6 WAGES AND EMPIRE 



that where a population is greater than its resources 

 wages will be merely subsistential ; but such a state 

 of affairs follows from an insufficiency of resources. 

 Those who put forward the subsistential theory of 

 wages did not inquire sufficiently as to whether 

 resources could not be increased or numbers stayed. 

 Both these circumstances have taken place since the 

 subsistential theory was propounded, and therefore 

 have confounded it by exhibiting wages at the present 

 day very much above the subsistential limit. 



Malthus carried the subsistential theory a step 

 further. He attempted to give the actual facts con- 

 cerning a country's resources and population. He 

 showed that resources were susceptible of increase, and 

 attempted to lay down a definite rate of increase. He 

 also attempted to give the exact rate of increase 

 of population. On his showing, the rate of increase 

 of population was faster than that of resources ; this 

 meant trouble and penury. He therefore recommended 

 that the rate of increase of population should be checked 

 as the only means of keeping numbers within their 

 resources, and he said that thus wages could be raised. 



Since he wrote no attempt has been made to add 

 precision to his account of the increase of resources. 

 It is obvious that some part of Malthus' argument 

 was wrong, because population since he wrote has 

 increased quite as fast as when he was living, but wages 

 instead of being the same, or less, are much higher. 



A further defect of Malthus' theory is that it does 

 not tell us really the cause which determines wages, 

 but tells us merely of the causes which depress wages 

 and beat them down. It does not explain what deter- 

 mines the rate of wages where there is no competition 

 among workmen for employment, and the places are 

 more than they can fill. 



It is, however, by following upon the lines laid 

 down by Malthus that a true view of the circumstances 



