The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Preface.
• Conversation I.: Introduction.
• Conversation II.: Introduction — Continued.
• Conversation III.: On Property.
• Conversation IV.: On Property— Continued.
• Conversation V.: On the Division of Labour.
• Conversation VI.: On Capital.
• Conversation VII.: On Capital — Continued.
• Conversation VIII.: On Wages and Population.
• Conversation IX.: On Wages and Population. Continued.
• Conversation X.: On the Condition of the Poor.
• Conversation XI.: On Revenue.
• Conversation XII.: On Revenue Derived From Property In Land.
• Conversation XIII.: On Revenue Derived From the Cultivation of Land.
• Conversation XIV.: On the Revenue of Those Who Do Not Employ Their Capital Themselves.
• Conversation XV.: On Value and Price.
• Conversation XVI.: On Money.
• Conversation XVII.: Subject of Money Continued.
• Conversation XVIII.: On Commerce.
• Conversation XIX.: On Foreign Trade.
• Conversation XX.: Continuation of Foreign Trade.
• Conversation XXI.: Subject of Foreign Trade Continued.
• Conversation XXII.: On Expenditure.

CONVERSATION IX.

ON WAGES AND POPULATION. Continued.

caroline.

I have been reflecting a great deal on our last conversation, Mrs. B.; and the conclusions I have drawn from it are, that the greater the capital a country possesses, the greater number of people it can maintain, and the higher the wages of labour will be.

mrs. b.

The greater the stock of subsistence, the more people may be maintained by it, no doubt; but your second inference is not at all a necessary conclusion. China is a very rich country, and yet wages are, I believe, no where so low. The accounts which travellers give of the miserable state of the inferior classes are painful to hear; and their poverty is not the result of idleness, for they run about the streets with tools in their hands, begging for work.

caroline.

That is owing to the immense population of China; so that, though the capital of the country may be very considerable, still it is insufficient for the maintenance of all its inhabitants.

mrs. b.

You should therefore always remember that the rate of wages does not depend upon the absolute quantity of capital, but upon its quantity relative to the number of people it is to maintain. This is a truth which, however simple, is continually lost sight of, and hence arise errors without number in political economy. If China had ten times the wealth it actually possesses, and its population were at the same time tenfold as numerous, the people would not be better fed.

America, on the other hand, is a country of very small capital, and yet wages are remarkably high there.

caroline.

How do you account for that; for the demand for labour, you know, can be only in proportion to the extent of capital?

mrs. b.

The capital of America, though small when compared with those of the countries of Europe, is very considerable in proportion to the number of people to be maintained by it. In America, and in all newly-settled countries as yet thinly inhabited, the wages of labour are high, because capital increases with prodigious rapidity. Where land is plentiful and productive, and the labourers to cultivate it scarce, the competition amongst the landholders to obtain labourers is so great as to enable this class to raise their demands; and the higher the wages the labourer receives, the sooner he has it in his power to purchase a piece of land and become landholder himself. Thus the class of labourers is continually passing into the class of proprietors, and making room for a fresh influx of labourers, both from the rising generation and from emigrations from foreign countries.

caroline.

America has then the double advantage of high wages and low price of land; no wonder that it is so thriving a country.

mrs. b.

The progress of wealth and improvement is no where so rapid as in the settlement of a civilised people in a new country; provided they establish laws for the security of their property, they require no other incitement to industry. In the new settlements of America, where the experienced farmer with his European implements of husbandry is continually encroaching on the barren wilderness, want is almost unknown, and a state of universal prosperity prevails. We may form some judgment of the rapid increase of their capital by that of their population. The facility with which the Americans acquire a maintenance sufficient to bring up a family encourages early marriages, and gives rise to numerous families; the children are well fed, thriving, and healthy; you may imagine how small are the proportion that die in comparison to the number born, when I inform you that in the United States their population doubles itself in about 23 years!

caroline.

But does not such an immense increase of population reduce the rate of wages?

mrs. b.

No; because their capital increases in a still greater proportion; and as long as that is the case, wages, you know, will rise rather than fall. But observe that what I have said relative to America refers only to the United States of that country; which have the advantage of a free government protecting the property of all classes of men. In the Spanish settlements, where the government is of a very different description, the condition of the people is far less flourishing. The population of Mexico, one of the finest provinces of Spanish America, does not double itself in less than 48 years.

caroline.

Yet I do not well understand why the poor should be worse off in England where there is a large capital, than in America where there is a small one.

mrs. b.

