180 Slaney on Rural Expenditure. 



comparatively very low prices, the farmer's capital propor- 

 tionally fell : he could cultivate less land, or lay out less in 

 improvement ; and hence less demand for labour, many un- 

 employed, and those employed obtaining very inadequate 

 wages. 



If such a falling off had taken place in any branch of trade, 

 those engaged in it would, as soon as practicable, have brought 

 down the supply to a level with the demand, by producing or 

 manufacturing less ; and had the agricultural population acted 

 on this principle, the evil, as it affected them, would have been 

 avoided. 



On this principle they probably would have acted, had it 

 not been for two circumstances. When their wages rose, 

 they ought to have employed the increase in a manner which 

 would not only have permanently benefited themselves and 

 their children, but also have raised their condition in life; 

 they ought to have raised the scale of their comforts and en- 

 joyments, and to have considered what their increased wages 

 would enable them to procure for the real good of themselves 

 and their families, as equally indispensable with what their 

 former wages could procure. Let us suppose that, before the 

 rise in their wages, they would not have thought of marrying, 

 unless there was a fair prospect of clothing their children in 

 clean and decent apparel ; if they had spent their increased 

 wages in giving to their children a plain and useful education, 

 they soon would have been accustomed to reckon that as indis- 

 pensable as clothing for them, and, consequently, would not 

 have thought of marrying till they had a prospect of obtaining 

 both. When, therefore, wages fell below their raised wishes 

 and plans, they would have abstained from marrying ; and 

 thus, at least, prevented a further reduction of wages. 



But their conduct was the reverse: in most cases their 

 increased wages were spent in an useless, if not a mischievous 

 manner; in a manner which, by its debauchery, had a tend- 

 ency to degrade their moral character, and actually to lower 

 their notion of what was requisite before they married ; or, 

 perhaps, to render them totally regardless of what would be 

 the result even when they married with no means of support- 

 ing a family. 



Great, sudden, and frequent fluctuations in price or wages 

 are most injurious, not only to the individuals who experience 

 them, but to the nation at large. Of their injurious conse- 

 quences, both our manufacturing and agricultural population 

 have experienced a large portion; the scale of expenditure 

 was raised, the limits of hopes and wants were extended dur- 



