WAGES 57 



wages in the British manufactures are equally deter- 

 mined by the descended state of agriculture on the 

 continent of Europe. 



Observe the different state of the manufacturing 

 workman in a country like the United States. He 

 exchanges with his fellow-countrymen (and that they 

 shall buy from him is enforced by common consent of 

 the country through protection) ; he has for his 

 customers agriculturalists carrying on the manufacture 

 of food without descent of cultivation and, with a 

 consequent high production, able to pay well for the 

 services rendered to them ; and therefore the wages of 

 manufacture are good, being graded from those on the 

 land. Living among such agriculturalists, the American 

 manufacturing workman has no need to seek markets 

 abroad, and would indeed be hard put to it to dispose 

 of his wares in foreign markets. He would be unable 

 to compete with the over-populated countries, his wages 

 being higher than theirs, and consequently the American 

 manufactures which do find their way into foreign 

 markets are of small amount. Of hardware and tex- 

 tiles, for instance, the United States exports only a fifth 

 of the amount of the United Kingdom. But this is by 

 no means to be taken as the measure of the prosperity 

 of her workmen ; for consumption in their own country 

 they manufacture on a larger scale than does the United 

 Kingdom for her combined home and foreign markets. 

 The case of the United States evidences that the well- 

 being of a manufacturing population arises from the 

 prosperity of the agriculturalists with whom they ex- 

 change, coupled with freedom from the competition of 

 countries in a less favourable state of cultivation. 



The United Kingdom, relieved from the competition 

 of the countries of cheap labour, would be able to obtain 

 in the markets of the world more for her manufactures 

 than she does at present ; for her customers are mostly 