Because you are again forgetting the fundamental rule which I have laid down for you, that capital must always be considered with reference to the number of people to be employed and maintained by it.

In England, and all the old-established countries of Europe, the population has gradually increased till it has equalled the means of subsistence; and as Europe no longer affords the same facility for the growth of capital as a newly-settled country, if the population goes on augmenting, it may exceed the means of subsistence, and in that case the wages of labour will fall instead of rising, and the condition of the poor become very miserable.

caroline.

But how is it possible for population to increase beyond the means of subsistence? Men cannot live without eating.

mrs. b.

No; but they may live upon a smaller portion of food than is necessary to maintain them in health and vigour; children may be born without their parents having the means of providing for them. Increase of population therefore, under such circumstances, cannot be permanent; its progress will be checked by distress and disease, and this I apprehend to be one of the causes of the reduced state of the poor in this country.

caroline.

I declare I always thought that it was very desirable to have a great population. All rich thriving countries are populous; great cities are populous; wealth, which you esteem so advantageous to a country, encourages population; and population in its turn promotes wealth, since labourers produce more than they consume. You recollect how rich our colony became by the acquisition of the labour of the ship-wrecked crew: their first arrival was attended with some inconvenience, it is true; but I should say as you do with respect to machinery, the inconvenience is small and temporary, the advantage both durable and extensive.

mrs. b.

A great population is highly advantageous to a country, where there is a capital which will afford wages sufficient for a labourer to bring up his children; for population is not usually increased by the acquisition of a number of able labourers, (as was the case in our colony,) but by the birth of helpless infants, who depend entirely upon their parents for subsistence. If this subsistence is not provided, the children are born merely to languish a few years in poverty, and to fall early victims to disease, brought on by want and wretchedness. Under such circumstances, they can increase neither the strength, the wealth, nor the happiness of the country. On the contrary, they weaken, impoverish, and render it more miserable. They consume without reproducing, they suffer without enjoying, and they give pain and sorrow to their parents without ever reaching that age when they might reward their paternal cares. Yet such is the lot of many poor children, wherever population exceeds the means of subsistence.

caroline.

What a dreadful reflection this is! But you do not suppose that there are any children actually starved to death?

mrs. b.

I hope not; but the fate of those unfortunate infants is scarcely less deplorable who perish by slow degrees for want of proper care and a sufficiency of wholesome food. A large family of young children would require the whole of a mother’s care and attention; but that mother is frequently obliged to leave them to obtain by hard labour their scanty meal. Want of good nursing, of cleanliness, of fresh air, and of wholesome nourishment, engenders a great variety of diseases, which either carry them off, or leave them in such a state of weakness that they fall a sacrifice to the first contagious malady which attacks them. It is to this state of debility, as well as to the want of medical advice and judicious treatment, that must be attributed the mortality occasioned by the smallpox and measles amongst the lower classes of children, so much greater than in those of the upper ranks of society.

Nor are the fatal effects of an excess of population confined to children. A sick man, who might be restored to health by medical assistance and a proper diet, perishes, because he cannot afford to obtain either. A delicate or an infirm woman requires repose and indulgence which she cannot command. The necessaries of life vary not only with the climate and customs of a country, but with the age, sex, and infirmities of the individuals who inhabit it; and wherever these necessaries are deficient, mortality prevails.

Do you understand now, why the rate of wages and the condition of the poor are better in countries which, like America, are growing rich; than in those which, like England, have long accumulated large capitals, but whose wealth is either stationary, or making but slower progress?

caroline.

Yes; it is because when capital augments very rapidly, labour is in great demand and well rewarded. But when wealth, however great, has long been stationary, population has risen up to the means of subsistence, or perhaps gone beyond it, so that wages fall, and distress comes on.

mrs. b.

This is what I formerly alluded to, when I told you that you would find that the accession of wealth was more advantageous to a country, as well as to an individual, than the possession of any capital which did not increase.

I must read you a passage of Paley on this subject, in which he expresses himself with remarkable perspicuity.

“The ease of subsistence and the encouragement of industry depend neither upon the price of labour, nor upon the price of provisions; but upon the proportion which the one bears to the other. Now the influx of wealth into a country naturally tends to advance this proportion; that is, every fresh accession of wealth raises the price of labour, before it raises the price of provisions.

“It is not therefore the quantity of wealth collected into a country, but the continual increase of that quantity, from which the advantage arises to employment and population. It is only the accession of wealth which produces the effect; and it is only by wealth constantly flowing into, or springing up in a country, that the effect can be constant.”

