ts have not been formed before, and
what the causes are which have started them up so rapidly in such varied
lines of industry. There is certainly room for much honest difference of
opinion in reference to these causes; but one cause concerning whose
influence there can be no dispute is the culmination of the change from
the ancient system of manufacturing to the modern. Let us briefly trace
the manner in which this branch of civilization has grown: In the most
primitive state of existence, each man procures and prepares for himself
the few things which he requires. With the first increase in
intelligence those of most skill in making weapons and preparing skins
make more than they require for themselves, which they exchange with
others for the products of the chase. The next step is to teach to
others the special skill required, and to employ them to aid the chief
workman. Conditions analogous to these existed down to the end of the
last century. The great bulk of all manufacturing was done in small
shops, each employing only a few workmen; and the manufacturer or master
workman labored at the side of his journeymen and apprentices. The
products of these little workshops were sold in the country immediately
adjacent. Of course the number of these scattered shops was so great
that the possibility of uniting all the manufacturers in any one trade
into a single organization to prevent competition among them, was beyond
the thoughts of the most visionary.

The present century has seen three great economic wonders accomplished:
the invention of labor-saving machinery, greatly multiplying the
efficiency of labor in every art and trade; the application of steam
power to the propulsion of that machinery; and the extension over all
civilized lands of a network of railway lines, furnishing a rapid, safe,
and miraculously cheap means of transportation to every part of the
civilized world. In order to realize the greatest benefit from these
devices, it has become necessary to concentrate our manufacturing
operations in enormous factories; to collect under one roof a thousand
workmen, increase their efficiency tenfold by the use of modern
machinery, and distribute the products of their labor to the markets of
the civilized world. The agency which has acted to bring about this
result is competition. The large workshops were able to make goods so
much cheaper than the small workshops that the latter disappeared. Then
one by one the l