LAWS OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND 101 



do not offer him that profit which he expects. The cost of pro- 

 duction of labour will have risen the price or wages must rise 

 the quantity supplied will have fallen, unless the demand 

 have risen. A new state of equilibrium between capital and 

 labour will have been reached, and although production of 

 wealth may have been checked for a while, it will afterwards 

 progress as before. 



It is futile to preach Malthusian doctrines of self-restraint to 

 a labourer. The upper classes may grasp at those doctrines as 

 an excuse for selfishness, and precisely that class which by edu- 

 cation and wealth is fitted to produce valuable members of society 

 may be induced to refrain from so doing ; but it is useless to 

 expect that the mass of mankind, having once married, or 

 feeling sufficiently comfortable to think of marrying, will ever 

 refrain from self-indulgence for the sake of humanity at large. 

 It is only by appealing to self-interest that the desired end 

 can be attained, and this end is attained in the middle and 

 upper classes by means of self-interest. Educated men and 

 women will not, as a rule, marry until they see their way to 

 live in such a style as suits them, and the production of the 

 educated class is thus limited probably as much as is desirable ; 

 the fear here being, rather that the standard of comfort should 

 be chosen falsely with reference to imaginary luxuries, wholly 

 unnecessary to a really refined and cultivated existence. The 

 learned professions maintain their fees on no other principle 

 than that of maintaining a high standard of comfort. Men 

 fitted to exercise them will not enter them or remain in them 

 unless they see their way to live in the style they have 

 chosen; should this fail them, they change their occupation, 

 they emigrate, or at least remain single, just as in the case of a 

 labourer. The average remuneration of a doctor or of an archi- 

 tect depends on the cost of his production, being mainly the cost 

 of his living in the style which men who have received that 

 degree of education expect. The number of doctors employed 

 at this rate depends on the number of people willing to pay the 

 fees asked. It is frequently supposed to be the limitation pro- 

 duced by the cost of education which enables the professional 

 man to earn higher wages than the mechanic, limiting as it does 

 the supply of educated men. It does this to some extent, but if 



