upon the proceeds of labour, for the support of government, are moderate.

Every measure that increases the difference between them and other nations, must increase money wages, and every one that diminishes it, must diminish them. A war in Europe would diminish the product of wheat, and raise its price abroad. The producers thereof in the United States would find their power to obtain money increased, while those in Germany would find it diminished. If it were continued for a length of time, as were the wars of the French Revolution, the demand for corn would cause an increased demand for agricultural labour, and the producers of cotton, of hats, and of shoes, who had suffered inconvenience from the rise that had taken place in provisions, would be induced by the offer of high wages to turn their attention to the production of wheat. The waste of capital in Europe, by diminishing the amount of production, would tend to raise the money prices of commodities generally, and labour would follow. The producers of gold and silver would find their commodities diminished in their powers of commanding others in exchange.

Here, the increase in prices would precede the advance of wages, which would follow slowly after, and could not rise sufficiently high to give the labourer the same amount of commodities, because the average productiveness of labour had diminished. The reader, by calling to mind the changes in the price of commodities and of labour during the late wars, or at any period of deficient crops, will satisfy himself that such has always been the case.

Had those wars not taken place, capital would now be vastly more abundant, and the average power of labour to command the necessaries and conveniences of life would be much greater than at present. The people of France and Germany would produce their commodities in greater abundance, and would have larger quantities to exchange for the cotton and tobacco of the United States and the manufactures of Great Britain. The great community, constituting the world, is governed by the same laws as one composed of one hundred inhabitants, separated from the rest of the world and dependent upon itself for all its supplies. In such a society, if indisposition should

deprive it of the services of the shoemaker, or of those of the tailor, every member would feel the loss in the increased labour requisite to supply himself with shoes, or coats. Diminished production in one would be attended by diminished reward for labour to all Such is the case in the world at large. If the people of Germany be prevented from selling their corn, they cannot purchase cotton or tobacco. If by war they be prevented from raising it, the people of the United States feel the effect in the diminished power of obtaining other comfnodities in exchange for their productions.

Short crops of wheat abroad produce increased prices at home, and there is an appearance of increased prosperity, but the effect of those increased prices is to diminish the labourer's power of obtaining it in exchange, and to diminish the demand for labour in consequence of the inability of foreigners to consume other articles that they have been accustomed to purchase. Diminished production in any part of the world tends to diminish the quantity of commodities obtainable by the labourer in every other part, while increased production in any one tends to increase it in every other. It is, therefore, to the interest of all that universal peace should reign-that capital should increase -and that labour should be productive.

When a rise in money wages arises from further improvements of machinery, by which the powers of the labourer are increased, and he is placed still further above the average of production, it is accompanied by a fall in the price of commodities. Thus if the shoemakers and hatters of the United

That this doctrine is in accordance with experience, is evident from the following statement.

"In the year 1834, in two fine spinning-mills at Manchester, a spinner could produce sixteen pounds of yarn, of the fineness of two hundred hanks to the pound, from mules of the productive fertility of three hundred to three hundred and twenty-four spindles, working them sixty-nine hours: and the quantity that he turned off in sixty-nine hours, more frequently exceeded sixteen pounds than fell short of it. These very mules being in the same year replaced by others of double power, let us analyze the result. The spinner had been accustomed to produce sixteen pounds of No. 200 yarn from mules of the said extent From the list of prices, it appears, that in the month of May, he was paid 38. 6d. per pound; which being multiplied by sixteen, gives 548. for his gross receipts, out of which he had to pay (at the highest) 138. for assist

States could at once increase their production twenty-five per cent., shoes and hats would fall in price, while money wages would rise. A rise of money wages, in any country, from increased production, is advantageous to all, because it indicates an increase in the power of obtaining commodities generally, whereas a rise in one country, from diminished production in another, is disadvantageous to all, as it marks a diminution in the power of obtaining commodities generally.

We arrive now at the conclusion that when the rise of money wages is preceded by a rise in the prices of commodities, it arises from diminished production-or from excess of the substitutes for money-is disadvantageous to the labourer, and temporary in its duration.*

When, on the contrary, it is accompanied by a fall in the prices of commodities, it arises from increased production-is advantageous to the labourer-and is likely to be permanent.

ants. This leaves him 418. of net carnings. But soon thereafter his mules have their productive power doubled, being remounted with six hundred and forty-eight spindles. He is now paid 2s. 5d. per pound, instead of 38. 6d.—that is, two thirds of his former wages per pound; but he turns off double weight of work in the same time, namely, thirty-two pounds, instead of sixteen. His gross receipts are therefore 2s. 5d. multiplied into thirty-two, or 778. 4d. He now requires, however, five assistants to help him, to whom, averaging their cost at 58. a-piece per week, he must pay 25s.; or, to avoid the possibility of cavil, say 278. Deducting this sum from his gross receipts, he will retain 52s. 4d. for his net earnings for sixty-nine hours' work, instead of 41s., being an increase of 98. 4d. per week. This statement of the spinner's benefit is rather under the mark than above it, as might be proved by other documents, were it necessary."-Supplementary Factory Report.-Preface to Tables by J. W. Cowell Esq.

