WAGES 59 



of the principal employments in the United Kingdom, 

 Germany, France, and overseas. It will be seen there- 

 from that wages in Britain are nearly the same as in 

 France and Germany, and only the half of what they 

 are overseas. They are about lo per cent, more than 

 in Germany and France, but fall into place with the 

 wages of the rest of Europe when compared with the 

 wages of the oversea countries. 



The slight advantage of Biitish wages over those of 

 the Continent gives need for some inquiry in face of 

 the statement that they are regulated by European 

 wages. The dift'erence, however, is accounted for by 

 the superiority of the workmen of these Islands over 

 those of the rest of Europe. It is difficult to say why 

 British labour should be superior, but that it has been 

 so for a long time is certain. The British workman 

 earns more than his continental rival because his services 

 are worth more measured by the same scale. In the 

 same way British goods usually sell for a dearer price 

 than the continental manufactures, but they are in 

 effect no dearer than the nominally cheaper foreign 

 article, having regard to the superior quality which 

 they offer. Nevertheless, after giving credit to the 

 British workman for the superiority of his labour and 

 conceding that his better workmanship realises rather 

 better wages than on the Continent, still it remains the 

 fact that the wages of the United Kingdom are set by 

 the conditions of affairs in Europe and are much less 

 than overseas. 



Though this appears to refer only to the manu- 

 facturing workman it concerns equally the country 

 labourer. The state of agriculture in the United King- 

 dom is not fixed by the pressure of population as it is in 

 the rest of Europe but by the condition of the manu- 

 factures. As the manufactures flourish men turn 

 rather to them and rely on the exchange of their services 



