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Show 266 OF THE 'VAGES OF LA.BOUR. [ CH. IV. din1inishes fron1 excessive supply, it may not comn1and SQ much labour this year as it did in the last, and for a ti1ne there will be no demand for \Vorkn1en. These are the two extren1es, one arising fron1 increased value without incr,.eased quantity; and the other from increased quantity without increased value. · It is obvious that the object which it is n1ost desirable to attain is the un·ion of the two. There is somewhere a happy n1ediurn, where, under the actual resources of a country, the increase of wealth and the den1anrl for labour are a n1axin1un1 · but this point cannot be ascertained. An increase' of ~uan~ity w~th stea~y prices, or .even slightly falhng, IS consistent \VIth a considerable increase of the. general value of produce, and may occasion a considerable dernand for labour; but in the actual state of things, and in the 'vay in which the precious n1etals are actually dist:;:ibuted, son1e increas~ of prices generally accompanies the most ~ffec:I~e demand for produce and population. It Is this Increase both of quantity and price -vvhich mos.t surely creates the greatest ·demand for labour, excites the g~·eatest quantity of industry, and ge~ erally occasions the greatest increase of population. SEC. IV.] OF THE \VAGES OF LABOUU.. 267 'I Of the Effect of a Fall iu the Value of Money on the Demand for Labour and tlte Condition of the Labourer. Som.e writers of great ability have been of opinion that rising prices, or a falling value of money, are very unfavourable .to the lower classes of society; and certainly there are some periods of our history 'yhich see1n strongly to countenance this opinion: but I am inclined to think, that if these periods, and the circun1stances connected with them, be examined \tVith more attention, the conclusion which has been drawn from then1 'vill not appear so certain as has been generally imagined. It will be found that, in the instances in question, other causes 'vere in operation .to which the effect ref~ rred to 1night ·more justly be attributed; and we · shall hardly have good reason to conclude, that where an effective demand for labour accompanies a fall in the value of money and no positive obstacles are thro,i\rn in the way of its rising, it will not, in a n1oderately short tilne, follow the price of the main food of the labourer. The period of our history universally noticed is the 16th century, from the end of the reign of Henry VII. to the end of the reign ·of Elizabeth. Durino· this period it is an unquestionable fact that the re:i wages of labour fell in an extraordinary manner, |
