WAGES. 



above wliat t]ie demand can allow, the competition of 

 labourers tor employment would beat them down, avowedly 

 or fecretly, to their natural market price. And that the 

 only effeft of fiich nugatory regulations, muft iffue in the 

 occafioning of more or lefs embarralTnKnt, in the contrivance 

 of evafions to efcape the penalties of tluir contravention. 



Indeed, in the above way alone, it is faid, could the 

 exifting capital in employment be equally diffiifed among the 

 labourers of a country, fo as that each fliould receive his 

 proper (hare of it, in proportion to liis willingnefs and 

 ability to work : if it were pofliblo to carry into efFoft any 

 regulations for railing wages to an higher rate, the infallible 

 confequence mull be, it is thought, that the diilribution of 

 the above noticed capital would be confined to a fmaller 

 number of labourers, and that the remainder could get no 

 work or employment, and muft therefore fubiift on charity. 

 But that if tlie charity comes exclufively from the pockets 

 of thofe poflefTed of capital, the capital, thus (liortened, is 

 able to employ ilill fewer at the regulated rate : if it comes, 

 in part, from the employed labourers, it is to them, it is faid, 

 all one whether this diminution of wages arifes from their 

 giving it in charity to the idle, or from its being taken from 

 them through the competition of the induftrious. 



The writer of the corrected account of the Agriculture 

 of Middlefex, too, dates, that the high value of the landed 

 eftates of this country depends very much upon the low 

 price of labour : that if the farmers could have their work 

 executed for one moiety of the prelent coft, other thinge re- 

 maining the fame, it would enable them to pay a much 

 higher rent for the land which they hold. Suppofing the 

 labour of land, it is faid, to be twenty (hillings an acre, in 

 cafe this could be reduced to ten fhillings, proprietors might 

 then add fifty per cent., it is thought, to their rentals, and 

 that the farmers could pay fuch increafed rent, with more 

 convenience to themfelves, than they can pay their prefent 

 rents at the prefent price of labour. The rent of land is, 

 it is faid, about fourteen fhillings an acre ; if the price of 

 labour could be lowered ten fhillings, the farmer, by adding 

 fifty per cent, to his rent, would pay his landlord feven 

 fhillings, it is faid, and increafe his own profits three fhillings. 

 That, on the other hand, if, by any means, the price of 

 labour fliould be increafed from twenty to twenty-four 

 fhillings per acre, the rent would, it is faid, be abforbed in 

 the price of the labour, in which (late of things the landlord 

 would be unable to procure any rent. The then (1807) 

 price of labour, and rent of land, being as much as the 

 farmer can afford to pay ; increafing the labour at once, fo 

 much as to be equal to the jirefent labour and rent, would, 

 it is fuppofed, reduce the rent to nothing. It would feem 

 to be evident, it is thougiit, that an addition to the then 

 price of labour of about feventy per eent. would annihilate 

 the rental of land. It is confequently alked, if tht advocates 

 for increafing the price of labour or rate of wages, are aware 

 of the evil tendency of their arguments and opinions ? have 

 they, it is enquired, contemplated the didrcfs which would 

 take place, if the land (hould not produce any rent ? 



Advancing the hire of labour, witiiout, at the fame time, 

 increafing the price of tlie produce of land, would create, it 

 is fuppoied, a ilruggle of fliort duration between the land- 

 lords and the farmers, which would reduce the former to 

 farmers, and the latter to labourers. The labouring clafs 

 would be inordinately increafed in number, and the work to 

 be done greatly reduced in quantity. The former would be 

 employed two or three days in a week ; this would create a 

 competition among the labourers to obtain conftant work, 

 which could only be done by working for lefs money than 

 ufual ; the price of labour would fall greatly below what it 



I 



was at this time ; the land would be imperfeftly cultivated, 

 and the agricultural part of the nation would be thrown, it 

 is faid, fome hundred years back. 



Every advance in the coft of agricultural labour muft, it 

 is faid, be paid either by the community or the landlords. 

 If grain and animal food are made to advance in price, in 

 order to enable the farmers to pay additional wages to their 

 labourers, it becomes a tax, it is faid, on the community, and 

 to which thofe identical labourers contribute. If the price 

 of grain and aiiimal food fliould continue flationary, and 

 labour fhould increafe in price, it will infallibly, it is 

 thought, occafion an equivalent deduftion in the rents of 

 the land. It is of high importance, it is contended, to the 

 landed interefl, that the labourers in agriculture fhould be 

 fed at a very low rate of expence. Any material increafe 

 of the wages of labour can only be made, without doing 

 great injuftice to the landlords, by a proportionate advance, 

 it is faid, in the prices of grain and cattle. 



The writer would feel much fatisfaftion at meafures 

 being taken to increafe the price of labour, and ameliorate 

 the condition of the workmen of the country, if it could be 

 accomplifhed without greatly injuring the nation, and par- 

 ticularly if it could be effefted without any material inter- 

 ruption to the progrefs of fcience, of arts, and of commerce. 

 But the fuccefs of agriculture, manufaftures, and com- 

 merce, all depend upon the price of labour being low, even 

 very low : in order that our arts and our commerce (hould 

 be highly fuccefsful, the price of labour, it is maintained, 

 (hould be low as poflible. 



It is further remarked, that the circumftances of the 

 country have of late, until within this little while, made 

 greater calls than ufual on the labouring clafs ; the con- 

 fequence of which has been, what under fimilar caufes 

 always will be the cafe, an advance in the wages of labour. 

 At the former price of corn, that would have lowered the 

 rent of land, which would, it is faid, have fallen exclufively 

 on the landed intereft ; therefore, to prevent fo confiderable 

 an inconvenience, the corn laws and regulations have been 

 altered in fuch a manner as to allow the price to rife. The 

 fame able writer, in fpeaking of the bad effcCls of public- 

 houfes on labourers, remarks it as almoft a general rule, 

 that the higher their wages arc, the lefs they carry home, 

 and confequently, the greater is the wretchednefs of them- 

 felves and their families. Comforts in a cottage are moftly 

 found, it is laid, where the man's wages are low, at leaft fo 

 low as to require him to labour fix days in every week. 

 For inftance, a good workman, at nine (hillings per week, if 

 advanced to twelve, will fpend a day in the week at the ale- 

 houfe, which reduces his labour to five days, or ten fliillings ; 

 and as he will fpend two (liillings in the public-houfe, it 

 leaves but eight (liillings for his family, which is one lefs 

 than they had when he earned only nine (liillings. And 

 that if by any means he be put into a fituation of earning 

 eighteen (hillings in fix days, he will get drunk, it is faid, 

 on Sunday and Monday, and go to his work in a ilupid 

 ftatc on the Tuefday ; and (hould he be a meclianical 

 journeyman of lome genius, who by conllant labour could 

 earn twenty-four (hillings or thirty (hillings per week, at 

 fonie of them can, he will be intoxicated half the week, 

 infolent to his employer and every one about him. Further, 

 too, (liould his mafter have bufinefs in hand that requires 

 particular dilpatch, he will then, more than at any other 

 time, be abfent from his work, and liis wife and cliildren 

 will experience the extreme of hunger, rags, and cold. 



It has alio been fuggcfted by Mr. Ruggles in another fitu- 

 ation, that if greater wages are given, they will be given for 

 expcnces in articles widely different from the ncccflaries of 



life 



