A TREATISE 113

ON THE

CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH DETERMINE

THE

RATE OF WAGES

AND THE

CONDITION OF THE LABOURING CLASSES.

BY

J. R. M°CULLOCH, ESQ.

LONDON:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.

1851.

NOTICE.

We have endeavoured, in the following Treatise, to resolve the most important of all economic problems —that is, to trace and exhibit the circumstances which determine the rate of wages and the condition of the labouring classes.

We have tried to compress our solution within the narrowest limits, by stripping it of extraneous matter, and contenting ourselves with an elucidation of the leading principles on which it depends. Though of general application, our investigations have especial reference to the labouring classes of the United Kingdom. The wish, how vain soever it may prove to be, to contribute to their improvement, has alone led to the publication of this little work.

LONDON, November 1851.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

1

INTRODUCTION,--Varieties of Labour,

CHAPTER I.

Wages depend, at any particular period, on the Magnitude of

the Fund or Capital appropriated to the payment of Wages,

compared with the number of Labourers,

4

CHAPTER II.

Comparative Increase of Capital and Population,

8

CHAPTER III.

Natural or Necessary Rate of Wages; different in different

Countries and Periods; depends on the Quantity and

Species of the Articles required for the support of the

Labourer. Influence of Fluctuations in the Rate of Wages

over the Condition of the Labourers,

25

CHAPTER IV.

Disadvantage of Low Wages, and of having the Labourers

habitually fed on the cheapest species of food. Advantage

of High Wages,

36

CHAPTER V.

Different Rates of Wages in different Employments. Circum-

stances on which these differences depend,

52