Malthus - PoPE

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SEC. II.] OF THE WAGES OF LABOUR. 3

to a more improved soil: and, in either case, the ef-

fects observable from 1720 to 1750 would appear;namely, an increased power of commanding corn, with-out a proportionate increase of population. It is pro-bable that both causes contributed their share to thechange in question. When once the fashion of eatingwheaten bread had become general in some countries,it would be likely to spread into others, even at the

expense of comforts of a different description; and inall cases where particular modes of subsistence, fromwhatever causes arising, have been for any time esta-blished, though such modes always remain suscep-tible of change, the change must be a work of timeand difficulty. A country, which for many years hadprincipally supported its peasantry on one sort of

grain, must alter its whole system of agriculture be-fore it can produce another sort in sufficient abun-dance; and the obstinacy with which habits are ad-hered to by all classes of people, as in some countriesit would prevent high wages from improving thequality of the food, so in others it would prevent lowwages from suddenly deteriorating it; and such high

or low wages would be felt almost exclusively in thegreat stimulus or the great check which they wouldgive to population.

SECTION IH. Of the Causes uihi h principally influence the Demand for Labour and the Increase

the Population.

THERE is another cause, besides a change in the ha-bits of the people, which prevents the population ofa country from keeping pace with the apparent com-mand of the labourer over the means of subsistence.It sometimes happens that corn wages are compara-tively high without a proportionate demand for labour.This is the most likely to take place when the priceof raw produce has fallen without a fall in the priceof labour, so as to disable the cultivators from employ-

Libro I, cap. IV



3 OF J HE WAGES OF LABOUll. [CU. IV.

ing the same quantity of labour as before. If the

fall be considerable, and not made up in value by in-crease of quantity, so many labourers will be thrownout of work that wages, after a period of great dis-tress, will generally be lowered in proportion. Butif the fall be gradual, and partly made up in ex-changeable value by increase of quantity, the moneywages of labour will not necessarily sink; and the

result will be merely a slack demand for labour, notsufficient perhaps to throw the actual labourers outof work, but such as to prevent or diminish task-work,to check the employment of women and children, andto give but little encouragement to the rising genera-tion of labourers. In this case the quantity of thenecessaries of life actually earned by the labourer andhis family, may be really less than when, owing to arise of prices, the daily pay of the labourer will com-mand a smaller quantity of corn. The command ofthe labouring classes over the necessaries oflife, thoughapparently greater, is really less in the former thanin the latter case, and, upon all general principles,ought to produce less effect on the increase of popu-lation.

This disagreement between apparent wages and theprogress of population will be further aggravated inthose countries where poor laws are established, andit has become customary to pay a portion of the la-bourers' wages out of the parish rates. If when cornrises, the farmers and landholders of a parish keepthe wages of labour down, and make a regular allow-

ance for children, it is obvious that there is no longerany necessary connexion between. the apparent cornwages of day labour and the real means which thelabouring classes possess of maintaining a family.When once the people are reconciled to such a sys·tern, the progress of population might be rapid, at atime when the real wages of labour, independently of

parish assistance, were only sufficient to support awife and one child, or even a single man without ith r wife or child, because there might still be both



EC. II.] OF THE WAGES OF LABOUR.

encouragement to marriage, and the means

porting children.When the population of a country increases faster

than usual for any time together, the labouring classesmust have the command of a greater quantity of foodthan they had before possessed, or at least than theyhad before applied to the maintenance of their families.This may be obtained in various ways-by higher

corn wages, by saving in conveniences, by adopting acheaper kind of food, by more task-work and themore general employment of the women and children,or by parish allowances. But the actual applicationof the greater quantity of food seems to be neces-sary to the increase of population; and wherever suchincrease has taken place, some of these causes, by

which a greater quantity of food is procured, willalways be in action, and may generally be traced.

The high wages, both in corn and money, of theUnited States, occasioned by the rapid accumulationof capital, and the power of selling produce, obtainedby a comparatively small quantity of labour, at Euro-pean prices, are unquestionably the cause of the very

rapid progress of the American population. A verygreat demand for labour has, in this case, accom-panied a low comparative value of produce, a unionnot necessary nor frequent, but, when it does occur,calculated to occasion the most rapid increase of po-pulation.

