63 



and, after all, it is not the commodity which the 

 labour of the manufacturing operative produces. 

 That it has a trifling influence, we are aware ; but 

 the competition of labour, and the competition of 

 capital, influence in a much greater degree the 

 price of manufacturing labour, than the value of 

 the articles of subsistence, of which corn is only 

 a part. These principles which regulate and in- 

 fluence the price of labour are frequently acting in 

 different directions, and therefore producing un- 

 certain results. In 1825 the price of corn was 

 moderate, and the wages of the manufacturing 

 operatives were as high as they were during the 

 war, when the value of corn was nearly as much 

 again. This was occasioned by the great and in- 

 creased demand for labour at that time. If the 

 cost of the necessaries of life governed the demand 

 for labour if as the price of corn rose and fell, the 

 demand for labour increased and diminished if 

 the one element of the value of labour, namely, the 

 value of the necessaries of life, controuled and 

 directed the other elements, namely, the compe- 

 tition of labour and the competition of capital, then 

 it would be true that the price of the necessaries of 

 life controul the price of labour. This is the case 

 in some degree in respect to the labour of the hus- 

 bandman, but it is not so with the labour of the 

 artisan. 



If the hopes of the manufacturers and commer- 

 cialists were realized, and the field of employment 

 were enlarged, and the price of corn were very 



