wages would rise; and when they had risen high enough to support the labourers upon a sufficiency of wholesome food, the labourers would have the same command over food that they had before the scarcity, and they would have a greater command over manufactured articles for these latter, as in the former instance they did not fall in the same proportion as wages, so neither will they now rise in the same proportion.

Let us next consider the effect of alterations in the price of articles of comfort not necessary for the support of existence.

Suppose a labourer to spend a shilling a month in the purchase of cotton goods, and that improvements in their manufacture enable these to be sold at half their former price: he now buys the same cotton goods for sixpence that before cost him a shilling; so that, after making his usual purchases, he has sixpence left in his pocket. Now, as a fall in the price of cotton goods will not enable the country to maintain a greater population, there being no additional food for their support, there can be

no increased competition to lower wages. Thus the sixpence saved may be considered as so much added to the income of the labourer.

The individual labourer may undoubtedly lay out this additional sum in the purchase of food, and so increase his means of rearing a family. But though an individual may do this, everybody cannot; for if everybody was to spend an additional sum, say one-fifth more, in the purchase of corn, without any increase in the quantity for sale, then it is evident that, the amount of corn being the same, and being divided in the same proportion among the same number of people, each will purchase exactly the same quantity of corn for the greater sum, as he got before for the smaller sum. It is evident, therefore, that if one man buys more, some one else must buy less. And this is practically the case: the man with a family will buy more food; while the increase in the artificial comforts of life that must be sacrificed to enable a man to maintain a family, will form an additional temptation to others to remain in a single state.

The amount of food in a country may be said

to limit the population supported by it; while the amount of articles of convenience, not necessary to the support of life, measures the comforts to be divided among that population. Thus we hear of people in one country rearing families under circumstances of discomfort and misery that are not to be found in another: a fact that has been accounted for by some writers by supposing that the inhabitants of one country had a superior "taste for the comforts of life."* The real reason appears to be, that the power of rearing a family depends upon the command that a man has over food, and the absolute necessaries of life; while his comfortable condition depends upon the command he has over articles of comfort not absolutely necessary to existence.

But though the average condition of labourers throughout a country depends upon the amount of food, and the amount of the various artificial comforts distributable among them, the average wages of the whole body are not to be considered

* Torrens-" Wages and Combination," p. 12.

as necessarily being the actual wages of any individual labourer.

When extensive works are undertaken in any part of the country, the wages of common labourers are more or less raised in that neighbourhood as compared with the rest of the country. Let us even suppose the demand for labour throughout the whole country to be constant and equal, and all the work required to be done to be of the same nature. It does not then of necessity follow that every man will earn the same wages, for there is a considerable difference between the rate of wages and the price of labour, the price of labour being that which a master pays to get a certain amount of work performed the rate of wages referring to what a labourer earns in a certain time. So that if two men are paid at the same rate for their labour, and one works twice as hard as the other, one will obtain twice the wages that the other does.

But in a complicated condition of society, as in England at the present time, the reward for labour varies in every possible degree, ac

cording to the qualifications required,—such as strength, skill, experience, honesty, or industry in their respective callings, and the proportionate demand that there may be for the services of those possessing such qualifications. So that the wages of a particular class of persons may rise or fall without being directly affected by the number of persons desirous of employment who are not possessed of the requisite qualifications.

There are certain limits, however, beyond which wages cannot fall or rise. They cannot of course permanently fall below a sum sufficient to maintain the labourers and their families in such a manner that their numbers do not fall off. The limits, however, above which wages cannot rise will require further explanation. It was before observed that the cost of every article is resolvable into three constituent parts-the raw material, profits, and wages. Suppose that, in the production of a certain article, ten workmen are employed for a given time at 17. each. Here then the cost of the article will consist of the price of the material, the master's profits, and the 107. paid in wages. Now, if