WAGES. 



855 



compensation, that is, the quantity of valuable ven- 

 dible things commanded by the same labour. All 

 labourers want food, clothing, and shelter ; and he 

 that can command the best for the same labour is 

 the best paid. In making the comparison, we may 

 regard the money that each can earn ; but then we 

 must go farther, and inquire what the same weight 

 of silver or gold will purchase in each of the two 

 countries. To the man who expends his wages 

 where they are earned, a given amount of silver or 

 gold is valuable only in proportion to the things 

 that he can produce in exchange for it. To 

 all practical purposes, therefore, labour may be 

 higher paid in England at five shillings than in the 

 West Indies at ten. It is, therefore surprising to 

 see economists making comparisons of the money 

 rate of wages in different countries, as if that gave 

 any practical satisfactory result, without also in- 

 quiring further what the same money will purchase 

 in each of the two countries. For instance, a la- 

 bourer at Buenos Ayres can earn an ox in three days, 

 which, in England would cost him at least as many 

 months' wages ; whereas the English labourer can 

 earn more cloth in the same time than the one at 

 Buenos Ayres, though the money price of wages is 

 highest in the latter place. 



In all the speculations and treatises upon this 

 subject, we do not know of any full and satisfactory 

 comparison of the real rate of wages, for the cor- 

 responding kinds of labour, in different countries. 

 If we limit the inquiry to the same community, we 

 first ask what is the aggregate production, and how 

 great a proportion of the whole annual product 

 goes to labour and skill, and how much to rent and 

 capital. And here we readily perceive a gradual 

 change in the course of the progress of a com- 

 munity ; for in the early stages of improvement, 

 and while the population is comparatively thin, the 

 rent, and so the value, of lands, is low ; that is, the 

 holder of a particular piece of cultivated land re- 

 ceives but a small proportion of the annual products ; 

 but, as the population thickens, the proprietor of 

 the same tract will receive a greater proportion of 

 the whole products of the same cultivation than 

 his predecessors. Take the instance of the same 

 crop of grass, on the same piece of ground, for a 

 hundred successive years, from the time of felling 

 the forest, until a populous town has grown up in 

 the neighbourhood ; the wages for cutting and se- 

 curing the crop will, at first, be one half or three 

 quarters of its value, and will diminish, by degrees, 

 to one fifth or one tenth, and the value and rent of 

 the land will rise accordingly ; that is, land becomes 

 comparatively scarce in proportion to the popula- 

 tion, and the demand for its use ; and all raw pro- 

 duct?, that is, all products the value of which con- 

 sists mostly of rent, will rise-in comparative value. 

 This may take place, in a great degree, through a 

 whole country, as has been the case in England. 

 But the whole territory does not continue to pro- 

 duce merely the same quantity, since, as the wants 

 and consumption of the community increase, the 

 labour bestowed upon the same area will be in- 

 creased for the purpose of augmenting the quantity 

 of products, so that the land-owner may, in fact, 

 receive a less quantity, and a less proportion of the 

 products, and yet have a higher rent for his ground 

 every successive year, because the quantity which 

 he does receive, on account of its increased com- 

 parative value, will command, on the whole, more 

 of the things for which he wishes to exchange it. 

 During the same time, the labourer will receive, 



for the same labour, a less quantity and less pro- 

 portion of the raw products ; and yet, taking into 

 consideration all that he wants to consume, he 

 may, on the whole, continue to have as high wages 

 as at first, whether we regard the absolute quantity 

 of consumable things which he can command by his 

 labour, or the proportion which it will bear to the 

 whole annual product of the community. Though 

 some parts of his food, and all his fuel, may cost 

 him more labour, other parts of his food, particu- 

 larly that brought from abroad, and his shelter and 

 clothing, and especially all those articles that come 

 under the class of moderate luxuries, will probably 

 cost him less labour. In the progress of a com- 

 munity in which property is well protected, ac- 

 cumulation gradually reduces the rate of interest, 

 thus reducing the proportional amount of the cost 

 of production, as far as it depends on the use of 

 capital, whereby a compensation, in part at least, 

 is made for the enhancement of rents. All the in- 

 ventions and facilities to production, transportation 

 and exchange, also contribute to make a similar 

 compensation. From these causes, it may happen 

 that, in the advancement of the population, wealth, 

 arts and industry of a community, though a smaller 

 proportion of the whole products goes to compen- 

 sate mere labour, still a greater absolute amount of 

 products may go to compensate the same labour; 

 that is, a labourer may be able to supply himself, 

 by his industry merely, with a greater quantity of 

 necessaries and luxuries. In some respects, the 

 labourer suffers by the advancement of a commun- 

 ity ; in others, he is benefitted. 



But another view of the subject is of the very 

 greatest importance in considering the condition of 

 a people, namely, the distribution of that portion 

 of the annual products that is allotted to industry 

 and skill among the different classes of the indus- 

 trious. It is not possible to estimate exactly what 

 proportion the compensation for making out a legal 

 process, visiting a patient, officiating at the celebra- 

 tion of public worship, superintending the concerns 

 of a bank, commanding a ship or a regiment, &c., 

 ought justly, or for the best interests of a com- 

 munity, to bear to the wages of mere manual labour, 

 requiring very little skill ; nor, if we could deter- 

 mine this proportion, would it be practicable to 

 establish it. The law has interposed, in many 

 instances, in different countries, to regulate the 

 price of labour and commodities ; but it is now 

 universally admitted that any such interpositions 

 are most usually ineffectual, and always prejudicial. 

 But though positive regulations, in this respect, 

 will never remedy the evils of an unjust distribu- 

 tion, yet a community may be so constituted, and 

 so situated, that the spontaneous operation of in- 

 ternal causes will effect a nearly just apportionment 

 of the rewards of skill and industry among the 

 various classes of the industrious. To ascertain 

 what circumstances will have this operation, we 

 must inquire what class first suffers from an in- 

 equality ; and we find it to be those who depend 

 wholly on their labour for subsistence. This is 

 the part of the population where misery begins ; 

 and thence it spreads and accumulates until it is 

 felt by the whole ; for every part of the population 

 will inevitably sympathize, more or less, with every 

 other. It is utterly impossible for any class so to 

 separate itself from the rest as not to be affected, 

 directly or indirectly, by their enjoyments and suf- 

 ferings. How, then, can the wages of mere labour, 

 requiring very little skill, be sustained at a just 



