# On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures/Chapter 18

(210.) Although the cost of any article may be reduced in its ultimate analysis to the quantity of labour by which it was produced; yet it is usual, in a certain state of the manufacture of most substances, to call them by the term raw material. Thus iron, when reduced from the ore and rendered malleable, is in a state fitted for application to a multitude of useful purposes, and is the raw material out of which most of our tools are made. In this stage of its manufacture, but a moderate quantity of labour has been expended on the substance; and it becomes an interesting subject to trace the various proportions in which raw material, in this sense of the term, and labour unite to constitute the value of many of the productions of the arts.
(211.) Gold-leaf consists of a portion of the metal beaten out to so great a degree of thinness, as to allow a greenish-blue light to be transmitted through its pores. About 400 square inches of this are sold, in the form of a small book containing 25 leaves of gold, for 1s. 6d. In this case, the raw material, or gold, is worth rather less than two-thirds of the manufactured article. In the case of silver leaf, the labour considerably exceeds the value of the material. A book of fifty leaves, which would cover above ⟨1,000⟩ square inches, is sold for 1s. 3d.
​(212.) We may trace the relative influence of the two causes above referred to, in the prices of fine gold chains made at Venice. The sizes of these chains are known by numbers, the smallest having been (in 1828) No. 1, and the numbers 2, 3, 4, &c. progressively increasing in size. The following Table shews the numbers and the prices of those made at that time. The first column gives the number by which the chain is known; the second expresses the weight in grains of one inch in length of each chain; the third column the number of links in the same length; and the last expresses the price, in francs worth ten-pence each, of a Venetian braccio, or about two English feet of each chain.
VENETIAN GOLD CHAINS. :
| No. | Weight of One Inch, in Grains. | Number of Links in One Inch. | Price of a Venetian Braccio, equal to Two Feet 1/8 Inch English. |
| 0 1 11/2 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 24 | .44 .56 .77 .99 1.46 1.61 2.09 2.61 3.36 3.65 3.72 5.35 9.71 | 98 to 100 92 88 84 72 64 64 60 56 56 56 50 32 | 60 francs. 40 26 20 20 21 23 24 27 29 32 34 60 |
​Amongst these chains, that numbered 0 and that numbered 24 are exactly of the same price, although the quantity of gold in the latter is twenty-two times as much as in the former. The difficulty of making the smallest chain is so great, that the women who make it cannot work above two hours at a time. As we advance from the smaller chain, the proportionate value of the work to the worth of the material becomes less and less, until at the numbers 2 and 3, these two elements of cost balance each other: after which, the difficulty of the work decreases, and the value of the material increases.
(213.) The quantity of labour expended on these chains is, however, incomparably less than that which is applied in some of the manufactures of iron. In the case of the smallest Venetian chain the value of the labour is not above thirty times that of the gold. The pendulum spring of a watch, which governs the vibrations of the balance, costs at the retail price two-pence, and weighs fifteen one-hundredths of a grain, whilst the retail price of a pound of the best iron, the raw material out of which fifty thousand such springs are made, is exactly the same sum of two pence.
(214.) The comparative price of labour and of raw material entering into the manufactures of France, has been ascertained with so much care, in a memoir of M. A. M. Héron de Villefosse, "Recherches statistiques, sur les Metaux de France," that we shall give an abstract of his results reduced to English measures. The facts respecting the metals relate to the year 1825.
​In France the quantity of raw material which can be purchased for 1l., when manufactured into
The price of Pig-Lead was 1l. 1s. per cwt.; and lead of the value of 1l. sterling, became worth, when manufactured into
The price of Copper was 5l. 2s. per cwt. Copper worth 1l. became when manufactured into
The price of Tin was 4l. 12s. per cwt. Tin worth 1l. when manufactured into
Quicksilver cost 10l. 16s. per cwt. Quicksilver worth 1l. when manufactured into
​Metallic Arsenic cost 1l. 4s. per cwt. Arsenic worth 1l. when manufactured into
The price of Cast-Iron was 8s. per cwt. Cast-Iron worth 1l. when manufactured into
Bar-Iron cost 1l. 6s. per cwt. Bar-Iron worth 1l. when manufactured into
(215.) The following is stated by M. de Villefosse to be the price of bar iron at the forges of various countries, in January, 1825.
M. De Villefosse states, that in France bar iron, made as it usually is with charcoal, costs three times the price of the cast iron out of which it is made; whilst in England, where it is usually made with coke, the cost is only twice the price of cast iron.
(216.) The present price (1832) of lead in England is 13l. per ton, and the worth of 1l. of it manufactured into
The present price of cake copper is 84l. per ton and the worth of 1l. of it manufactured into
* ↑ A still finer chain is now manufactured (1832).
* ↑ Memoires de l'Institut, 1826.
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