CHAPTER V.

EFFECTS OF THE EXTENSION OF CULTIVATION UPON THE WAGES OF LABOUR.

A body of emigrants landing on the shores of a new country, moderately provided with capital in the form of agricultural implements, find themselves, like the individual described at page 7, abundantly supplied with fertile land, but find also to their cost, that land is not sufficient for them, and that they can with the utmost difficulty obtain the means of supporting life. Such was the condition of the first emigrants to Virginia, and North Carolina-to Canada,-and such has been the condition of all nations, when a limited population enabled them to limit their cultivation to the most fertile lands, but when a more limited capital prevented them from cultivating those lands advantageously.† Such is the condition of all those whose moderate population places them now in a condition nearly similar, to wit, Poland, Spain, Turkey, &c.

The history of all early settlements is one of great wretchedness and discomfort. The emigrants to New South Wales, to Swan River, and to the Cape of Good Hope, have acted over in our time, the scenes of the early settlements of America. They were accustomed to consider land as the great source of wealth,§

* • The starving colonists were now (1628) reduced to five ounces of bread 'per day.'-Martin's Col. Lib. Canada, p. 10.

† 'What is the picture presented by the earliest records of those nations 'which are now civilized, or, which is the same, what is now the state of savage 'nations?—a state of habitual poverty and occasional famine. A scanty popula 'tion, but still scantier means of subsistence.'-Senior.

For three years, the settlers were in daily fear of starvation.'-Martin's Brit. Col. Library, p. 29.

Upwards of a thousand labourers were sent out to Swan River Colony, but 'the extreme cheapness of land (18. 6d. per acre) and the extravagant price of 'labour, furnished them with such facilities and inducements to become land 'owners, that the capitalists were every where left without persons to cultivate 'their lands. In consequence, capital to the amount of £200,000 perished. A 'scene of desolation ensued. The labourers having deserted their masters for

and to attach to the possession of it the idea of abundance, but melancholy experience has convinced them that man may be poor, although surrounded by fertile and unoccupied lands. The original settlers at Swan River now offer land at one shilling sterling per acre, showing how small is the value it has yet attained, notwithstanding the large amount of capital expended.

Another body, seeking a different place, provided with capital in the form of spades, ploughs, axes, horses, and cattle, find, possibly, that they can obtain, by cultivating the most fertile land, a reward for their labour equal to, or perhaps somewhat exceeding, that which they had at home.† It may exceed the amount

'the delusive desire of being the owners of land, implements of agriculture were allowed to rust on the banks of the rivers-seeds of various kinds rotted in casks on the beach for want of sowing, and sheep, cattle and horses perished 'because there was no one to attend them. The crisis came-hunger cured the 'labourers of their infatuation, and they returned and demanded from the capi'talists they had ruined, the work which they had deserted. It was not to be 'had.'-Proceedings of the South Australian Association, June, 1834. The Association believing that the ruin of the Colony of Swan River arose from the cheapness of land, determined to prevent any such cause from injuring them, by fixing theirs at 128. per acre. The real cause was, that the labourers believed land had value in itself apart from the labour bestowed upon it, and were anxious to exercise "the power of appropriation" to which the power to demand rent is attributed.

* The Swan River Colony is in a very flourishing state. Landed estates are to 'be purchased from the original settlers at one shilling per acre.'-New Monthly Magazine, October, 1836. We are much at a loss to imagine what can be 'flourishing" in the condition of a settlement, when the settlers are willing to sell, at a shilling per acre, land that must have cost them much more than that sum, merely to appropriate it.

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+ Even this is not always the case, as will be seen by the following account of the settlers at the Cape of Good Hope, a few years since. 'It can seldom 'have happened that emigrants have gone out with so many chances of success 'as this body of settlers. They did not emigrate singly and unconnectedly; but 'procceded together in a considerable body, and were bound together by the 'closest ties. They were not the refuse of the poor house, or the gaol, nor were 'they broken down artisans, or ignorant and half brutalized hinds; they were a 'a body of enterprising and industrious farmers, possessing both capital and skill, and acting in zealous co-operation. They were not placed in the wilderness 'upon their own resources, but were located in an unrivalled climate, and con'tinued long to receive direct support from the government, in food, assistance 'and protection. Yet these men, after making the most active exertions, and 'enduring the greatest privations for several years, were at last on the point of 'abandoning their attempt in despair.'

The fate of the ordinary settlers must, therefore, have been dreadful in the

that they have been accustomed to receive, not because their labour is more productive, but because they are permitted to enjoy that which they produce, and not compelled to give a fourth, a third, or half of it for the support of the government, the church, or individuals. It may not exceed that amount, but being accompanied by freedom from persecution for religious or other opinions, is enjoyed by them in peace and security. Such was the case with a large portion of the early emigrants to the United States, who sought to enjoy there that freedom of opinion which was denied them at home.

extreme. In 1823-4, for example, most of the settlers in the frontier districts of Albany were almost reduced to starvation, from which they were rescued by 'liberal subscriptions in Cape Town, in India, and in England.'—London and Westminster Review, October, 1836, p. 54.

The most fertile land in the South of Africa, not only would not enable the occupants to pay rent, but would not yield sufficient to support life. In a recent settlement in the Western Hemisphere, we find the same result. The property of the company for the settlement of the Eastern Coast of Central America was described in the following terms:

The land and timber (particularly mahogany,) after being properly surveyed and allotted, would produce, on immediate sale, many millions sterling.'

