The general market-rate of wages de pends upon the ratio which the capital applied to the employment of labour bears to the number of labourers. If that ratio be great, the competition of capitalists must raise wages ; if small, the competi tion of labourers amongst each other, for employment, must reduce them. When ever the accumulation of capital is pro ceeding more rapidly than the increase of population, wages will be on the increase, and the condition of the 'working classes will be continually improving ; until some check has been given to the increase of capital, or until the growth of popu lation (which is naturally encouraged by high wages) has altered the relative pro portion of capital to labourers, and re duced the market-rate of wages to the natural rate. While the general rate of wages is regulated by these causes, there are various circumstances which, by in creasing or decreasing competition for employment, tend to raise or depress the wages paid to persons engaged in parti cular occupations. Some of the princi pal of these are 1. The agreeableness or disagreeable ness of the employments.
2. The easiness or cheapness, or the difficulty and expense of learning them.
3. Their constancy or inconstancy.
4. The small or great trust that must be reposed in those who carry them on.
5. The probability or improbability of succeeding in them.
It is not uncommon to hear these cir cumstances stated as the direct and imme diate causes of high or low wages in par ticular employments; as if in some cases employers voluntarily gave high wages, or the labourer could command them merely on account of the nature of the employment. But the relation of supply to demand will influence wages in parti cular employments, as it does the price of labour generally, and of other commodi ties ' • and the circumstances stated above will obviously tend to increase or dimi nish the number of competitors for par ticular employments. More will natu rally seek an agreeable trade, easily learned, than one of a disagreeable cha racter and difficult to learn. All descrip tions of skilled labour bear a higher price than unskilled labour. The expense. of acquiring the knowledge of any art or trade would not be acquired at all, unless the person who had incurred it were better remunerated than others who have no thing to offer except their natural strength and Intelligence, which is common to all men : but many cannot incur the expense of learning a trade if they would; others are too indolent, too careless, or too awk ward ; and thus the class of skilled work men are not open to the same unlimited competition as other classes of labourers, and are in a condition to command higher wages. Wherever uncommon skill, ta lent, or other advantages are required, the number of persons actually practising and living by an employment, must be comparatively limited. Most persons are deterred from attempting to learn it by the fear of failure, and many who attempt it do not succeed in gaining their liveli hood by it. The few who are really suc cessful can then command an extraordi nary reward for the exercise of their pe culiar talents or acquirements. The world will enjoy the advantage of them at any price, not being satisfied with any less degree of excellence. Even if an unu sual influx of skilled labourers into any employment should lower the rate of wages, this lower rate is not likely to continue very long, as the superfluous number would seek other employments which offered a higher reward. This
result is facilitated by the fact that the ordinarily high price of skilled labour causes a much more expensive mode of living, and thus raises the natural rate of wages of skilled labourers ; or, in other words, induces them to regard as neces saries a variety of comforts which are beyond the reach of common workmen.
Wages are usually calculated in money, and are called high or low according to the money price actually paid; but the condition of the labourer is obviously affected by the price of commodities as well as by the amount of his wages. If the necessaries of life be cheap, low money wages will maintain him in com fort; if they become dearer, higher wages will not improve his condition, but will leave him as he was Hence it becomes a most important object to inquire whether the price of provisions affects the rate of wages. The disputes which have arisen upon this question would seem to be chiefly caused by attempts to apply a universal law to countries and employ ments under totally different circum stances. Some contend that as wages are refulated by supply and demand, the pnce of provisions cannot affect them ; while others maintain that the average prices of labour and of food must always, for long periods of years, conform one with the other. It is evident, at the out set, that the former are speaking of the market rate of wages, and the latter of the natural rate ; and if this distinction be borne in mind, the two propositions may easily be reconciled. If the market rate of wages be high, it is because the demand for labour is greater than the im mediate supply. A fall in the price of provisions could not then lower the rate of wages, because the supply of labour would still be the same ; but if the fall were permanent, the condition of the labourer would become so easy, that population would increase, and the supply of labour would be more abundant. The market rate would thus be brought down to the natural rate, unless capital should be increasing in the same proportion as the supply of labour ; and any increase in the price of food must then check the growth of population, limit the supply of labour, and ultimately raise wages. There is the same tendency in the market price of labour to conform to the natural price, as there is in the market value of commodities to conform to their real value. Both labour and commodities are equally capable of increase and diminu tion, and the varying causes which en courage or check production adjust the proportion between the natural or cost price and the market price. Bat in some countries the market rate of wages may be very much above the natural rate, and in others nearly the same. In one coun try capital may be increasing more ra pidly than population, and in another not so fast. It is clear that a rise or fall in the price of food cannot influence the rate of wages alike in all these countries. Where the wages are high, and capital is rapidly accumulated, any reduction in the price of food and other commodities is a clear gain to the labourer, and can have only a very remote, if any, effect in lowering wages ; but where wages are already reduced to the natural rate, and capital is not increasing faster than popu lation, wages will undoubtedly rise and fall with any permanent increase or dimi nution in the cost of subsistence.