Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

of individuals engaged in industrious undertakings in Great Britain, as conductors, overseers, or workmen, the situation occupied by each is, in the vast majority of cases, that which is best suited to his capacity, and his salary or wages such as he is fairly entitled to by his services. Agriculturists, manufacturers, and merchants, whether their businesses be large or small, are always most anxious to give the greatest efficacy to their establishments; to adapt their means properly to their ends; and to select the parties that are, all things considered, the most suitable for their purposes. In a society like this, integrity, skill, and industry are sure to be duly prized and appreciated; and the fund that should feed labour is never (or, if ever, only for a moment) diverted to the support of idleness. And yet there have been, and still are, persons calling themselves social reformers and friends to the poor, who propose that this admirable system should be subverted, and a meddling despotism substituted in its stead; that the rewards of industry should no longer be apportioned according to the fair and equitable arrangement of the parties concerned; but that the employment and the wages of every man should be determined by agents nominated by government for the purpose! We should show but little respect for our readers were we to waste their time in refuting such palpable absurdities. The abuses to which the adoption of such a scheme would infallibly lead would be such that it could not be maintained for any considerable period: if it were, it would fill the land with robbery, injustice, and ruin.

CHAPTER II.

Circumstances which determine the Rate of Wages. SECTION I. MARKET OR ACTUAL WAGES-Depend on the Proportion between Capital and Population-Identity of the interests of the Capitalists with those of the Labourers. SECTION II. NATURAL OR NECESSARY WAGES-Depend on the Species and Quantity of Food and other Articles required for the Consumption of the Labourer. Different in different Countries and Periods-Effect of Fluctuations in the Rate of Wages on the Condition of the Labouring Classes—Advantage of a High Rate of Wages-Disadvantage of having the Labourers dependent for support on the cheapest Species of FoodCircumstances affecting the Condition of the Labourers—Education— Influx of Irish Labourers-Task-work-Limiting the Hours of Labour-High Wages not a Cause of Idleness-Comparative Cheapness of Free and Slave Labour. SECTION III. PROPORTIONAL WAGES-Depend partly on the Amount aud Species of the Articles consumed by the Labourers, and partly on the Productiveness of Industry. SECTION IV. DIFFERENCE IN THEIR INFLUENCE OVER WAGES BETWEEn a Demand for Labour, and a Demand for the PRODUCTS OF Labour.

Ir has just been seen that the wages earned by the labourers engaged in different employments may, when all things are taken into account, be considered about equal; and therefore, without regarding the difference that actually exists in the amount of money, or of commodities, earned by different sets of workmen, we shall suppose that the wages of all sorts of labour are reduced to the same common standard, and shall endeavour to discover the principle which determines this common or average rate.

This inquiry, which, as it relates to the means of subsistence of the largest and not least valuable portion of society, is practically one of the most important in the science, will be facilitated by dividing it into three branches; the object in the first being to discover the circumstances

which determine the market or actual rate of wages at any given moment; in the second, to discover the circumstances which determine the natural or necessary rate of wages, or the wages required to enable the labourer to subsist and continue his race; and in the third, to discover the circumstances which determine proportional wages, or the share of the produce of his industry falling to the labourer.

SECT. I.-CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH DETERMINE THE MARKET OR ACTUAL RATE OF WAGES.

The capacity of a country to support and employ labourers is not directly dependent on advantageousness of situation, richness of soil, or extent of territory. These, undoubtedly, are circumstances of very great importance, and have a powerful influence over the rate at which a people advance, or may advance, in refinement and civilisation. But it is not on them, but on the amount of its wealth, or of its capital applicable to the employment of labour, and on the disposition of the owners of capital so to apply it, that the capacity of a country to support work-people at any given period, and the amount of their wages, wholly depend. A fertile soil may be made rapidly to add to the means of subsistence; but that is all. Before it can be cultivated, capital must be provided for the support of the labourers employed upon it, as it must be provided for the support of those engaged in manufactures, or in any other department of industry.

It is further evident, that the quantity of produce apportioned to each labourer, or his wages rated in commodities, is determined by the ratio which the capital of the country bears to its labouring population. When, on the one hand, capital is increased without an equivalent increase of population, the portions of it that go to individuals, or their wages, are necessarily augmented in the same ratio; and when, on the other hand, population happens to increase more rapidly than capital, the latter having to be distributed.

among a comparatively great number of persons, their wages or shares are proportionally reduced.

To illustrate this, let it be supposed that the capital of a country appropriated to the payment of wages, would, if reduced to the standard of wheat, be equivalent to 10,000,000 quarters, and that it has 2,000,000 labourers: it is evident in such case that the yearly wages of each, reducing them all to the same common standard, would be fire quarters; and it is further evident that this rate of wages could not be increased, unless the amount of capital were increased in a greater proportion than the number of labourers, or the number of labourers diminished more than the amount of capital. So long as capital and population march abreast, or increase or diminish in the same proportion, so long must the rate of wages, and, consequently, the condition of the labourers, continue unaffected: and it is only when the proportion of capital to population varies, by its being either increased or diminished, that wages sustain a corresponding advance or diminution. The well-being of the labouring classes is, therefore, especially dependent on the relation which they bear to capital. If they increase faster than it, their condition is deteriorated; and if they increase more slowly, it is improved. This oscillation. determines their "weal and their woe." There are no possible means by which the command of the labourers over necessaries and conveniences can be enlarged, other than by accelerating the increase of capital as compared with population, or by retarding the increase of population as compared with capital; and we may be assured that every scheme for improving their condition which is not bottomed on this principle, or which has not an increase of the ratio of capital to population for its object, must be nugatory and ineffectual.

And yet it has been said, that an increase of capital may be hostile to the working classes, and that their interests and those of the capitalists may be, and in fact are, frequently opposed to each other! But there is no real room

or ground for any such statement. Capital and labour are alike dependent upon, and necessary to each other without the former the latter cannot exist, and without the latter the former would be valueless. The notion that an increase of machinery, food, and clothing, (for of such articles does capital consist,) can be injurious to the labourer, is too plainly contradictory and absurd to be entitled to any notice. The truth is, that whatever tends to promote accumulation, to increase the desire for, and the means of, amassing additional wealth, and to give confidence and security to its possessors, contributes in the most effectual manner to advance the interests of the labourers. A capitalist cannot increase his own stock without at the same time, and to the same extent, increasing the wealth, or the means of subsistence, of the working classes. Hoarding is no longer practised in any country in which property is protected. Wherever this is the case, all savings go to swell, directly or indirectly, the amount of the fund for the employment of labour. Industry is benefited in the same way, though not to the same extent, by the thrift of the poor widow, the savings of the retail-tradesman, and the successful enterprises of the manufacturer and merchant. An increase of capital is but another name for an increased. demand for labour; and it is the only way in which it can be really and permanently increased.

But, supposing this to be admitted, it will perhaps be alleged that capitalists endeavour to reduce wages to the lowest possible limits; that, being able to stop their works for a time, they have a great advantage in the deadly struggle which they are always carrying on against the labourers, who can rarely afford to be idle-at least for any considerable period—and that, consequently, the latter are too often reduced to a state bordering on helotism and wretchedness. While, however, we admit that the condition of the labouring class is not such as it were desirable it should be, and that they have not reaped the advantages which it might have been expected they would have derived, from the extra

« AnteriorContinuar »