You must not, however, imagine that the capital of this country remains stationary; on the contrary, we are making rapid advances in wealth, though we cannot pretend to equal the progress of a newly-settled country. The only apprehension is, that population may have been increasing in a still greater ratio than capital. The severe checks which industry has received during these last thirty years, throughout the greater part of Europe, from a constant state of the most expensive warfare, has, I fear, greatly retarded the progress of capital, without equally affecting that of population; but if the increase of the latter has occasionally outstripped the means of subsistence, it is no less owing to the ill-judged conduct of the upper classes than to the imprudence of the lower orders of people.

caroline.

You allude, I suppose, to the encouragement of early marriages amongst the poor?

mrs. b.

Yes: we observed that when a great population springs from ample means of subsistence, it is the highest blessing a country can enjoy; the children, brought up in plenty, attain a healthy and vigorous manhood, with strength to defend, and industry to enrich their country. Those who have not reflected on the subject have frequently confounded cause and effect, and have, with you, considered a great population under all circumstances as the cause of prosperity. Hence the most strenuous efforts have been made, not only by individuals, but even by the legislature, to encourage early marriages and large families, conceiving that by so doing they were promoting the happiness and prosperity of their country.

caroline.

This is a most unfortunate error. But when population is again reduced, the evil corrects itself; for capital being thus rendered more adequate to the maintenance of this diminished population, the wages of labour will again rise.

mrs. b.

Certainly. But what misery attends this slow and dreadful remedy! And even when effected, it often happens that as soon as the labouring classes find their condition improved, whether by a diminution of numbers, or an augmentation of capital, which may spring up from some new source of industry, marriages again increase, a greater number of children are reared, and population once more outstrips the means of subsistence; so that the condition of the poor, after a temporary improvement, is again reduced to its former wretchedness.

caroline.

That is precisely what has occurred in the village near which we live. It was formerly, I have heard, but a small hamlet, the inhabitants of which gained a livelihood as farmers’ labourers. Many years ago a cotton-manufacture was set up in the neighbourhood, which afforded ample employment for the poor; and even the children, who were before idle, could now earn something towards their maintenance. This, during some years, had an admirable effect in raising the condition of the labouring classes. I have heard my grandfather say that it was wonderful to see how rapidly the village improved, how many new cottages were built, and what numerous families they contained. But this prosperous state was not of long duration: in the course of time the village became overstocked with labourers, and it is now sunk into a state of poverty and distress worse than that from which it had so recently emerged.

mrs. b.

You see, therefore, that this manufacture, which at first proved a blessing to the village, and might always have continued such, was, by the improvidence of the labourers, converted into an evil. If the population had not increased beyond the demand for labour, the manufacture might still have afforded them the advantages it at first produced.

caroline.

This, then, must be the cause of the misery which so frequently prevails amongst the poor in manufacturing towns, where it would be so natural to expect that the facility of finding work would produce comfort and plenty.

mrs. b.

And it proves that no amelioration of the condition of the poor can be permanent unless to industry they add prudence and foresight. Were all men as considerate as your gardener, Thomas, and did they not marry till they had secured a provision for a family, or could earn a sufficiency to maintain it; in short, were children not brought into the world until there was bread to feed them, the distress which you have just been describing would be unknown, excepting in cases of unforeseen misfortunes, or unless produced by idleness or vice.

caroline.

And is it not to these latter causes that a great part of the misery in manufacturing towns should be ascribed? I have heard it observed that skilful workmen, who could earn a livelihood by three or four days’ labour in the week, would frequently spend the remainder of it in idleness and profligacy.

mrs. b.

I believe that it is much more common for great gains to act as a stimulus to industry. Like every other human quality, industry improves in proportion to the encouragement it receives, and it can have no greater encouragement and reward than high wages. It sometimes happens, it is true, that workmen act in the way you mention, but such conduct is far from being common; the greater part, when their wages are liberal, keep steadily to their work, and if they are paid by the piece, are even apt to overwork themselves.

caroline.

That I have observed. My father lately agreed to pay a certain sum for digging a sunk fence in our pleasure-grounds; and two of the undergardeners engaged to do it after the day’s work was over. I thought they would repent of their undertaking, when they came to such hard labour, after having performed their usual task; but I was astonished at their alacrity and perseverance: in the course of a week they completed the job, and received the price in addition to their usual wages. — I wonder that work is not always paid by the piece, it is such an encouragement to industry.

mrs. b.

