Moreover, the rapid introduction of machinery tied up all
of the manufacturers' available capital and forced him to turn his
products into money as rapidly as possible, with the inevitable result
that the merchant was given an enormous bargaining advantage over him.
Had the extension of the market and the introduction of machinery
proceeded at a less rapid pace, the manufacturer probably would have
been able to obtain greater control over the market opportunities, and
the larger credit which this would have given him, combined with the
accumulation of his own capital, might have been sufficient to meet his
needs. However, as the situation really developed, the merchant obtained
a superior bargaining power and, by playing off the competing
manufacturers one against another, produced a cut-throat competition,
low prices, low profits, and consequently a steady and insistent
pressure upon wages. This represents the situation in the seventies and
eighties.
For labor the combination of cut-throat competition among employers with
the new machine technique brought serious consequences.
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