Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
One of the most surprising things connected with Aru was the excessive cheapness of all
articles of European or native manufacture. We were here two thousand miles beyond
Singapore and Batavia, which are themselves emporiums of the 'far east,' in a place unvis-
ited by, and almost unknown to, European traders; everything reached us through at least
two or three hands, often many more; yet English calicoes and American cotton cloths could
be bought for 8
s
. the piece, muskets for 15
s
., common scissors and German knives at three-
halfpence each, and other cutlery, cotton goods, and earthenware in the same proportion.
The natives of this out-of-the-way country can, in fact, buy all these things at about the
same money price as our workmen at home, but in reality very much cheaper, for the pro-
duce of a few hours' labour enables the savage to purchase in abundance what are to him
luxuries, while to the European they are necessaries of life. The barbarian is no happier and
no better off for this cheapness. On the contrary, it has a most injurious effect on him. He
wants the stimulus of necessity to force him to labour; and if iron were as dear as silver, and
calico as costly as satin, the effect would be beneficial to him. As it is, he has more idle
hours, gets a more constant supply of tobacco, and can intoxicate himself with arrack more
frequently and more thoroughly; for your Aru man scorns to get half drunk—a tumbler full
of arrack is but a slight stimulus, and nothing less than half a gallon of spirit will make him
tipsy to his own satisfaction.
It is not agreeable to reflect on this state of things. At least half of the vast multitudes of
uncivilized peoples, on whom our gigantic manufacturing system, enormous capital, and in-
tense competition force the produce of our looms and workshops, would be not a whit worse
off physically, and would certainly be improved morally, if all the articles with which we
supply them were double or treble their present prices. If at the same time the difference of
cost, or a large portion of it, could find its way into the pockets of the manufacturing work-
men, thousands would be raised from want to comfort, from starvation to health, and would
be removed from one of the chief incentives to crime. It is difficult for an Englishman to
avoid contemplating with pride our gigantic and ever-increasing manufactures and com-
merce, and thinking everything good that renders their progress still more rapid, either by
lowering the price at which the articles can be produced, or by discovering new markets to
which they may be sent. If, however, the question that is so frequently asked of the votaries
of the less popular sciences were put here—'Cui bono?'—it would be found more difficult
to answer than had been imagined. The advantages, even to the few who reap them, would
be seen to be mostly physical, while the wide-spread moral and intellectual evils resulting
from unceasing labour, low wages, crowded dwellings, and monotonous occupations, to
perhaps as large a number as those who gain any real advantage, might be held to show a
