CHAP. VIII.
OF THE WAGES OF LABOUR.
The produce of labour constitutes the natural
recompence or wages of labour.
In that original state of things which precedes
both the appropriation of land and the
accumulation of stock, the whole produce of
labour belongs to the labourer. He has neither
landlord nor master to share with him.
Had this state continued, the wages of labour
would have augmented with all those
improvements in its productive powers, to
which the division of labour gives occasion.
All things would gradually have become
cheaper. They would have been produced by
a smaller quantity of labour; and as the commodities
produced by equal quantities of labour
would naturally in this state of things be
exchanged for one another, they would have
been purchased likewise with the produce of
a smaller quantity.
But though all things would have become
cheaper in reality, in appearance many things
might have become dearer, than before, or
have been exchanged for a greater quantity of
other goods. Let us suppose, for example,
that in the greater part of employments the
productive powers of labour had been improved
to tenfold, or that a day's labour could
produce ten times the quantity of work which
it had done originally; but that in a particular
employment they had been improved only
to double, or that a day's labour could produce
only twice the quantity of work which
it had done before. In exchanging the produce
of a day's labour in the greater part of
employments for that of a day's labour in this
particular one, ten times the original quantity
of work in them would purchase only twice
the original quantity of it. Any particular
quantity in it, therefore, a pound weight, for
example, would appear to be five times dearer
than before. In reality, however, it would be
twice as cheap. Though it required five times
the quantity of other goods to purchase it, it
would require only half the quantity of labour
either to purchase or to produce it. The
acquisition, therefore, would be twice as easy
as before.
But this original state of things, in which
the labourer enjoyed the whole produce of his
own labour, could not last beyond the first introduction
of the appropriation of land and
the accumulation of stock. It was at an end,
therefore, long before the most considerable
improvements were made in the productive
powers of labour; and it would be to no purpose
to trace further what might have been
its effects upon the recompence or wages of
labour.
As soon as land becomes private property,
the landlord demands a share of almost all the
produce which the labourer can either raise or
collect from it. His rent makes the first deduction
from the produce of the labour which
is employed upon land.
It seldom happens that the person who tills
the ground has wherewithal to maintain himself
till he reaps the harvest. His maintenance
is generally advanced to him from the
stock of a master, the farmer who employs
him, and who would have no interest to employ
him, unless he was to share in the produce
of his labour, or unless his stock was to
be replaced to him with a profit. This profit
makes a second deduction from the produce
of the labour which is employed upon land.
The produce of almost all other labour is
liable to the like deduction of profit. In all
arts and manufactures, the greater part of the
workmen stand in need of a master, to advance
them the materials of their work, and
their wages and maintenance, till it be completed.
He shares in the produce of their labour,
or in the value which it adds to the materials
upon which it is bestowed; and in this
share consists his profit.
It sometimes happens, indeed, that a single
independent workman has stock sufficient both
to purchase the materials of his work, and to
maintain himself till it be completed. He is
both master and workman, and enjoys the
whole produce of his own labour, or the whole
value which it adds to the materials upon which
it is bestowed. It includes what are usually
two distinct revenues, belonging to two distinct
persons, the profits of stock, and the
wages of labour.
Such cases, however, are not very frequent;
and in every part of Europe twenty workmen
serve under a master for one that is independent,
and the wages of labour are everywhere
understood to be, what they usually are, when
the labourer is one person, and the owner of
the stock which employs him another.
What are the common wages of labour, depends
everywhere upon the contract usually
made between those two parties, whose interests
are by no means the same. The workmen
desire to get as much, the masters to give
as little, as possible. The former are disposed
to combine in order to raise, the latter in order
to lower, the wages of labour.
It is not, however, difficult to foresee which
of the two parties must, upon all ordinary occasions,
have the advantage in the dispute,
and force the other into a compliance with
their terms. The masters, being fewer in number,
can combine much more easily: and the
law, besides, authorises, or at least does not
prohibit, their combinations, while it prohibits
those of the workmen. We have no acts of
parliament against combining to lower the
price of work, but many against combining
to raise it. In all such disputes, the masters
can hold out much longer. A landlord, a