PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS—SECTION F. 145 
a new direction requires a fresh expenditure of force commen- 
surate with the nature of the subject, the time occupied in 
transition, and the friction to be overcome, due to inertia or 
foreign resisting media. A physicist would never dream of 
discussing the mobility of material substances in such a loose way. 
He would first consider the mass or weight of the substance, the 
distance and direction of movement, the rate of movement and 
time, and the friction due to inertia or existing diversity of 
movement, and from these he would compute the fresh demand 
upon energy or force to execute the desired movement. 
Because the Political Economist does not think, or does not 
choose to think, that the transfer of a labourer or capitalist to a 
new place or to a new kind of occupation involves a process 
analogous to the movement of inanimate bodies, it is not the less 
true. Take the case of a shoemaker reduced to a state of idle- 
ness, or partial idleness, by competition among excessive numbers, 
or some other cause locally or generally. We will suppose that 
this workman has a family of five persons, including himself, to 
provide for, in addition to his quota of expenditure required for 
State purposes, such as General Government, Law, and Protection, 
including Gaols, Military and Naval Defences, Police, Education, 
Public Hospitals, Asylums, Support of Paupers, &c. It is obvious, 
therefore, that when fairly employed in this branch of labour— 
making boots and shoes—he is not merely rendering reciprocal 
services to his countrymen, but he helps them to provide for such 
expenditure as the requirements of the particular State demands. 
The greater the effort or energy expended by him during the year, 
the greater is the value of produce by him added to the common- 
wealth in all these respects, in addition to the important part of 
support of the four dependants specially related to him. 
Under ordinary circumstances (excluding foreign interference, 
and making due allowance for special skill) all branches of services 
within a certain country are paid at rates of wages which are, 
broadly speaking, correlative to effort or time expended, and, 
consequently, so long as the rates of wages are locally proportionate 
to definite efforts and skill, it matters not whether the average 
rate per hour be nominally high or low, so long as expenditure is 
also determined locally by such correlative conditions. Thus take 
the following illustrations :—Suppose the price of bread is deter- 
mined by a daily effort of 10 hours, and that all other services 
are modified and constantly exchanged in prices which, whether 
high or low, are also proportioned to the nominal price of, say, 
the guarter of wheat. Under these circumstances, it would not 
matter to the shoemaker whether the xomznal or money cost of 
his wages was high or low, for it would have the same purchasing 
power over the things which he required to satisfy the wants of 
himself and family, besides the proportion required from him for 
the service of the State Thus if the standard—the quarter of 
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