126 POLITICAL ECONOMY 



a dozen for the extra lot, without going back on his old bargains 

 and paying sevenpence for all. 



Now this peculiarity of the labour market does not arise from 

 any defect either in men or masters. There has been far too 

 much uncalled-for asperity on this subject, which the Press has 

 rather fomented than allayed. The difficulties of the case are 

 inherent not accidental. No set of men can be expected when 

 doing work of equal merit to work side by side at different 

 weekly wages. If they had bargained to stick to certain wages 

 for a year, they would hold to their bargains, but to consent to 

 work for 30s. a week when another man is getting 31s., is to 

 confess your inferiority, and if you are not inferior you will not 

 do it and I have no right to ask you. 



Let no one here go off on the side issue that unions insist 

 that good and bad shall be paid alike ; that is a separate and 

 important question, but has no relation to what is now being 

 spoken of. Grant as a postulate a hundred men of average 

 merit working at 30s., the master wants a few more of the 

 same sort; he cannot offer these 31s. without raising the 

 wages of all the others. He could not do it whether unions 

 existed or not, and this essential difficulty distinguishes the 

 labour market from other markets. We thus find ourselves 

 precluded from applying the tentative process by which the rate 

 of wages could be ascertained at which demand and supply are 

 equal. To make the labour market like the egg market, we 

 must imagine week after week all la.bour of a particular kind 

 standing ready to be hired ; no combination among the sellers ; 

 all buyers equally uncombined. An employer says, ' I want 

 a thousand men at 30s. ; ' only 900 come forward. They are 

 booked ; then the employer says, ' I will take another hundred at 

 31s.' Ninety come forward, and he says, ' Well, I don't mind 

 giving 32s. for ten more.' The market price of labour would 

 obviously be rising. 



This ideal state of things can, of course, never obtain. The 

 workman to be useful must not be changed week by week, he 

 must work on year after year in the same shop ; we cannot 

 fling all labour on to the market every week ; an approach to 

 the true market method would be made, if week by week the 

 master could say I want ten hands more, if I can get them at 



