CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



in the demand for skilled labour drives many 

 artists back into the ranks of the unskilled. 



In unskilled labour, a fall in the demand results, 

 either in labourers emigrating, or in sickness and 

 death thinning their ranks till the supply be so 

 far within the demand as that the number left 

 may earn wages sufficient to support them. On 

 the demand for labour rising, wages rise, and 

 tempt labourers to immigrate from foreign coun- 

 tries. Marriages also occur more frequently, and 

 the number of births increase, till the supply of 

 labour again reach the normal level. 



Of the Demand for Labour. 



It is a general law that the demand for labour 

 depends on the amount of capital seeking to 

 be productively employed. The employment of 

 labour where the labourer does not consume his 

 own produce depends on the existence of capital 

 in the form of the necessaries of life, or the means 

 of purchasing these necessaries, and on that 

 capital being made available for the support of 

 labour. 



A capitalist may employ his capital produc- 

 tively, by supporting the labourer till there be 

 time afforded for exchanging or bringing to 

 market the new produce of his labour. But, while 

 the ability to exchange commodities at all depends 

 on capital, it is also true that, with an increase in 

 the application of capital, exchanges will be in- 

 definitely increased. The owners of capital are 

 incessantly devising new commodities to exchange, 

 and new peoples with whom to exchange ; and 

 exchange being the main motive of production, 

 capital affords at the same time an indefinite 

 stimulus to production, and increases the demand 

 for labour. 



It does so when employed as floating capital 

 It does so also as fixed capital, not only in the 

 demand offered to labourers for the construction 

 and maintenance of machinery, means of convey- 

 ance, &c., but many of these investments of fixed 

 capital add permanently to the demand for labour ; 

 for water-power is too valuable, and machinery 

 too costly to be allowed to lie idle. 



From all these considerations, the great law is 

 arrived at, that the demand for labour varies with, 

 and is measured by, the amount of capital seeking 

 productive employment 



The only qualification of the law is, that the 

 capital in question must consist, to a certain 

 extent, of the necessaries of life ; in other words, 

 there is an absolute limit to the employment of 

 labour in the available supply of food and the 

 other means of existence. 



Doubtless, the application of capital may itself 

 be instrumental in providing an increased supply 

 of food, clothing, and shelter ; but owing to the 

 sources whence food is drawn, there is a limit to 

 the productive application of capital towards in- 

 creasing that supply : do what you may to improve 

 a given measure of land, you cannot increase its 

 productiveness indefinitely; and the same may 

 be said of the supply of other necessaries of life. 



On this fact rest the stern laws of population, 

 so universally associated with their first expounder, 

 Malthus. In a newly settled country, there is so 

 much land to be brought under tillage, that how- 

 ever rapidly the increase of population takes 

 place, the supply of food and of the other means 

 of subsistence may be increased proportionally ; 



and in such circumstances, it is found that popu- 

 lation doubles itself every twenty-five years. But 

 in an old country, where the land is fully occupied, 

 there is not the same elasticity in its resources. 

 The productiveness of land may be improved by 

 capital and skill, but not in the geometrical ratio 

 in which population tends to increase. The 

 population of old countries, therefore, must either 

 be kept down voluntarily by lateness of marriage, 

 by continence, and by emigration ; or otherwise 

 it is kept down by the spontaneous and unpitying 

 action of natural laws by poverty and famine, 

 infantile diseases, and social epidemics. 



Of the Price of Labour in General, and in its Several Branches. 



The price of labour at any given time depends 

 on the relation of supply and demand ; but in the 

 long-run it gravitates to the income necessary for 

 the maintenance of a family in the ordinary com- 

 forts of the rank to which the labourer belongs 

 affording, in the case of unskilled labour, the 

 bare necessaries of life ; and affording, in the case 

 of skilled labour, some return for the outlay on 

 education, and that amount of comfort necessary 

 to keep up a flow of spirit and intelligence. 



In order to get at the true exchangeable value 

 of labour, wages must be regarded not as the 

 end, but as the instrument ; and must be inter- 

 preted by the price at the time of the articles of 

 food, clothing, &c. in the purchase of which they 

 are applied. 



In warm climates, where little fuel, clothing, or 

 shelter is needed, and where vegetable food is 

 chiefly used, the cost of labour is low ; but at the 

 same time, the physical system is weak, and labour 

 comparatively worthless. In a temperate climate, 

 the labourer consumes more food, fuel, shelter, 

 clothing ; but his labour is energetic and pro- 

 ductive in a corresponding degree. 



Taking the several branches of labour separately, 

 like principles regulate the price of labour as 

 regulate the labour market generally. But in 

 each case there are special circumstances affect- 

 ing supply and demand. From many branches 

 of business, capital may be deterred by insecurity 

 or other apprehensions ; on others, there may be 

 quite a run of capital; some capitalists are con- 

 stantly shifting their investments from one branch 

 of trade to another. And on the side of labour, 

 besides the element of skill, there may be other 

 influences affecting the supply ; the employment 

 may be laborious or light, agreeable or nauseous ; 

 it may be constant or intermittent ; it may require 

 trustworthiness of character, or no testimonial of 

 character whatever. 



In conclusion, it may be remarked that whereas 

 fluctuations in the price of ordinary commodities 

 are undisturbed by any immediate view of the 

 consequences that may result to individuals, the 

 fluctuations in wages are peculiarly open to be 

 seen face to face with their effects on the con- 

 tracting parties, and, whatever latssez faire polit- 

 ical economists may say, wages are modified in 

 some measure by considerations arising from that 

 source. In periods of distress, masters, we doubt 

 not, are often led to pay higher wages than they 

 can well afford, and labourers are occasionally 

 equally lenient with their masters. In strikes and 

 lock-outs the opposite temper is sometimes dis- 

 played. 



In this section, while speaking of labour and 



