REAL AND MONEY WAGES.

93

of this nature stored up in books, and operating in the development of intellectual powers, which would otherwise have remained dormant and useless towards either the enrichment of the individual, or, as in the case of the three great men we have named, the lasting benefit of the whole human race. Such wonderful inventions, when thus proclaimed to the world, become public property, a gratuitous addition of vast amount to the ability of all present and future labourers in the peculiar arts to which they are applicable.

It may, it is true, be long before the Calmucs or Chinese avail themselves of the increased power such inventions put at their disposal, but in the mean time even these distant nations profit from them through the greater cheapness of the commodities with which they are supplied, by the growing ability of Europeans. And we, too, in the mean time are improving even upon these inventions far more rapidly than other nations can adopt them; so that the superiority we have once obtained over them is continually increasing rather than diminishing. When we come to trace the principle and effects of foreign commerce, we shall be able to show how futile are the fears entertained by some, of our being shortly left behind in the race of industry by other nations, or losing the preeminence this country has acquired in productiveness over every other on the face of the globe.

We have hitherto spoken of wages, (real wages,) in the sense of the quantity of the necessaries and conveniences which the labourer can command in the market in exchange for his services. Such appears to be the most correct meaning of the

expression. But in common language, wages is generally understood as referring to the sum in money (money-wages) which the labourer obtains. These two meanings are, of course, very distinct. The money-wages of a labourer may rise, whilst the quantity of necessaries and comforts he can obtain in exchange for them, and upon which alone his condition in fact depends, is decreasing. This was notoriously the case in Britain in the early part of the present century, when owing to a succession of bad harvests, the money-price of necessaries reached an exorbitant elevation; and though the money-wages of nearly every class of labourers rose likewise, their purchasing power was greatly lessened; so much so indeed, that the inadequacy of the current wages of agricultural labour to maintain a family was the cause of their being then, for the first time, supplemented out of the parish rate in the southern counties of England,-a baneful practice, for the adoption of which, if there were any excuse as a measure of temporary expediency at that moment, there can be at least none for its continuance in the present day, when experience has so fatally proved its mischievous effects on the morals, habits, and circumstances of our peasantry-when it has been universally recognized as equally unjustifiable in principle and in law.

Enough has been said to shew, that in a country which has already made a great progress in the arts of production, and is still daily improving upon them, the remuneration for labour, even of the lowest kind, ought to be considerable, as compared with earlier periods, and ought, likewise, always to

WAGES OUGHT PROGRESSIVELY TO INCREASE. 95

be on the increase; never, unless locally and temporarily, to fall off in its amount.

If, therefore, in such a country, the wages of the mass of labourers are at any time not sufficient to command for them a competence of the necessaries and comforts of life,-if wages are found during periods of considerable duration, through extensive districts, and in a variety of occupations, to decrease in amount instead of advancing, we may rest assured that such a state of things can only be the result of a faulty arrangement of the political institutions which determine the distribution of the produce of industry. And the study of the naturally just and equitable principles on which such institutions ought to have been modelled-and when proved to be in fault, ought to be corrected becomes one of the most important and interesting subjects of inquiry to which the attention of any reasonable friend to humanity can be addressed.

Before, however, we can prosecute our researches into the nature of such errors and the mode of correcting them, we must first examine the other elements which co-operate with labour in the great business of production; and the owners of which have, of course, an equal right with the labourers to share in the joint produce.

These are, as we have seen, Land and Capital.

96

CHAPTER VI.

Land-Its appropriation essential to Production-History and causes of its appropriation in different ages and countries→→ In the East by the Sovereign-In Europe by the Aristocracy-In America by the People.-Influence of these different systems on Production and National Welfare.→→ Natural Laws of Property in.

POLITICAL Economists, we have said, following the example of lawyers, comprehend under the term land, when speaking of it as the sole original source of wealth, all the natural powers of the surface of the globe which can be made available for the use of man, including, together with its soils, mines, quarries, and waters, the animals and vegetables found thereon in a wild state.

These gifts of Nature, our common mother, are poured forth in all but infinite profusion upon the face of the teeming earth, for the common use of mankind. But in order to avail himself of them for his various purposes, man must, as has been shown, appropriate them by his labour; and, having done so, he acquires an equitable title to their possession founded on the labour he has expended in their appropriation. If fruit grew spontaneously on herb or tree, in sufficient abundance to supply the wants of all, the labour of gathering it would be all that were necessary to give an individual an equitable property in fruit. With the fish of the sea, and many of the fowls of the air, and some wild animals, this rule indeed holds good in law at the present day, even in countries where society has in many respects attained a most arti

ORIGIN OF PROPERTY IN LAND.

97

ficial and complicated condition.* But of the fruits of the earth, and the animals most fitted for food, there is no such spontaneous abundance; and in order to ensure the production of a sufficiency of these for the wants of man, it is necessary that much pains should be taken by some one,―that the soil be inclosed with fences to prevent the ravages of wandering animals, broken up by tillage, planted and sown with the fitting vegetables, and the growing crops protected, as well as gathered. Now no one, it is plain, would take the trouble to inclose and cultivate a piece of ground, and plant or sow it several months, perhaps years, before the crop can be fit to gather,unless he were secured (so far at least as human confidence can be secured) in the exclusive privilege of gathering and appropriating the fruits of his labour when ready for use. And the same may be said of the land employed for breeding, rearing, and fattening domestic animals. For this simple reason, it becomes absolutely necessary in order to admit of the production of artificial crops or stocks of cattle, to secure in the strongest possible manner a property in land to him who incloses and cultivates it, or in any way renders it productive. And this necessity has been perceived and acted on throughout all the known and cultivated regions of the globe, though under a great variety of

* Our law maxims with regard to fish, game, and such things as are 'feræ naturæ,' assert that they are nullius in bonis,' or no man's goods; and that of them Capiat qui capere possit,' catch who catch can. A qualified property is still to be acquired in these and some other things per industriam. See Blackstone, ii, 391.

H