apital under the pressure of these forces is
doubtless proceeding, and such organisation, when it has proceeded far
enough, will indisputably lead to a decrease of unsound speculation.
But these steps in organisation have been taken precisely in those
industries which employ large quantities of fixed capital, and the
admitted fact that severe fluctuations still take place in these
industries is proof that the steadying influences of such organisation
have not yet had time to assert themselves to much purpose. The
competition of larger and larger masses of organised capital seems to
induce heavier speculation and larger fluctuations. Not until a whole
species of capital is organised into some form or degree of
"combination" is the steadying influence of organisation able to
predominate.

Sec. 6. But there is also another force which, in England at any rate,
under the increased application of machinery, makes for an increase
rather than a diminution of speculative production. It has been seen
that the proportion of workers engaged in producing comforts and
luxuries is growing, while the proportion of those producing the prime
necessaries of life is declining. How far the operation of the law of
diminishing returns will allow this tendency to proceed we cannot here
discuss. But statistics show that this is the present tendency both in
England and in the United States. Now the demand for comforts and
luxuries is essentially more irregular and less amenable to
commercial calculation than the demand for necessaries. The greatest
economies of machine-production are found in industries where the
demand is largest, steadiest, and most calculable. Hence the effect of
machinery is to drive ever and ever larger numbers of workers from the
less to the more unsteady employments. Moreover, there is a marked
tendency for the demand for luxuries to become more irregular and less
amenable to calculation, and a corresponding irregularity is imposed
upon the trades engaged in producing them. Twenty years ago it was
possible for Coventry ribbon-weavers to "make to stock" during the
winter months, for though silk ribbons may always be classed as a
luxury, certain patterns commanded a tolerably steady sale year after
year. Now the fluctuations of fashion are much sharper and more
frequent, and a far larger proportion of the consumers of ribbons are
affected by fashion-changes. Hence it has become more and more
difficult to forecast the marke