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Show o·F THE"' AGES OF LABOUR. [CH. IV .. gether, the cost of prod~cit:g labour n1ay be said to be din1inishecl, but It IS not found that the ,vages of labour fall ;:j(: and for th~s obvious reason, that ·the red ucecl cost of prod uctlon cannot, under sixteen or eighteen years, n1aterially influence the supply of labour in the Inarket. On the other .hand, ,vhen the prices of corn rise fro1n a succes·s1on of indifferent seasons, or any cause \vhich leaves the detnand for labour nearly the same as before, 'vages will not rise: because the san1e nun1ber of labourers remain in the n1arket; and though the price of production has risen, the supply is not for son1e time affected by it. So entirely, indeed, does the effect of the cost of production on price depend upon the Inanner in "\ivhich it regulates supply, that if in this, or ·any other country during the last twenty years, the production of labour had cost absolutely nothing, but had still been supplied in exactly the san1e proportion to the de1nanc1, th,e ·w·ages of labour "\!Vould have been in no respect dif .. ferent . .Of the truth of this position, we n1ay be quite assured, by the instance alluded to in a forn1er chapter, of a pap~r currency so limited in q\Iantity as not to exceed the metallic money, which \vould otherwise have circulated, in · which case, though the cost of the paper is comparatively nothing, yet, , as it performs the same function, and is supplied * The fall in the price of labour which took place in 1815 and 1816 was occasioned solely by the diminution of demand, arising from the losses of the farmers, and in no respect by the diminished co~t of production. SEC. I.] OF THE \VAGES OF LABOUR. only in the same qu,antity as the money, it acquires the same value in ex.change. Adam Sn1ith is practica1ly quite correct, when he says, that, " the tnoney price of labour is necessarily regulated by two circumstances ; the demand for labour ; and the price of the necessaries and conveniences of life."* But it is of great importance to a thorough understanding of the subject, to keep constantly under our view the · precise n1ode in which the costs of production operate on the price of labour, and to see clearly and distinctly the constant and predominant action of the principle of supply and detnand. In all those cases 'vhich Adam S1nith has so happily explained and illustrated, where an apparent irregularity takes place in the pay of different kinds of labour, it will be found, universally, that the causes to \Vhich he justly attributes the1n, are causes of a nature to influence the supply of labour in the particular departn1ents in question. The five principal circumstances, \Vhich, according to him, Inake up for a· sn1all pecuniary gain in sorne etnploytnents, and counterbalance a great one in others, namely ; 1. The agreeableness or disagreeableness of the en1ployments then1selves. 2. The easiness and cheapness, or the difficulty and expense of learning then1. 3. The constancy or in- - constancy of employn1ent in them; 4. the small or great trust \vhich must be reposed i:h those \Vho exercise then1; and 5. the probability or in1proba- * Wealth of Nations, Book, i. ch. viii. p. 130. 6th edit. R2 |