Page 274 - les-miserables

From time immemorial, M. sur M. had had for its spe-
cial industry the imitation of English jet and the black glass
trinkets of Germany. This industry had always vegetated, on
account of the high price of the raw material, which reacted
on the manufacture. At the moment when Fantine returned
to M. sur M., an unheard-of transformation had taken place
in the production of ‘black goods.’ Towards the close of 1815
a man, a stranger, had established himself in the town, and
had been inspired with the idea of substituting, in this man-
ufacture, gum-lac for resin, and, for bracelets in particular,
slides of sheet-iron simply laid together, for slides of sol-
dered sheet-iron.
This very small change had effected a revolution.
This very small change had, in fact, prodigiously reduced
the cost of the raw material, which had rendered it possible
in the first place, to raise the price of manufacture, a benefit
to the country; in the second place, to improve the work-
manship, an advantage to the consumer; in the third place,
to sell at a lower price, while trebling the profit, which was a
benefit to the manufacturer.
Thus three results ensued from one idea.
In less than three years the inventor of this process had
become rich, which is good, and had made every one about
him rich, which is better. He was a stranger in the Depart-
ment. Of his origin, nothing was known; of the beginning
of his career, very little. It was rumored that he had come
to town with very little money, a few hundred francs at the
most.
It was from this slender capital, enlisted in the service of

274 Les Miserables