The peculiar increase of the population of Ireland,

compared with other European countries, has ob-viously been owing to the adoption of a cheaper food,which might he produced in large quantities, andwhich, aided by the Cotter system of cultivation, has

of sup-

• It is most fortunate for the country and the labouring classesof society, that the bill which passed the House of Commons, for

taking from their parents the children of those who asked for re-lief, and supporting them on public funds, did not pass the Houseof Lords. Such a law would have been the commencement of anew system of poor laws beyond all comparison worse than theold.



4 OF THE WAGES OF LABOUR. ECHo IV:.

allowed the increase of people greatly to exceed the

demand for labour.The great increase of population of late years in

England and Scotland has been owing to the powerof the labouring classes to obtain a greater quantityof food, partly by temporary high wages in manufac-tures, partly by the increased use of potatoes, partlyby increased task-work and the increased employment

of women and children, partly by increased parishallowances to families, and partly by the increasedrelative cheapness of manufactures and foreign com-modities.

In general perhaps more of these causes will becalled into action by a rise of prices which sometimeslowers the command of a day's labour over the neces-

saries of life, than by a fall of prices which raises it.What is essentially necessary to a rapid increase

of population is a great and continued demand forlabour; and this is proportioned to the rate of in-crease in the quantity and value of those funds,whether arising from capital or revenue, which areactually employed in the maintenance of labour.

It has been generally considered, that the demandfor labour is proportioned only to the circulating, notthe fixed capital of a country. But in reality thedemand for labour is not proportioned to the increaseof capital in any shape; nor even, as I once thought,to the increase of the exchangeable value of thewhole annual produce. It is proportioaed only, as

above stated, to the rate of increase in the quantityand value of those funds which are actually employedin the maintenance of labour.

These funds consist principally in the necessariesof life, or in the means of commanding the food,clothing, lodging, and firing of the labouring classesof society. Now it is quite evident that if the capital

of a society were directed in the most judicious andskilful manner to the production of these necessaries,and that the neat surplus above what was required forthe maintenance of the persons so employed, and of



SEC. III.] OF THE WAGES OF LABOUR. 35

their employers, were spent in the maintenance of

menial servants, soldiers, and sailors, all the demandfor labour that the resources of such a country calledout in the most effective manner would admit of,might exist, with little of that great mass of capital,which in most improved countries is employed inproducing luxuries and superior conveniences. Butif this be so, it is obvious that capital, and even the

exchangeable value of the whole produce may in-crease without any increase in the demand for labour.If the circulating capital applied to the production ofluxuries and conveniences employed only those per-sons who would otherwise be maintained as unpro-ductive labourers by the surplus of necessaries, notonly no addition is thereby made to the demand forlabour, but if the persons before engaged in personalservices were dismissed faster than they could be em-ployed in the production of luxuries and superiorconveniences a diminished demand for labour mighttake place under an increasing circulating capital.And if a large portion of the exchangeable value ofthe whole produce of a country cannot be resolvedinto necessaries, it is clear that the whole producemay increase in exchangeable value without a greatervalue of the necessaries of life being actually em-ployed in the maintenance of labour.

But though it is unquestionably true that withoutthe capital employed in luxuries and superior conve-niences the same demand for labour might exist; yetpractically, if the neat revenue of a country could

only be employed in the maintenance of menial ser-vants and soldiers, there is every reason to think thatthe stimulus to production in modern states would bevery greatly diminished, and that the cultivation ofthe soil would be carried on with the same kind ofindolence and slackness as in the feudal times.

• This view of the subject was stated by me above thirty yearsago ill the quarto edition of the Essay on Population, p.421,and by Mr. Ricardo in his 3rd edition, p. 475.



