The Complaint of Labor, Or, the Forces of Nature as Affecting Society

This book is a response to the demands of socialist labor unions who expected the government to provide for them during an economic downturn. With charts showing the progress of westward expansion, the changes of wages, the prices of staple foods, and so on, Coffin made his case that capital would correct itself if the government helped foster markets with good transportation (railroads and shipping at the time). Any government help is necessarily limited by the number of tax dollars brought in, but by fostering business and supply, providing infrastructure, preventing monopolies, and encouraging new inventions, the government can provide the best petri dish for economic growth and prosperity, limited only by supply lines and innovation instead of by the economic bounds of the government's income.

Historical fiction authors will be thrilled to find lists of average prices and wages from 1860-1879 across a number of categories: barrels of flour and meats, room and board per week, cotton per bale and per yard, etc.

I was impressed and amused that Coffin successfully predicted the ascendency of the Chinese manufacturing market in 1879! In his day, England was our primary competitor, but he said that as soon as the capability of China was discovered, she would do her best to dominate the world markets...and was he ever right.

Ebook here: https://archive.org/details/complaintoflabor00coff/page/n1/mode/2up