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they ought resolutely to set about; neglecting th that is dependent on themselves, and within their cor for what is dependent on others, contingent, and gener attainable: suffering themselves to be deceived and mi impostors pretending to be their friends; and ascribing unfavourable results to defective laws and institutio the proceedings of hostile parties, for which they are selves solely and certainly responsible.

Like everything else which is bought and sold, the or service of man may vary in its price. Those who at o exchange the labour of a day, a week, a month, or ot riod, for a given sum of money, or a given quantity cessaries and conveniences, may, at another time, ex it for a different sum or quantity. Our first object wil fore be, to appreciate the circumstances on which the tuations depend, and the limits within which they are o

CHAPTER I.

Wages depend on the Magnitude of the Capital or Fund a ated to their payment, compared with the number of La

THE different articles or products belonging to a coun either are or may be employed to support its inhabitan facilitate production, have been termed its capital. I

quently comprises, in advanced countries like England, an alk but infinite variety of articles, including buildings, ships and machinery of all sorts, the lower animals in a state of domestication, with food, clothes, &c. But it is unnecessary, in an inquiry of this sort, to refer to capital in general; for we have only to deal with that portion of it which embraces the various articles intended for "the use and accommodation of the labouring class." This portion forms the fund out of which their wages are wholly paid. We should err if we supposed that the capacity of a country to feed and employ labourers, is to be measured by the advantageousness of its situation, the richness of its soil, or the extent of its territory. These, undoubtedly, are circumstances of very great importance, and have a powerful influence in determining the rate at which a people advance, or may advance, in numbers and civilization. But it is obviously not by them, but by the amount of the capital applicable to the payment of wages belonging to a country, that its power of supporting and employing labourers is to be measured. Holland is less fertile than Poland or Hungary, and Lancashire is less fertile than Kent; but, owing to their greater command of capital, the population of the former is comparatively dense. A fertile soil may be made a means of rapidly increasing capital; but that is all. Before it can be cultivated capital must be provided for the support of the labourers employed upon it, in like manner as it must be provided for the support of those engaged in manufactures, or other branches of industry.

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It is a necessary consequence of what is now stated, that amount of subsistence falling to each labourer, or the rate of wages, wholly depends on the proportion between capital and population. On the one hand is a quantity of necessaries and conveniences, and, on the other, the work-people among whom they are to be divided. If, therefore, the amount of the former be increased, without an equal increase taking place in the number of the latter, the share of each, or his wages, will be increased; while, if the number of work-people be increased more than the mass of necessaries and conveniences

no addition can be made to this rate unless capital b creased in a greater degree than the number of laboure the number of labourers be diminished in a greater degree the amount of capital. Now this case is not peculiar to t that country, but is of universal application. Laboure everywhere the divisor, capital the dividend. And hend fundamental principle that there are no means by which can be raised, other than by accelerating the increase of tal as compared with population, or by retarding the ind of population as compared with capital. And every s for raising wages, which is not bottomed on this prin or which has not an increase of the ratio of capital to lation for its object, must be completely nugatory an effectual.

Wages being most commonly paid and estimated in m it may perhaps be thought that their amount will, in quence, depend more on the supply of money in circul than on the magnitude of capital. But a little refl will serve to show that the amount of money paid t labourers is immaterial. They always receive such a as is equivalent to the portion of the national capital to their share. Men do not live on coin or paper. people carry the money paid to them direct to the dealers, and expend it on necessaries and conveniences. it is by the amount of these which comes into their poss that their wages are really to be measured. Were the mo Great Britain suddenly doubled, wages in no long time also be doubled. But if no corresponding change took

in the supplies of food, clothes, and such like articles, their price would equally rise, and the condition of the labourers be precisely the same as before. They would carry twice the number of sovereigns and shillings to market that they did previously to the increase in the quantity of money; but these would obtain for them only the same quantity of commodities.

Whatever, therefore, may be the state of money wageswhether they are 2s., 3s., or 5s. a-day—if the capital applicable to the payment of wages and the population continue the same, or increase or diminish in the same proportion, no real variation will take place in the rate of wages. Wages do not really rise, except when the proportion of capital to population is enlarged; and they do not really fall, except when that proportion is diminished.

But, though the principle now stated admit of no dispute, several unfounded inferences have been deduced from it. And, to prevent misconception, it may be right to state at the outset, that the condition or well-being of the labouring classes cannot in any case be correctly measured by, or inferred from, the wages they receive. It depends to a great extent on their conduct and habits, more especially on the description and cost of the articles used by them, and on their frugality and forethought. The same amount of wages that would suffice to maintain a workman who lived principally on corn and butcher's-meat, would probably maintain two or more if they lived principally on potatoes. And, whatever may be the articles of subsistence used by a people, they will, it is obvious, be powerfully affected by variations in their supply and price,' by the skill with which they are applied to their respective purposes, and the economy with which they are used or saved for future occasions. The expenditure even of the poorest individuals is spread, in a country like this, over a great variety of articles, some of which conduce but little,

1 A rise in their price being in most cases nearly equivalent to a corresponding fall of wages, and a fall in their price to a corresponding rise of wages.

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while others are not unfrequently adverse, to their con and respectability. And, therefore, though the rate of wa whether estimated in money or in commodities, dep on the proportion between capital and labour, the dition of the labourers is not determined by that rate bnt partly by it, and partly also, and perhaps principally the mode in which they expend their wages, that is, by peculiar tastes and habits in regard to necessaries, veniences, and amusements. Every one, indeed, is aware work-people with 18s., 20s., and 24s. a-week, are freque much better off than others with 28s., 30s., and 36s., per though the families of the former be quite as large as tho the latter.

The wages and the habits of the labouring classes intimately connected with, and powerfully influence, other. Generally speaking, a rise of wages, however sioned, tends, as will be afterwards shown, to improve habits of the population; and improved habits tend equal raise wages; whereas a fall of wages and the deterioratio habits which it occasions, have precisely opposite effects.

Without further insisting at present on considerat which will hereafter be resumed, it is obvious that the of wages in all countries and at all periods, depends on ratio between the portion of their capital appropriate the payment of wages, and the number of their labou The next object, in the natural order of inquiry, is to disc whether capital and population usually increase or dimi in the same or in different proportions. This is obvious very important inquiry. If capital have a tendency to vance faster than population, then it is plain that wages have an equal tendency to increase, and the condition of labouring classes will, speaking generally, become more more prosperous. But, on the other hand, if population a tendency to increase faster than capital, it is equally p unless this tendency be checked by the prudence and thought of the labourers, that wages will have a cons

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