TRADE-UNIONS 23 



stood, will follow without this wholly arbitrary assumption 

 of fixed wages for a fixed supply of workmen ; and these 

 known effects are not inconsistent with the fact that workmen, 

 by bargaining, may in certain cases raise their wages. When 

 more workmen are wanted than can be found, undoubtedly 

 wages will rise without any bargaining ; the competition among 

 masters for workmen in that case indicates the increased desire, 

 it does not create it ; and when more workmen want work than 

 are wanted, wages will fall in spite of bargaining ; the competi- 

 tion among workmen indicates their increased readiness to sell ; 

 but when the number wanted and the number able to work are 

 not very different, bargaining may raise wages or prevent a fall ; 

 and in the two other cases it may increase a rise and diminish a 

 fall a conclusion surely not far removed from common-sense. 

 The contrary view, that somehow wages or prices are fixed by a 

 law, is something like the idea that the strength of a beam is 

 fixed by an equation. We can imagine a party of wiseacres who 

 should meet the proposal of an engineer to cheapen their bridges 

 by saying, ' Pray, don't be so foolish ; you ought to know that 

 the strength of a beam is determined by mathematics ; ' and 

 our primitive engineer, guiltless of algebra, might say, ' So 

 much the worse for mathematics ; I know I can make beams 

 lighter and stronger and cheaper, and IVe done it.' At first 

 this would be shortly denied ; but at last one of the party would 

 find out that the mathematics were all right after all, the equa- 

 tions for the strength of a beam perfectly correct, only, that as 

 some of the terms were variable, it was quite consistent with 

 algebra that beams should be made stronger by a better distri- 

 bution of material. Even so economists who know that the 

 equation exists, determining prices, should remember that there 

 are other variables in the equation besides prices, and that the 

 law only determines the price in terms of these variables. 



If it be granted that bargaining does affect wages, it will 

 readily be allowed that an association with savings enables its 

 members to bargain more advantageously than isolated work- 

 men could do. If the alternative before the labourer is work 

 at the wages offered or starvation, he will be much less reso- 

 lute in his views as to his worth, than when the alternative 

 lies between work at high wages and mere privation ; and a 