236 OF TIlE WAGES OF LABOUR. [CH.1\ .

On the other hand, if the whole of the surplus pro-

duce beyond what was required for the support ofthose who were employed in the production of neces-saries could be spent in no other way than in the pro-duction and purchase of material luxuries and conve-niences, if no menial servants could be kept to takecare of houses, furniture, carriages, horses, c. it isquite clear that the demand for material luxuries and

conveniences would very soon abate, and the ownersof land and capital would have very slender motivesto employ them in the most productive manner.

It is clearly then the operation of both stimulants,under the most favourable proportions, which is likelyto give the most ,effective encouragement even to theproduction of necessaries. And though it is quite

certain that an increase in the value of the funds forthe maintenance of labour is not strictly proportionedto the increase in the exchangeable value of the wholeproduce estimated in labour; yet, in ordinary times,and when no great changes are taking place in theproportion of personal services to productive labour,an increase of such exchangeable value is generally

followed by an increased demand for labour, since itsordinary and natural effect is to increase the value ofthe funds destined for the maintenance of labour.

Whenever the introduction of fixed capital has fora time the effect of diminishing the demand for la-bour, it will generally be found that the value of thewhole annual produce is at the same time dimi-nished: but in general the use of fixed capital is fa-vourable to the abundance of circulating capital; andif the market for the products can be proportionallyextended, the whole value of the capital and revenueof a state is greatly increased by it, as well as the valueof the funds for the maintenance of labour, and

great demand for labour created.The increase in the whole value of cotton products,

since the introduction of the improved machinery, isknown to be prodigious; and it cannot for a momentbe doubted that both the circulating capital and the-



SEC. ru.] O~ 1 HE WAGES O } LADOUU. 37

demand for labour in the cotton business have very

greatly increased during the last fifty years. This isindeed sufficiently proved by the greatly increasedpopulation of Manchester, Glasgow, and the othertowns where the cotton manufactures have most flou-rished.

A similar increase of value, though not to the sameextent, has taken place in our hardware, woollen, and

other manufactures, and has been accompanied by anincreasing demand for labour, notwithstanding the in-creasing use of fixed capital.

Even in our agriculture, if the fixed capital of horses,which from the quantity of produce they consume, isthe most disadvantageous description of fixed capital,were disused, it is probable, that a great part of the

land which now bears com would be thrown out ofcultivation. Land of a poor quality would neveryield sufficient to pay the labour of cultivating withthe spade, of bringing manure to distant fields in bar-rows, and of carrying the products of the earth to dis-tant markets by the same sort of conveyance. Underthese circumstances, as there would be a diminutionill the quantity of com produced, there would be adiminution in the whole value of the produce; andthe value of the funds for the maintenance of labourbeing impaired, the demand for labour would be di-minished in proportion.

On the other hand, if, by the gradual introductionof a greater quantity of fixed capital, we could culti-vate and dress our soil and carry the produce to mar-ket at a much less expense, we might increase ourproduce very greatly by the cultivation of all our

• It has lately been stated, that spade cultivation will yieldboth a greater gross produce and a greater neat produce. I amalways ready to bow to well established experience; but if suchexperience applies in the present case, one cannot sufficientlywonder at the continued use of ploughs and horses in agriculture,

Even supposing however that the use of the spade might, onsome soils, so improve the land, as to make the crop more thanpay the additional expense of the labour, taken separately:yet, as horses must be kept to carry out dressing to a distance



238 OF fHE WAGES OF L lloun ECHo IV.

waste lands and the improvement of all the land

already in cultivation; and if the substitution of thisfixed capital were to take place in the only way inwhich we can suppose it practically to take place,that is, gradually, there is no reason to doubt that thevalue of raw produce would keep up nearly to itsformer level; and its greatly increased quantity, com-bined with the greater proportion of the people which

might be employed in manufactures and commerce,while it would occasion a very great increase in theexchangeable value of the general produce, would in-crease at the same time the value of the funds des-tined for the maintenance oflabour, and thus cause agreat demand for labour and a great addition to thepopulation.

