[165-4] Thus, for instance, in harvesting potatoes, if, after they have been ploughed up, only those nearest the surface are collected, a laborer can gather over thirty Prussian scheffels in a day. But the fuller and completer the gathering of potatoes desired is, the smaller will be the product of one workman and of one day's labor. If, therefore, a man wants to gather even the last bushel in a potato field of 100 square rods, so much labor would be required to accomplish it that the workman would not gather enough to feed him during his work, to say nothing of supplying his other wants. Supposing that 100 scheffels of potatoes had grown on 100 square rods, and that of these were harvested—
| When the number of men employed in gatheringthem was | Thenthe additional yield obtained by the last workman employedis | |||
| 4, | 80 | scheffels, | ||
| 5, | 86.6 | " | 6.6 scheffels. | |
| 6, | 91 | " | 4.4 scheffels. | |
| 7, | 94 | " | 3 scheffels. | |
| 8, | 96 | " | 2 scheffels. | |
| (von Thünen, Der isolirte Staat,II, 174 ff.) | ||||
[165-5] In Manchester, in 1828, the wages paid for spinning one pound of cotton yarn, No. 200, was 4s. 1d.; in 1831, only from 2s. 5d. to 2s. 8d. But, in the former year, the spinner worked with only 312 spools; in the latter, with 648; so that his wages increased in the ratio of 1274 to 1566. (Senior, Outlines.)
WAGES.—PRICE OF COMMON LABOR.
In the case of a commodity as universally desired as human labor is, the idea of the purchasers' capacity to pay (solvability) must be nearly commensurate with the national income, or to speak more correctly, with the world's income.[166-1] In regard to the different kinds of labor, and especially to common labor, it is evident that the different kinds of consumption require very different quantities of them. Here, therefore, we depend on the direction which national consumption takes, and this in turn is most intimately related to the distribution of the national income.[166-2] If all workmen were employed in nothing but the production of articles consumed by workmen, the rate of wages would be determined almost exclusively by the ratio between the number of the working population and the amount of the national income. But, if this were the case, landowners and capitalists would be obliged to live just as workmen do, and their highest luxury would have to consist in feeding idlers. (§ 226). The effect must be much the same, when the wealthy are exceedingly frugal and employ their savings as rapidly as possible in the employment of common home labor; while, on the other hand, the exportation of wheat, wood, and other articles, which the working classes consume, in exchange for diamonds, lace, champagne, diminishes the efficient demand for common labor in a country.[166-3]
The assumption frequently made, that the demand for labor depends on the size of the national capital, is far from exact.[166-4] Thus, for instance, every transformation of circulating into fixed capital, especially when the labor used in effecting this transformation is ended, diminishes the demand for other labor. That principle is not unconditionally true, even in the case of circulating capital. Thus, for instance, the rate of wages is wont to be raised by the transfer of capital from such businesses as require little labor into such as require much.[166-5] Only that part of circulating capital can have any weight here which is intended, directly or indirectly, for the purchase of labor and for the purchase of each kind of labor in particular.[166-6] The capital of the employer is, by no means, the real source[166-7] of the wages of even the workmen employed by him, It is only the immediate reservoir through which wages are paid out, until the purchasers of the commodities produced by that labor make good the advance, and thereby encourage the undertaker to purchase additional labor. Correlated to this is the fact, that other circumstances being the same, those workmen usually receive the highest wages who have to do most immediately with the consumer.[166-8]
[166-1] Senior denies this. Let us suppose that agriculture in Ireland employs on every 200 acres ten working men's families, one-half of whom are used to satisfy the aggregate wants of the working people, and the other half in the production of wheat to be exported to England. If now the English market requires meat and wool instead of wheat, the Irish landowner will, perhaps, find it advantageous, of the ten laboring families, to employ one in stock raising, a second in obtaining food, etc. to support the laborers, and to discharge all the others. If, then, the increased net product is employed in the purchase of other Irish labor, all goes on well enough; but if, instead of this, the landowners should import articles of English manufacture, the demand for labor in Ireland would doubtless decrease, notwithstanding the increase of its income. (Outlines, I, 154.) Senior here overlooks two things: first, that in the supposed case, if eight-ninths of Irish laborers are thrown out of employment, spite of the increased income of the owners of landed estates, Ireland's national income is on the whole probably diminished (§ 146), and secondly, that, possibly, the demand for labor in England experiences a greater increase than the decrease in Ireland; since, with the addition to the world-income, there would be an increase in the world-demand for labor.
[166-2] Compare Hermann, Staatswirthsch. Untersuch., 280 ff. Earlier yet, Malthus, Principle of Population, II, ch. 13.
[166-3] Thus, Thomas More, Utopia, 96, 197, thinks that if every one was industrious and engaged in only really useful business, no one would need to fatigue himself very much; while, as it is now, the few real laborers there are wear themselves out in the service of the vanity of the rich, are poorly fed and worked exceedingly hard.