1 1 8 Rents, Wages, and Profits in Agriculture 



certain types of a representative kind that 

 are fairly steady and enduring in their chief 

 characteristics. In a calculation I made 

 for another purpose/ a few years ago, I 

 took as the type of non-agricultural 

 employment the carpenter. Vicomte 

 d'Avenel, who has done for the history of 

 wages in France what Rogers did for 

 England, takes as the type for comparison 

 the labour of the mason. As it happens, 

 whether we take France or England, there 

 is in general little difference between the 

 wages of the carpenter and the mason. 

 Suppose, then, we compare the wages of 

 the ordinary carpenter with the wages of 

 a first-class hand in agriculture — one who 

 is required to do the most skilled and 

 responsible work. Now, if we consider that 

 the work is to be done throughout the 



^ "Principles of Political Economy," vol. iii., Book IV., 

 chap. vii. 



