On Wages and Combination |
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Common terms and phrases
100 labourers 100 quarters 50 per cent actual wages advance of wages agricultural produce capitalist circumstances combination for raising Corn Laws cost of production cultivation diminished employed employment England English manufacturer equivalent to 100 expended expenditure extent facturer fall farmer Fielden fixed capital food and material food and raw foreign market foreign trade French manufacturer fund given quantity greater quantity hours of labour industry labouring classes less quantity machines maintenance of labour manu manufac manufacturing countries maximum of wages maximum wages minimum profit number of labourers obtain operatives population principles profit of seven proportion quantity of cloth quarters for seed quarters of corn raising wages rate of profit rate of wages raw material raw produce real wages reduced reduction of wages render rent rise Russia seed and implements sell seven per cent superiority supply of labour surplus tillage tion tural value of agricultural value of food wrought yards of cloth
Popular passages
Page 82 - Twelve francs." " Supposing you had had eight English carders under you, how much more work could you have done ? " — " With one Englishman I could have done more than I did with those eight Frenchmen. It cannot be called work they do : it is only looking at it, and wishing it done.
Page 64 - It admits of the strictest demonstration, that if additional quantities of raw material can be worked up without incurring an additional expense for buildings and machinery...
Page 31 - ... instead of being stimulated to its utmost action, by the consideration of prudence, and the desire of bettering our condition, is checked and controlled by the prevailing efficacy of these causes to such an extent, that the general tendency in most civilized communities is, not for population to increase faster than capital, but for capital to increase faster than population. These principles are established by the actual condition of the labouring classes in almost every country of Europe. The...
Page 17 - New accumulations of capital are made for the sake of obtaining advantage therefrom. But it is impossible that new accumulations of capital should be advantageously employed, unless labourers can be procured. The new capital, accumulated for the purpose of gaining an advantage by the employment of labourers, comes into the market and bids for hands ; the old capital, in order to retain its hands, is compelled to bid against the new, and this process goes on until the whole existing capital is invested...
Page 1 - The study of Political Economy, if it did not teach the way in which labour may obtain an adequate reward, might serve to gratify a merely speculative curiosity, but could scarcely conduce to any purposes of practical utility. It claims the peculiar attention of the benevolent and good, mainly because it explains the causes which depress and elevate wages, and thereby points out the means by which we may mitigate the distress, and improve the condition, of the great majority of mankind. Political...
Page 12 - Even in countries situated in the same climate, different habits of living will often occasion variations in the mininum of wages, as considerable as those which are produced by natural causes. The labourer in Ireland will rear a family under circumstances which would not only deter an English workman from marriage, but would force him on the parish for personal support. Now, it is certain, that a gradual introduction of capital into Ireland, accompanied by such a diffusion of instruction amongst...
Page 44 - Torrens, however, does not in the least deny the hardships suffered by those who are for the time being thrown out of employment. It is interesting to find him advocate for the first time the idea of a national insurance fund to be applied to the alleviation of such misery: It also appears that the general good which results from the employment of new and improved machinery is accompanied by partial evil. While the public acquires additional wealth, the individuals who are supplanted in their accustomed...
Page 82 - Had you any Frenchmen employed under you ?' — ' Yes ; eight, at two francs a day.
Page 26 - ... them, then will population be at all times so regulated, that the supply of labour will be duly apportioned to the quantity of fertile land, and to the amount of capital employed ; and the labouring classes will emerge from their degradation, and will permanently enjoy ease, comfort, and independence. The important power of increasing or of diminishing the reward of labour is, by the essential order of society, ultimately placed in the hands of the labourers themselves. 130 Irregularities in...
Page 121 - ... exchange for a greater quantity of food and raw material than that which was expended in producing them. A good market for such goods, is a place where they will exchange for a quantity of food and material considerably greater than that expended in their production; and a bad market, is a place where they will exchange for a quantity of food and material little greater than their production cost. To tell the manufacturer that the home market is better than the foreign, when in the home market...