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Show 286 OF THE 'V AGES OF LABOUR. [CH. IV. pends upon their continuance and ?ther concon1itant circun1stances, "vhether they raise the nJoney wao·es or leave then1 as they were. rfh: periods of the lowest wages, or of the greatest fal.Is in real 'vages have been, when a considerable rise in the price of corn has taken place under circumstances not favourable to a proportionate rise in the price of labour. This is the Inost likely to happen in unfavourable seasons, when ~he power of commanding labour at. the old . pnce ,voulcl by no n1eans be incr€asecl _In proportion to the price of corn. It may also happen "\-\:hen a fall is taking place in the value of money, If any previous causes have given an extraordinary stimulus to the proo-ress of population. In this case, b . though the resources of the country n1ay be increas-ing fast, the population n1ay be increasing faster, and the \vages of labour \vill not rise in proportion to the fall in the value of n1oney. 'To this cause I an1 strono·ly disposed to attribute the inadequate b . rise of the money wages of labour during the re1gns of 1-Ienry VIII., Mary, Edvvard VI., and Elizabeth. 1"'he state of things in the early part of the 16th century n1ust have given a po\lverful stimulus to population; and considering the extraordinary high corn wages at this period, and that they could only' fall very gradually, the stin1ulus n1ust have continued to operate with considerable force during the greatest part of the century. In fact, depopulation \Vas loudly con1plainecl of at the end of the 15th and beginning of the l 6th centuries, and a redundancy of population was acknow !edged at the end EC. V.] OF THE 'VAGJ.:S OF LABOtTR. 287 of the 16th. And it 'vas this ~hange in the state of the population, and not :he ch cove? of the Am~rican Inines, 'vhich occasioned o 111aikcd a fall In the corn "vages of labour. . . If the discovery of the An1encan 111Ines I:ad found the labouring classes of the people earning" only the san1e "rages 'vhich t~ley appear to have earned in the latter half of the re1gn of Ed \\'ard I I I., and if the san1e increase of capital and resources had taken place during the 16th century, a· really did take place, I feel not the slighte t d~ubt, that the n1oney \vages of labour \vould ha \Te 1ncrea ed as fast as the nJoney price of corn. Indeed \V hen a fall in the value of n1oney is accompanied, as it frequently is, by a rapid increa e of capital, ~here is one reason, why, in the natural state of thmgs, the price of labour should feel it more than other comn1odities. rfhe encouragen1ent given to popu .. lation by such increase of resources, could not appear with any efrect in the n1arket under six teen or eighteen years; and in the Inean tin1e the denland con1pared 'vith the supply of labour \Votdd be greater than the den1and con1pared \Vith the supply of n1ost other con1n1oclities. It is on this account, that in the fall in the value of money which took place from I 793 to I 8 I4, and which was unquestionably accompanied by a great increase of capital, and a great detnancl for labour, I am strongly of opinion, that if the price of labour had not been kept down by artificial means, it would have risen higher in proportion than the average price of corn; and this opinion |
