ABSTRACT
That the output of material goods and of services forming the annual supply of wealth has been continually increasing in modern times, by reason of the enlarging quantity of labour applied in more economical methods of production, is beyond question. Within the last three generations a larger and larger number of nations have passed into the modern era of machine-economy; science has continually brought into use new labour-saving appliances, and improved communications have enormously increased the number and utility of those productive processes which we term commerce.
