OCR Text |
Show OF THE WAGES OF LABOUR. ( CH. IV. a profit of 10 per cent., were to e~ploy the sa:ne quantity of labour in the construction o.f a machine worth £20,000, which would enable hnn to carry on his business without labour in future, except as his machine miO'ht require repair, it is obvious that, during 'the. firs~ year, the same value of the annual produce and the same den1and for labour would exist; but in the next year, as it \vould only be necessary for the capitalist, in order to obtain the same rate of profits as before, to sell his goods for a little more than £2,000 instead of £22,000, the value of the annual produce 'vould fall, thecapital would not be increased, and the revenue would be decidedly diminished; and upon the principle that the demand for labour depends upon the rate at \vhich the value of the general produce, or of the capital and revenue taken together, increases, the slackness of the demand for labour under such circumstances \\~ould be adequately accounted for. In general, however, the use of fixed capital is extren1ely favourable to the abundance of circulating capital ; and if the market for the products can be proportionally extended, the whole value of the capital and revenue of a state is greatly increased by it, and a great demand for labour created. The increase in the whole value of cotton products, since the introduction of the improved machinery, is known to be prodigious; and it cannot for a moment be doubted that the demand for Ja .. hour in the cotton business has very greatly increased during the last forty years. This is indeed SEC. III.] OF THE 'VAGES OF LABOUR. sufficiently proved by the greatly increased population of 1\!Ianchester, G-lasgow, and the other towns where the cotton manufactures have most flourished. A similar increase of value, though not to the same extent, has taken place in our hardware, woollen, and other manufactures, and has been accon1panied by an increasing de1nand for labour, notwithstanding the increasing use of fixed capital. Even in our agriculture, if the fixed capital of horses, which, fron1 the quantity of produce they consume, is the most disadvantageous description of fixed capital, \!Vere disused, it is probable, that . a great part of the land 'vhich now bears corn ·would be thrown out of cultivation. Land of a poor quality would never yield sufficient to pay .. the labour of cultivating with the spade, of bringing Inanure to distant fields in barro\vs, and of carrying tbe products of the earth to distant Inarkets by the san1e sort of conveyance. Under these circu n1stances, as there would be a great diminution in the quantity of corn produced, there vvould be a great din1inution in the \Vhole value of the produce ; and the demand for labour and the a1nount of the population would be greatly diminished.* ' '"* It has late I y been stated, that spade cultiv~tion will y~eld both a greater gross produce and a greater neat produce. I am always ready to bow to well established experience; but if such exp~riencc applies in the present case, one cannot sufficiently wonder at ~he continued usc of plough sand horses in agriculture~ Even s4 |