208 Report — 1859. 



sented itself. Little labour and capital were, however, applied in Australia, and 

 her advance was slow. We know the discovery of gold changed all this ; let us, 

 then, seek the secret of the change. Previous to the gold discoveries, the chief 

 field for the investment of capital was agriculture. In a young country farming 

 operations meet with many obstacles. The stock and implements are expensive, 

 no steady supply of labour can be ensured ; and without the investment of a great 

 deal of capital in roads, and other such works, produce can with difficulty be brought 

 to market, and when brought, the demand is uncertain. The same remarks apply 

 to manufactures, and also to general mining operations ; for lead, copper, and iron 

 mines require most expensive machinery, and a large cooperation of labour. This 

 explains the usual slow progress of colonies, even when they offer the greatest in- 

 dustrial advantages. But as soon as it was heard that the gold was spread over 

 a large breadth of the Australian continent, thousands flocked to share the spoil. 

 They only took the simplest tools, they needed no capital, but just sufficient food 

 to support them while labouring ; and each one felt that he coidd work indepen- 

 dentty, and risk nothing more than his labour and his passage-money. Australia 

 having thus suddenly obtained an abundance of manual labour, possessed two of 

 the requisites of production ; the third, capital, was quickly supplied to her. The 

 savings of the gold-diggers formed a large capital, and English capital now flowed 

 in even too broad a stream, to supply the wants of this labouring population. Au- 

 stralia for a time suffered much inconvenience, because gold-digging absorbed all 

 her labour ; not that more was earned in this pursuit than in others, but there is 

 a magic spell in the name of gold. Gold-digging has the excitement of a lottery, 

 and the chances of a lottery are always estimated at more than their true value. 

 After a time, other pursuits absorbed a due proportion of labour, and thus Australia 

 possessed every attribute of industrial success, and her future prosperity was 

 established. 



About 1848, England was suffering from those ills which political economy 

 attributes to over-population. Wages were becoming lower, and increasing popula- 

 tion necessarily made food more expensive. Ireland had famine, and we had most 

 deplorable distress. I have mentioned that the discovery of gold acted more 

 powerfully than any other circumstance to induce a large emigration from Great 

 Britain. Any decrease in the number of those who seek employment must cause 

 a rise of wages, but emigration from a country like our own, effects even a more 

 important advantage. I have before observed that the price of agricultural produce 

 at any time must be such as will enable the least fertile land which is cultivated, 

 to return the ordinary rate of profit. If, therefore, the wants of an advancing 

 population cause more land to be brought into cultivation, the food which is thus 

 raised involves a greater expenditure of labour and capital than that which was 

 before produced, and thus as population advances, food becomes dearer. In a 

 thickly peopled country, there are two obstacles to the material prosperity of the 

 poor : — 



1st. The number of those competing for employment reduces wages. 



2ndly. Food rises in value as it becomes necessary to strain the resources of the 

 fertile land. 



Emigration, therefore, has increased not only the monied wages, but the real 

 wages of our labourers. In some of our colonies, such as Canada, so little of the 

 fertile land has been cultivated, that for some time the greater the immigration is 

 to those parts, the more abundant will be the supply of cheap food which will be 

 exported to this country. Emigration, therefore, as it were, adds a tract of fertile 

 land to our own soil. Again, wages are remunerated from capital. The amount 

 saved, or, in other words, the capital which is accumulated, is regulated by the 

 returns which this capital will obtain. If population is stationary, and capital 

 increases, wages will rise, and profits will fall ; if, on the other hand, capital is 

 stationary, and population increases, the rate of profit will fall. Can we affirm any- 

 thing with certainty about the tendency of profits, when capital and population 

 both increase ? Any augmentation in the numbers of the labourers must exercise an 

 influence to reduce wages, and therefore to raise profits ; but there is another con- 

 sideration. In a thickly peopled country like Great Britain, the returns of the 

 Registrar-General plainly indicate that the rate of increase of population amongst the 

 labouring class is determined by the expense of living, for the number of marriages 



