out of one branch of manufacture or commerce, enter some other branch in which large-scale capital is less powerful. In many cases, persons who have been ruined in this way become small traders, pedlars, and the like. Thus large-scale capital tends, step by step, to replace small production everywhere. Huge enterprises come into existence, each employing thousands or tens of thousands of workers. Large-scale capital is becoming the ruler of the world. The working owner is disappearing. His place is being taken by large-scale capital.
As examples of the decline of small-scale production in Russia, let us consider the home workers. Some of these, such as furriers and basket-weavers, worked with their own raw materials and sold to anyone who would buy. In course of time the home worker began to work for one particular capitalist; this is what happened in the ease of the Moscow hatmakers, toymakers, brushmakers, etc. In the next stage, home workers procure the raw materials from their own employer, and thus pass into bondage to him (e.g. the locksmiths of Pavilovsk and of Burmakino). Finally, the home worker is paid by his employer at piece-work rates (the nailmakers of Tver, the bootmakers of Kimry, the matmakers of Makarieff, the knifeforgers of Pavlovo). The hand-loom weavers have been similarly enslaved. In England, the expiring system of small-scale production was nicknamed the “sweating system,” owing to the abominable conditions that prevailed. In Germany, during the period 1882 to 1895, the number of small enterprises diminished by 8.6 per cent.; the number of middle-sized enterprises (those employing from 6 to 50 workers) increased by 64.1 per cent.; and the number of great enterprises increased by 90 per cent. Since 1895 a notable number of middle-sized enterprises have also been crushed out. In Russia, the victory of the factory system over home industry has been fairly rapid. The textile industry (weaving) is one of the most important branches of manufacture in Russia. If we consider the changes that have taken place in the cotton industry, if we compare the number of factory workers with the number of home workers, we are able to judge how rapidly the factory system is displacing home industry. Here are the figures: