164 Of Corn Laws. Bk. iii. 



ten, it is quite obvious that before the same ad- 

 vantages are extended to other countries, a rise 

 in the price of labour will but very little interfere 

 with the pov^er of selling those sorts of commodi- 

 ties, in the production of which the capital and 

 machinery are so effectively applied. It is quite 

 true that an advance in the necessary wages of 

 labour, which increases the expense of raising 

 corn, may have the same effect upon many com- 

 modities besides corn ; and if there were no others, 

 no encouragement would be given to the importa- 

 tion of foreign grain, as there might be no means 

 by which it could be purchased cheaper abroad. 

 But a large class of the exportable commodities 

 of a commercial country are of a different descrip- 

 tion. They are either articles in a considerable 

 degree peculiar to the country and its depen- 

 dencies, or such as have been produced by su- 

 perior capital and machinery, the prices of which 

 are determined rather by domestic than foreign 

 competition. All commodities of this kind will 

 evidently be able to support without essential in- 

 jury an advance in the price of labour, some per- 

 manently, and others for a considerable time. 

 The rise in the price of the commodity so occa- 

 sioned, or rather the prevention of that fall which 

 would otherwise have taken place, may always 

 indeed have the effect of decreasing in some de- 

 gree the quantity of the commodity exported ; but 

 it by no means follows that it will diminish the 

 whole of its bullion value in the foreign country, 

 which is precisely what determines the bullion 

 value, and generally the quantity of the returns. 



