ioo POLITICAL ECONOMY 



including such enjoyment or comfort as in their opinion make life 

 tolerable. The producer of other goods, when dissatisfied with 

 his profit, ceases to produce. The labourer, if dissatisfied with 

 his comforts, does not cumber himself with a wife and family 

 he even emigrates, or, in last resort, goes on the parish, and 

 dies. A man being alive will generally sell himself day by day, 

 even below the rate at which he can be said to care for life, just 

 as in a temporary depression of the market the producer of 

 cotton goods sells below cost price rather than not sell at all ; 

 but he will not commence the production or rearing of a family 

 unless satisfied with his wages ; and thus the wages of each class 

 depend on the standard of comfort at which they think it worth 

 while to marry and beget children. This action does not, 

 indeed, take place with the view of producing goods for sale ; 

 but it does produce goods for sale, and it only occurs when 

 existing goods (i.e. labour) meet with a sale satisfying the pro- 

 ducers. The case of labour is here again analogous to that of 

 any other goods produced for profit. 



We can now answer the question, Whether men, by any 

 action of theirs, can raise wages ? How can they ? Not by 

 emigration, unless at the same time the cost of production of 

 labour vary. Such emigration will simply increase the produc- 

 tion of human beings, representing, as it does, one form of in- 

 creased demand for them, and we have seen that, in the long run, 

 demand has nothing to do with price. Not by increasing the 

 capital employed productively. This again will only increase 

 the number of human beings employed, not the wages they re- 

 ceive. Not by limiting the number of children to be born in a 

 given area and time ; this will limit trade, but will not perma- 

 nently raise wages, though the diminution in the number of 

 workmen of a given class at any moment will temporarily raise 

 wages, which will gradually fall, unless the standard of comfort 

 be permanently raised. Not by the limitation of the number of 

 apprentices to a given trade ; this will have but the same effect 

 as limiting the number of children. If not all these, what then ? 

 Simply by creating an increased standard of comfort among the 

 labourers. Do this, and our young labourer will claim higher 

 wages, and failing to obtain them, will not marry, or will emi- 

 grate. Our young apprentice will not enter those trades which 



