considerable sum; and as there are already attached to the establishment persons who are up all night, and can therefore constantly attend to it, and also engineers to make and keep in repair any machinery, the addition of an apparatus for making gas to light the factory leads to a new extension, at the same time that it contributes, by diminishing the expense of lighting, and the risk of accidents from fire, to reduce the cost of manufacturing.

268.  Long before a factory has reached this extent, it will have been found necessary to establish an accountant’s department, with clerks to pay the workmen, and to see that they arrive at their stated times; and this department must be in communication with the agents who purchase the raw produce, and with those who sell the manufactured article.

269.  We have seen that the application of the division of labour tends to produce cheaper articles; that it thus increases the demand; and gradually, by the effect of competition, or by the hope of increased gain, that it causes large capitals to be embarked in extensive factories.  Let us now examine the influence of this accumulation of capital directed to one object.  In the first place, it enables the most important principle on which the advantages of the division of labour depends to be carried almost to its extreme limits:  not merely is the precise amount of skill purchased which is necessary for the execution of each process, but throughout every stage—­from that in which the raw material is procured, to that by which the finished produce is conveyed into the hands of the consumer—­the same economy of skill prevails.  The quantity of work produced by a given number of people is greatly augmented by such an extended arrangement; and the result is necessarily a great reduction in the cost of the article which is brought to market.

270.  Amongst the causes which tend to the cheap production of any article, and which are connected with the employment of additional capital, may be mentioned, the care which is taken to prevent the absolute waste of any part of the raw material.  An attention to this circumstance sometimes causes the union of two trades in one factory, which otherwise might have been separated.