Of this settlement the following information is given by the Belize Herald, of November 26, 1836. A few of the settlers who first went to Verapaz, have since 'found their way here. They describe their sufferings as having been very great, being nearly eaten up with flies, and themselves having nothing but corn cake to eat for two or three weeks at a time. Their squalid appearance affords a melan'choly proof of the truth of their statement.

Since writing the foregoing, we have heard that so extreme were the priva *tions and sufferings of the emigrants in Verapaz, that rather than longer endure 'them, many of the women had run away, and are now living with Mr. Bennett's 'apprenticed labourers, driven to prostitution in order to obtain food to eat, a 'house to shelter them from the weather, and a pavilion to protect them from 'the musquitoes. What will our virtuous countrymen in England say to this? For the honour of human nature we hope it is not true.'

'The Company's settlement, it appears, is at a place called New Liverpool, on the South bank of Cajabon river, in Verapaz. It was represented to the emi'grants by the Company's Agents as a land flowing with milk and honey-a 'very Eden of a place,-instead of which they found the climate bad, the 'ground uncleared, no houses built, provisions scarce, and employment to be ob *tained with difficulty, and for the trifling remuneration of 18. per day. In 'addition to this, they were nearly eaten up with flies, and other insects.' There is no complaint here of any scarcity of fertile land-no necessity for cultivating that which is inferior-the only want was capital in the form of cleared landhouses, provisions and agricultural implements, by which they would have been enabled to secure to themselves steady employment and good wages.

If the affairs of the colony be well administered, it will increase in numbers and capital, and with the extension of cultivation over more distant, or less fertile lands, there will be a rise of wages such as is shown by the following statement of the results in the settlement of William Penn.

In 1699, the price of a ton of flour in Philadelphia, as appears from the cash book of William Penn, was £17, or $45 34. At that time the hire of men was from 2s. 6d. to 4s.=33 to 53 cents, per diem.

From 1783 to 1790, wages were at 50 to 75 cents per day, and the average price of flour, per barrel of 196 pounds, was, for 10 years, from 1784 to 1793-$5 68, or, per ton of 11 barrels, $62 48.

From 1825 to 1834, wages were from 75 to 125 cents per day, and the average price of flour $5 32 per barrel, or per ton

58 52.

Taking the lowest wages in all these cases, as being those of unskilled labour, the following would be the result:

In 1699, to obtain a ton of flour would require 137 days.

Here wages are almost doubled, although during the period embraced in it, every species of soil, from the first downwards, was brought into cultivation.

Were the comparison to be made in relation to sugar, coffee, tea, or cotton, the difference would be found vastly greater. When the most fertile lands only were occupied, the price of a day's labour, in cotton, was very small. Were it possible to ascertain the quantity of commodities of all descriptions obtainable in return for any given amount of labour, we doubt not it would be found to be more than three times greater at the present time than in 1699.

There is probably hardly any land in Pennsylvania that would not now enable the occupant to command a greater quantity of the necessaries and conveniences of life, than he could do when the most fertile soils on the Delaware could be had without the payment of rent.

Such being the case, the value of that in the vicinity of Philadelphia and New York cannot arise from the necessity of

cultivating inferior soils, but it may and does arise from the great amount of capital expended for their benefit, while the vast increase of capital generally has given the power to cultivate inferior, or more distant, soils, not only without a reduction, but with a constant increase, of wages.

A strong illustration of the utter want of value in land was to be found in New South Wales, a few years since. Population was small, and none but the most fertile soils were required to be cultivated, yet the government was compelled to offer inducements, by grants of land, to find employment, at the mere cost of subsistence for the labour power of the colony.

In 1834, a schedule of wages was drawn up by a committee of mechanics, from which we find that fencers and field labourers obtained 4s. to 5s. per week with lodging and rations-ploughmen £10 to £ 12 per annum, with lodging and rations. If these prices be compared with those of England, and a similar comparison be made of the cost of the various articles of consumption, it will be found that the labourer in New South Wales obtains much less than he could do at home. Nearly all have to be imported from Europe or Asia, and their prices are enhanced by the high freight, and the large advance required in new settlements. We think it highly probable that prices, in Sydney, for cottons and woollens, are at least twice as high as in London or Liverpool, and if so, what must be their cost to the ploughmen and labourers scattered through a country, where

• Convict labour was so complete a drug in the colony, on the arrival of Sir 'Thomas Brisbane,§ and the colonial executive was so utterly unable to find 'suitable employment for the daily increasing number on their hands, that any 'respectable person who pledged himself to the government to employ and main'tain twenty convict servants, could immediately, and without any other recom'mendation whatever, obtain a grant of two thousand acres of land, or one hun'dred for each convict servant.'-Lang's New South Wales, p. 155.

+ Quoted in Martin's Colonial Library, Vol. II. p. 199.

In comparing the wages of England and the Colonies, it must always be borne in mind that the labourer at home has to produce not only what is necessary for his subsistence, but a large sum for taxes on all articles of consumption. To make a fair comparison, we should be able to state the amount of commodi. ties that could be obtained by a given amount of labour, with equal taxation, in both places. The result would show that the productive power of those at home was immeasurably superior.

§ In 1821.