It is unnecessary to adduce any evidence of the constant fall in the price of all manufactures of cotton.

* It is this state of things that produces Trades' Unions and other combinations to raise the price of labour. The labourers feel the inconvenience of high prices for commodities, and most naturally desire that theirs should also be advanced, which rarely occurs until a short time before the explosion which throws them out of employment. They suffer first by high prices of all articles of consumption, and afterwards by the inability to obtain wages. They are more sinned against than sinning. Interferences, by means of wars and restraints, with the natural laws which govern trade, are always the cause of those advances in price which diminish the reward of labour, and cause the labourers to become turbulent and disorderly.

CHAPTER XI.

REVIEW. MR. MALTHUS.

In order that the reader may be enabled to compare the views which we have submitted to his consideration, with those of some of the most distinguished writers on the subject, we shall now give such extracts from their writings as are necessary for that purpose, with our remarks thereon, commencing with

MR. MALTHUS,

Who defines wealth to consist of "the material things necessary, useful, or agreeable to man, which have required some portion of human exertion to produce." He would thus appear to ascribe to labour exclusively the power of giving value; but by the following extracts it will be seen that he deems the cause of value in land to be the scarcity of that which is fertile, or possessed of advantages of situation, and that the owners derive the power of demanding rent for its use from the necessity which exists of having recourse to soils that yield a smaller return to labour. He thus departs from his original position.

"In the early periods of society, or more remarkably perhaps, when the knowledge and capital of an old society are employed upon fresh and fertile land, the surplus produce of the soil shows itself chiefly in extraordinary high profits, and extraordinary high wages, and appears but little in the shape of rent. While fertile land is in abundance, and may be had by whoever asks for it, nobody of course will pay a rent to a landlord. But it is not consistent with the laws of nature, and the limits and quality of the earth, that this state of things should continue. Diversities of soil and situation must necessarily exist in all countries. All land cannot be the most fertile all situations cannot be the nearest to navigable rivers and markets. But the accumulation of capital beyond the means of employing it on land of the greatest natural fertility, and the most

* Definitions, p. 234.

advantageously situated, must necessarily lower profits; while the tendency of population to increase beyond the means of subsistence must, after a certain time, lower the wages of labour."*

"If the profits of stock on the inferior land taken into cultivation were thirty per cent., and portions of the old land would yield forty per cent., ten per cent. of the forty would obviously be rent by whomsoever received. When capital had further accumulated, and labour fallen on the more eligible land of a country, other lands, less favourably circumstanced with respect to fertility or situation, might be occupied with advantage. The expenses of cultivation, including profits, having fallen, poorer land, or land more distant from rivers or markets, though yielding at first no rent, might fully repay these expenses, and fully answer to the cultivator. And again, when either the profits of stock, or the wages of labour, or both, have still further fallen, land still poorer or still less favourably situated, might be taken into cultivation.t

These are, we believe, the only two passages in which reference is made to "advantages of situation." Throughout the remainder of his work, rent is attributed as exclusively to difference of fertility, as if no mention had been made of any other quality. His whole theory of rent, and of population, is built upon the necessity for cultivating inferior soils, yielding a constantly decreasing return to labour, the consequence of which must be found in a constantly decreasing rate of wages and of profits. We have shown that advantages of situation result entirely from the application of labour and capital, by which the "desert wastes" of the Netherlands are made to produce a greater value of commodities than the fertile lands of Illinois, and the inferior soils of England to yield larger wages to the cultivator than the superior soils on the banks of the Ganges, and of the Indus. In order that the doctrines of Mr. Malthus should be admitted to be true, it would be necessary to prove that as soils inferior, either as regards fertility, or situation, are brought into cultivation, there is a reduction in the rate of wages and of profits. Inferiority of situation is precisely equivalent to inferiority of fertility, as the man who cultivates land No. 6, near New York, yielding him two hundred bushels, has as large a return for his labour as he who cultivates No. 1, in Illinois, or elsewhere,

* Principles of Political Economy, p. 150.

+ Ibid.

P. 153.