WAGES 45 



receive the rate prevailing here. The difference between 

 the wages of the European and overseas labourers is 

 not due to any difference in their capacities ; the new 

 communities are populated from the old and their 

 people are the same. The difference between the 

 European and New World wages is the result of the 

 difference of their states of agriculture. The wages 

 of 36s. a week indicate the degree of living that science 

 is capable of affording when cultivation is not pressed 

 down. This wage would be earned by the agricultural 

 labour of Europe if the population of the Continent 

 was proportioned to its land resources. The amount 

 they now obtain is the measure of the descent of culti- 

 vation, which is such that it has reduced wages to 

 just the half of what they might be. 



The wages of non-agriciiltural workmen are also set 

 by their country's resources in land. — The wages of work- 

 men other than the agricultural are also reduced by the 

 descent of cultivation, and depend upon land resources 

 as much as if they were engaged upon the land. And 

 indeed they are mainly so occupied, though this is not 

 apparent. 



It is natural to separate the other workers from the 

 peasants and to think that the scale of their living is 

 determined differently. But it is impossible in fixing 

 the causes of wages to separate any category of workmen. 

 All classes of workmen merge one into the other; they 

 interchange their occupations and they are all engaged 

 in the making of food. 



A survey of the nature of the labour of non-agri- 

 cultural workers will make it apparent that they are 

 employed in assisting and furthering agricultural 

 production. 



Before discussing their functions, however, it is 

 necessary to take note of the circumstances which have 

 made their emergence possible. It will be found that 



