56 



WAGES AND EMPIRE 



work for the pay which the shortage of land forces other 

 labour to accept, and the master manufacturer is thus 

 able to produce manufactures at a very low price. 



Now the price at which these manufactures are 

 produced regulates the price at which we must sell ours. 

 Of hardware and textiles, the principal subjects of 

 exchange with the foreign farmer, the continent of 

 Europe exports more than does the United Kingdom ; 

 before the war it exported annually 262 million pounds' 

 worth to the 200 million pounds' worth sent abroad by 

 the United Kingdom (see Table No. XIII). 



Table No. XIII 



Exports (pre-war) from various countries of metal 

 goods and textiles. 



Germany 



France 



Belgium 



Austria 



Italy 



Switzerland 



Russia 



Holland 



Spain 



Sweden 



Millions. 

 iizo 



70 



20 

 5 

 5 



15 

 2 



18 

 2 

 5 



Continent of Europe ;^262 



In all the markets of the world the manufactures of 

 the continent of Europe confront ours, and unless we 

 accommodated our prices to them our goods would find 

 no purchasers. The wages of the workmen in the 

 manufactures of this country are not governed by what 

 their services are worth to the farmers of the world and 

 what the latter could pay for them, but by the remunera- 

 tion which the work-people of the continent of Europe 

 are forced to accept ; and as their rate of wages is dictated 

 by the descent of their agriculture it follows that the 



