Io6 Rents^ Wages^ and Profits in Agriculture 



suffered from the over-supply of labour. The 

 farmer was compelled to employ more men 

 than his present mode of operations required, 

 and to save himself he paid a lovv^er rate 

 of v^ages than was sufficient to give the 

 physical power necessary for the per- 

 formance of a fair day's work. We have, 

 in fact, an illustration of the opposite 

 principle to that now known as the 

 economy of high wages. Partly under 

 social pressure, and to avoid the losses by 

 poor-rates, the farmers were obliged to resort 

 to the economy of low wages. Even down 

 to our own times, we find it was quite 

 common for farmers to employ men to an 

 extreme old age rather than that they 

 should go to the workhouse, and labour 

 was considered to have a certain claim on 

 the land for employment. It cannot, how- 

 ever, be said that the recognition of this 

 claim was of advantage to labour, if we 



