FOURTH ORDINARY MERTING. 39 
7. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. XLIV., No. 9. 
8. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, N.S., Vol. VI., No. 11, 
November, 1884. 
The following gentlemen were elected members of the 
Institute : 
W. S. Milner, B.A., Dr. T. Walker Simpson, William McCabe, Esq., Geo. 
H. Jarvis, Esq., Robert Winton, Esq. 
Mr. W. A. Douglas then read a paper on 
WAGES. 
The current doctrines respecting the distribution of wealth are very 
contradictory, and still require much investigation. Mill’s doctrine 
of wages has three assumptions : 
1. Wages are drawn from capital, that part thus devoted being 
called the wage-fund. 
2. Average wages may be ascertained by dividing the wage-fund 
by the number of labourers. 
3. Wages can be increased only by increasing the numerator or 
diminishing the denominator. 
Therefore, if wage-fund be 10, labourers 5, wages will be 3° = 2, and 
if labourers be increased to 6, wages will full to 4? = 12. 
The following are a few of the objections of this doctrine : 
1. An additional labourer will receive employment only on condi- 
tion that he produce 2 + something, that something being enough to 
cover profit and rent. The additional labourer will increase not 
merely the denominator but also the numerator. 
2. It is illogical, Mill teaches that capital is one of the component 
forces, wealth the resultant ; wages, rent and profits, the division of 
the resultant. He is, therefore, illogical in calling capital a com- 
ponent force and also a resultant. 
3. This doctrine teaches a wrong perspective of society. It repre- 
sents the capitalist as the initial party in production, supporting the 
labourer, and the latter as the dependent party ; whereas, in fact, the 
capitalist and labourer are co-workers, mutually dependent, working 
concurrently to obtain wealth, and when the wealth is produced, then 
dividing the product. 
The study of political economy presents two distinct questions : 
1. Given a number of labourers and a certain quantum of natural 
forces ; what will be the product ? 
