20 POLITICAL ECONOMY 



Now, an equivalent effect to that produced by a decrease in the 

 number supplied is produced whenever a given number of men 

 who were yesterday willing to w r ork at 30s. per week are to-day 

 unwilling to work at that price, and require 31s. instead of 30s. 

 If while the readiness to sell labour is decreased the desire to 

 purchase it does not increase, we allow that to re-establish 

 equality between the number demanded and the number sup- 

 plied, the number demanded or employed must fall as wages 

 rise ; but if the diminished readiness to work be accompanied 

 by an increased wish for labourers, wages may rise, and the 

 number employed remain the same, though the demand and 

 supply, as measured by the number demanded and supplied, 

 would remain constant. Really it seems ridiculous to take so 

 much pains to prove the self-evident proposition that if men 

 want higher wages, and masters see that it is their interest to 

 give those wages, the transaction may occur and all the men 

 remain employed. 



A second effect which may follow, and perhaps most gene- 

 rally does follow, the unwillingness of men to work except at 

 increased wages, is this : the number employed may actually 

 diminish, and yet the desire for labour, as measured by the 

 total fund spent for labour, may increase ; so that the reduced 

 number, with augmented wages, may receive more than the 

 larger number at lower wages ; in this case it may be the 

 interest of the workman to support his fellows out of work by a 

 contribution from his gains, rather than by a reduction in his 

 own requirements, to allow them to find employment. We 

 have reasoned so far on the assumption that the workmen act 

 as one body, as is sensibly the case w r here unions are strong. 

 We have therefore neglected the effect of competition among 

 workmen. Where competition can occur, it weakens the effect 

 which an increased reluctance to sell their labour on the part of 

 some workmen can produce in increasing the total desire for 

 their work. The smaller the united body which refuses the low 

 wages, the less their power ; but whatever their size and impor- 

 tance, the tendency of their action remains the same. 



It may here be argued, that the increased desire or demand 

 on the part of the masters would have given a rise of wages 

 independently of any action on the part of the men ; but it bv 



