224 Of increasing Wealth, as it Bk. iii. 



shew very clearly the great fluctuations to which 

 the condition of the manufacturing labourer is 

 subjected. 



In looking over these accounts it will be found 

 that in some cases the price of weaving has fallen 

 a third, or nearly one-half, at the same time that 

 the price of wheat has risen a third, or nearly one 

 half; and yet these proportions do not always 

 express the full amount of the fluctuations, as it 

 sometimes happens that when the price is low, 

 the state of the demand will not allow of the usual 

 number of hours of working; and when the price 

 is high, it will admit of extra hours. 



That from the same causes there are sometimes 

 variations of a similar kind in the price of task- 

 work in agriculture will be readily admitted ; but, 

 in the first place, they do not appear to be nearly 

 so considerable ; and secondly, the great mass of 

 agricultural labourers is employed by the day, 

 and a sudden and general fall in the money price 

 of agricultural day-labour is an event of extremely 

 rare occurrence.* 



It must be allowed then, that in the natural and 

 usual progress of wealth, the means of marrying 

 early and supporting a family are diminished, and 

 a greater proportion of the population is engaged 

 in employments less favourable to health and 



* Almost the only instance on record in this country is that 

 which has lately taken place (1815 and 1816), occasioned by an 

 unparalleled fall in the exchangeable value of the raw produce, 

 which has necessarily disabled the holders of it from employing 

 the same quantity of labour at the same price. 



