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Show 248 OF THE W.AGES o·F LABOUR. ( CH. IV. above, and sometimes below, '\\rhat is necessary to supply this average detnand. rrhe condition of the labouring classes ofsociety tnust evidently depend, partly upon the rate at · ,vhich the resources of the country and the den1and for labour are increasing; and partly, on the habits of the people in respect to their food, clothing and lodging. If the habits of the people were to ren1ain fixed, the power of n1arrying early, and of supporting a large fan1ily, \vould depend upon the rate at \vhich the resources of the country and the den1and for " labour \Vere increasing. And if the resources of the country were to retnain fixed, the cotnforts of the lower classes of society \VOU lcl depend upon their habits,. or the amount of those necessaries and conveniences, ,~rithou t which they "vould not consent to keep up their numbers. It rarely happens, ho,vever, that either of then1 remain fixed for any great lengtli of tin1e together. The rate at vv hich the resources of a country increase is, \Ve well know, liable, under varying circunlstances, to great variation ; and the habits of a people though not so liable, or so necessarily subject to change, can scarcely ever be considered as pern1anent. In general, their tendency is to change together. When the resources of a country are rapidly increasing, and the labourer comn1ands a large portion of necessaries, it is to be expected that if he has the opportunity of exchanging his superfluous food for conveniences and con1forts, he \vill acquire a taste for these conveniences, and SEC. II.] OF THE WAGES OF LABOUH. 249 his habits will be formed accordingly. On the other hand, it generally happens that, when the resources of a country become nearly stationary, such habits, if they ever have existed, are found to give way ; and, before the population con1es to a stop, the standard of con1fort is essentially lowered. Still, however, partly fron1 physical, and partly · frorn ,moral causes, the standard of con1fort differs -essentially in different countries, under the sarne rate of increase in their resources. Adan1 Stnith, in speaking of the inferior food of the people of Scotland, compared 'vith their neighbours of the same rank in England, observes, " T'his difference in the tnode of their subsistence is not the cause but the effect, of the difference in their wages,' though, by a strange misapprehension, I. have frequently heard it represented as the cause."* It n1ust be allowed, ho\vever, that this correction of a con11non opinion is only partially just. The effect, in this case as i~1 many others, certainly becomes in its turn a cause; and there is no doubt, that if the continuance of lo\v wages for some tin1e, · should produce among the labourers of any country habits of n1arrying \Vith the prospect only of a n1ere subsistence, such habits, by supplying the quantity of labour required at a lo\v· rate, would becon1e a constantly operating cause of lo\V \\rages. It 'vould be very desirable to ascertain what are the principal causes which detennine the different • Book I. chap. viii. p. 114. 6th edit. |