All kinds of work do not admit of being so paid; for instance, the care of a garden could not be divided into jobs, and the gardener be paid so much for planting trees, so much for cleaning borders, so much for mowing grass, &c. Besides, I doubt whether it would be desirable that this mode of payment should be generally adopted, on account of the temptation it affords to labourers to overwork themselves; for notwithstanding all the advantages of industry, one would never wish it to be pushed to that extreme which would exhaust the strength of the labouring classes, and bring on disease and infirmity. The benefits resulting from industry are an increase of the comforts and conveniences of life; but it would be paying too dear for these to purchase them by a sickly and premature old age.

In order to be of permanent service to the labouring classes, we must not rest satisfied with encouraging industry; but we should endeavour by instruction to awaken their minds to a sense of remote consequences, as well as of immediate good, so that when they have succeeded in rendering their condition more comfortable, they may not rashly and inconsiderately increase their numbers beyond the means of subsistence.

caroline.

But if population be constantly kept within the limits of subsistence, would it not always remain stationary?

mrs. b.

Certainly not: if the people are industrious, capital will increase; and the increase of population will follow of course, and with advantage.

caroline.

I now see evidently, that population should never be encouraged, but where there is great plenty of subsistence and employment.

mrs. b.

And then it requires no encouragement. If men so often marry without having made any provision for a family, there is no danger of their not marrying when a subsistence is easily obtained; and their children will be healthy and long-lived in proportion as they are well fed, clothed, and taken care of.

caroline.

I feel considerable satisfaction in having acquired correct ideas on this subject; but the knowledge I have gained is not without alloy. The miseries arising from an excess of population have left a very melancholy impression on my mind.

mrs. b.

That population should tend to press upon the means of subsistence, and render exertion necessary to obtain food, appears to be a law of nature wisely calculated to call into activity the various powers of man. It is to this pressure that we owe the appropriation of land, and the consequent diversity of ranks and conditions which we have observed to be so essential to the progressive improvement of society. It is the foundation-stone of the great structure of civilisation, and the means by which scanty tribes of wandering savages have been transformed into populous nations of civilised beings. If then it produces want and wretchedness to some part of the community, it feeds millions of industrious happy beings; and in a well-constituted society, the evil will always tend to diminish, and the good to increase.

caroline.

Yet as the world becomes more populous, the difficulty of procuring subsistence must surely increase?

mrs. b.

A period may, it is true, one day arrive when the world will be so perfectly cultivated, and so fully peopled, that no further augmentation either of population or of subsistence can take place. How many generations will pass away before that epoch, it is impossible even to surmise; but let us hope that before that period arrives, the human character will be so far improved in virtue and knowledge, that population will no longer trespass upon the bounds of subsistence.

In the present state of the world, the inconvenience arising from this pressure on subsistence is so far from being confined to great nations and populous districts, that it is nowhere so severely felt as among the savage tribes, who are without resource when the supply of food afforded them by the chase, by fishing, or the spontaneous produce of the earth, proves deficient. In India, where the Hindoos subsist on rice alone, famines have repeatedly swept away thousands. The more improved the state of society, the less dreadful are these effects; but it is in newly-settled countries alone, and under free governments, such as the United States of America, that we can look for complete exemption from this evil.

We will conclude this subject by reading a passage in Mr. Malthus’s Principles of Political Economy.

“From high wages, or the power of commanding a large portion of the necessaries of life, two very different results may follow; one, that of a rapid increase of population, in which case the high wages are chiefly spent in the maintenance of large and frequent families; and the other, that of a decided improvement in the modes of subsistence, and the conveniences and comforts enjoyed, without a proportionate acceleration in the rate of increase.

“In looking to these different results, the causes of them will evidently appear to be the different habits existing among the people of different countries, and at different times. In an enquiry into the causes of these different habits, we shall generally be able to trace those which produce the first result to all the circumstances which contribute to depress the lower classes of the people, which make them unable or unwilling to reason from the past to the future, and ready to acquiesce, for the sake of present gratification, in a very low standard of comfort and respectability; and those which produce the second result, to all the circumstances which tend to elevate the character of the lower classes of society, which make them approach the nearest to beings who ‘look before and after,’ and who consequently cannot acquiesce patiently in the thought of depriving themselves and their children of the means of being respectable, virtuous, and happy.

“Among the circumstances which contribute to the character first described, the most efficient will be found to be despotism, oppression, and ignorance: among those which contribute to the latter character, civil and political liberty, and education.”