There is no occasion therefore to fear that theintroduction of fixed capital, as it is .likely to takeplace in practice, will diminish the effective demandfor labour; indeed it is to this source that we are tolook for the main cause of its future increase. At thesame time, it is certainly true, as will be more fullystated in a subsequent part of this work, that if the

substitution of fixed capital were to take place muchfaster than an adequate market could be found for themore abundant supplies derived from it and for thenew products of the labour that had been thrown outof employment, a slack demand for labour and dis-tress among the labouring classes of society would beuniversally felt. But in this case, the whole produce

would fall in value, owing to a temporary excess ofsupply compared with the demand.

In the formation of the value of the whole funds

and to convey the produce of the soil to market, it could hardlyanswer to the cultivator to employ men in digging his fields, whilehis horses were standing idle in his stables. As far as experiencehas yet gone, I should certainly say, that it is commerce, price

and skill, which will cultivate the wastes of large and poor terri-tories-not the spade.No inference whatever in regard to the cultivation of a large

country can be drawn from what may be done on a few acres inthe immediate neighbourhood of houses and manure.



SEC. 1II.] Ol~ THE WAGES or LADOUR. 39

specifically destined for the maintenance of labour,

(the rate of the increase of which regulates the de-mand for labour,) a part depends upon the value of agiven portion of such funds, and a part upon theiramount in kind, or in other words, a part depends upontheir price, and a part upon their quantity. That partwhich depends merely upon price is in its nature lessdurable and less effective than that which depends

upon quantity. An increase of price with little orno increase of quantity, has obvious limits, and mustbe followed very soon in most cases by a nearly pro-portionate increase of money wages; while the com-mand of these increased money wages over the neces-saries of life going on diminishing, the populationmust come to a stop, and no further rise of prices canoccasion an effective demand for labour.

On the other hand, if the quantity of produce beincreased so fast that the value of the whole diminishesfrom excessive supply, it may not command so muchlabour this year as it did in the last, and for a timethere will be a very slack demand for workmen.

These are the two extremes, the one arising fromincreased value without increased quantity; and theother from increased quantity without increased value.

It is obvious that the object which it is most de-sirable to attain is the union of the two. There issomewhere a happy mean, where, under the actual re-sources of a country, both the increase of wealth andthe demand for labour may be a maximum. A tastefor conveniences and comforts not only tends to create

a more steady demand for labour, than a taste forpersonal services; but by cheapening manufacturesand the products of foreign commerce, including manyof the necessaries of the labouring classes, it actuallyenlarges the limits of the effectual demand for labour,and renders it for a longer time effective.

An increase in the quantity of the funds for the

maintenance of labour, with steady prices, or evenslightly falling, may occasion a considerable demandfor labour; but in the actual state of things, and in



240 OF THE WAGES OF LABOUR. [CH.IY.

the way in which the precious metals are actually dis-

tributed, some increase of prices generallyaccompa-nies the most effective demand for produce and popu-lation. It is this increase both of quantity and pricewhich 'most surely increases the value of the fundsfor the maintenance of labour, creates the greatest de-mand for labourers, excites the greatest quantity ofindustry, and generally occasions the greatest increase

of population.

SECTION IV.-A Review tlte Corn Wages Lahourfrom the Reign Edward IIL

SOME writers of great ability have beep of opinion

that rising prices, occasioned by an influx of bullion,are very unfavourable to the labouring classes of so-ciety; and certainly there are some periods of ourhistory which seem strongly to countenance this opi-nion : but I am inclined to think, that if these periods,and the circumstances connected with them, be ex-amined with more attention, the conclusion which has

been drawn from them will not appear so certain ashas been generally imagined. It will be found that,in the instances in question; other causes were in opera-tion to which the effect referred to might more justlybe attributed. .

The period of our history more particularly noticedis the 16th century, from the end of the reign of

Henry VII. to the end of the reign of Elizabeth. Du-ring this period it is an unquestionable fact that thecorn wages of labour fell in an extraordinary degree,and towards the latter end of the century they wouldnot command much above one-third of the quantity ofwheat which they did at the beginning of it.

Sir F. M. Eden has noticed the price of wheat in

nineteen out of the twenty-four years of Henry VII.'sreign, and in some of the years two or three times.

• State of the Poor, vol. iii p. xli.

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