Section LXVI.. Advantage of Large Enterprises.

Advantage Of Large Enterprises.

On the results of the division and coöperation of labor rests the superior advantage of all great undertakings, and they are, therefore, smaller in agriculture than in industry. “It is harder to acquire the first thousand than the second million.” Abstraction made of the conditions of capital and of the market, the limit up to which the growing magnitude of an enterprise becomes more advantageous, lies in the increasing difficulty of superintendence. Numberless commercial improvements, such as the post-office, railroads, telegraphs, exchange, banks etc., have operated powerfully to extend these limits. It is frequently possible, even in small enterprises, to secure the advantages of large enterprises, by association among those concerned. They must, of course, possess the necessary capital. If they have not got it, as property, they must borrow it. It is, of course, peculiarly difficult here to preserve the necessary unity, without which the coöperation of labor becomes the confusion of labor. The more moral and intelligent the participants are and the simpler the business, the more extensive may it become, and the more probable will be its success. (§ 90.)(393)(394)(395)