158 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



In the remainder of this chapter I shall, in speaking 

 of the labour market, exclude from it wholly the 

 independent classes who are not under the necessity 

 of earning their own living. They form so small a 

 part of any community that they may be left out of 

 account in dealing with the movement of its population. 



From the general observations which I have made 

 up to this point, based none of them upon any theory, 

 but all of them careful inductions from data both well 

 attested and sufficient, the reader will perceive that I 

 regard the labour market as the hinge upon which 

 every movement of population turns. 



No individual can marry unless he enters that 

 market, and is enabled to earn in it what in his degree 

 will suffice for the maintenance of a wife and pro- 

 spective children. 



The labour market provides the whole means of 

 subsistence of a community. The posts of employment 

 which can be found in it are strictly limited by its 

 demand for labour. It does not want more than a 

 certain quantity of labour, and to the supply of that 

 quantity its power of employing labour is rigidly 

 confined. 



If the labour market of any community is not 

 expanding, the normal demand for labour necessarily 

 remains at the same point, the number of posts of 

 employment undergoes no increase, and consequently 

 no young man, can enter into a position that enables 

 him to marry until such a position has been vacated 

 by the death of its former occupier. 



