170 NOTE ON CHAPS. V., VI., AND VII., BOOK I.

modities, either always, or only in some cases, as is supposed by Adam Smith; these are questions which will be most conveniently examined under the head of Rent. But I would here observe, that the foregoing remarks upon exchangeable value are not offered as anything like a satisfactory exposition of the subject; they have been made, on the contrary, chiefly with a view to show, that, while Adam Smith is not so far in error as some imagine, the subject of exchangeable value is still very imperfectly understood, even by those who believe that they have thoroughly mastered it.

171

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Wages of Labour.

THE produce of labour constitutes the natural recompense or wages of labour.

In that original state of things, which precedes both the appropriation of land and the accumulation of stock, the whole produce of labour belongs to the labourer. He has neither landlord nor master to share with him.

Had this state continued, the wages of labour would have augmented with all those improvements in its productive powers, to which the division of labour [employments] gives occasion. All things would gradually have become cheaper. They would have been produced by a smaller quantity of labour; and as the commodities produced by equal quantities of labour would naturally in this state of things be exchanged for one another, they would. have been purchased likewise with the produce of a smaller quantity.

But though all things would have become cheaper in reality, in appearance many things might have become dearer than before, or have been exchanged for a greater quantity of other goods. Let us suppose, for example, that in the greater part of employments the productive powers of labour had been

improved to tenfold, or that a day's labour could* produce ten times the quantity of work which it had done originally; but that in a particular employment they had been improved only to double, or that a day's labour could produce only twice the quantity of work which it had done before. In exchanging the produce of a day's labour in the greater part of employments, for that of a day's labour in this particular one, ten times the original quantity of work in them would purchase only twice the original quantity in it. Any particular quantity in it, therefore, a pound weight, for example, would appear to be five times dearer than before. In reality, however, it would be twice as cheap. Though it required five times the quantity of other goods to purchase it, it would require only half the quantity of labour either to purchase or to produce it. The acquisition, therefore, would be twice as easy as before.

But this original state of things, in which the labourer enjoyed the whole produce of his own labour, could not last beyond the first introduction of the appropriation of land and the accumulation of stock. It was at an end, therefore, long before the most considerable improvements were made in the productive powers of labour, and it would be to no purpose to trace further what might have been its effects upon the recompense or wages of labour.

As soon as land becomes private property, the landlord demands a share of almost all the produce

which the labourer can either raise, or collect from it. His rent makes the first deduction from the produce of the labour which is employed upon land.

It seldom happens that the person who tills the ground has wherewithal to maintain himself till he reaps the harvest. His maintenance is generally advanced to him from the stock of a master, the farmer who employs him, and who would have no interest to employ him, unless he was to share in the produce of his labour, or unless his stock was to be replaced to him with a profit. This profit makes a second deduction from the produce of the labour which is employed upon land.

The produce of almost all other labour is liable to the like deduction of profit. In all arts and manufactures the greater part of the workmen stand in need of a master to advance them the materials of their work, and their wages and maintenance till it be completed. He shares in the produce of their labour, or in the value which it adds to the materials upon which it is bestowed; and in this share consists his profit.

It sometimes happens, indeed, that a single independent workman has stock sufficient both to purchase the materials of his work, and to maintain himself till it be completed. He is both master and workman, and enjoys the whole produce of his own labour, or the whole value which it adds to the materials upon which it is bestowed. It includes what are usually two distinct revenues, belonging to two

distinct persons, the profits of stock, and the wages of labour.

Such cases, however, are not very frequent, and in every part of Europe, twenty workmen serve under a master for one that is independent; and the wages of labour are everywhere understood to be, what they usually are, when the labourer is one person, and the owner of the stock which employs him another*.

What are the common wages of labour, depends everywhere upon the contract usually made between those two parties, whose interests are by no means the same. The workmen desire to get as much, the masters to give as little as possible. The former are

*The statement in the text, that in every part of Europe twenty workmen live by wages for one that does not, appears to me to be extremely incorrect. This indeed may be the case with respect to those who are not employed in agriculture; but in the greater part of Europe, workmen who are not em. ployed in agriculture, bear a small proportion to those who are; while, of the latter, a large majority, there is reason to think, do not work for wages. In a considerable part of Europe, all the workmen employed in agriculture are slaves. According to some calculations of the Duc de Gaëte, the agricultural population of France in 1816, amounted to about twenty millions, and the class of hired agricultural labourers, including women and children, to about five millions; so that there must have been three independent workmen for one that served under a master. In Spain and Portugal, Switzerland, great part of Germany, Italy, excluding some rich plains where property in land is not minutely divided, great part of Ireland; in whatever part of Europe, indeed, land is generally divided into small properties or holdings, it seems