Cheap labour and protection simply mean the possibility for a number of employers to continue working with obsolete and bad machinery; but in highly developed staple industries, such as the cotton and the iron industries, the cheapest produce is obtained with high wages, short hours and the best machinery.
Kropotkin argues that high wages and modern machinery lead to cheaper production in advanced industries.
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Wars and several accidental causes may check for some time the scattering of industries: they will not stop it; it is unavoidable.
And yet it is easy to prove that both are totally erroneous: plenty of food could be grown on the territories of Western Europe for much more than their present populations, and an immense benefit would be derived from doing so.
Any soil, of any desired composition, can be made by machinery.
There is not a second India in the world, and the old conditions will be repeated no more.
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