Observations on the Effects of the Corn Laws, and of a Rise or Fall in the Price of Corn on the Agr | Page 5

of corn upon the price of labour, on an average of a considerable
number of years; but that this influence is not such as to prevent the
movement of capital to, or from the land, which is the precise point in
question, will be made sufficiently evident by a short inquiry into the
manner in which labour is paid and brought into the market, and by a
consideration of the consequences to which the assumption of Dr
Smith's proposition would inevitably lead.
In the first place, if we inquire into the expenditure of the labouring
classes of society, we shall find, that it by no means consists wholly in
food, and still less, of course, in mere bread or grain. In looking over
that mine of information, for everything relating to prices and labour,
Sir Frederick Morton Eden's work on the poor, I find, that in a
labourer's family of about an average size, the articles of house rent,
fuel, soap, candles, tea, sugar, and clothing, are generally equal to the

articles of bread or meal. On a very rough estimate, the whole may be
divided into five parts, of which two consist of meal or bread, two of
the articles above mentioned, and one of meat, milk, butter, cheese, and
potatoes. These divisions are, of course, subject to considerable
variations, arising from the number of the family, and the amount of the
earnings. But if they merely approximate towards the truth, a rise in the
price of corn must be both slow and partial in its effects upon labour.
Meat, milk, butter, cheese, and potatoes are slowly affected by the price
of corn; house rent, bricks, stone, timber, fuel, soap, candles, and
clothing, still more slowly; and, as far as some of them depend, in part
or in the whole, upon foreign materials (as is the case with leather,
linen, cottons, soap, and candles), they may be considered as
independent of it; like the two remaining articles of tea and sugar,
which are by no means unimportant in their amount.
It is manifest therefore that the whole of the wages of labour can never
rise and fall in proportion to the variations in the price of grain. And
that the effect produced by these variations, whatever may be its
amount, must be very slow in its operation, is proved by the manner in
which the supply of labour takes place; a point, which has been by no
means sufficiently attended to.
Every change in the prices of commodities, if left to find their natural
level, is occasioned by some change, actual or expected, in the state of
the demand or supply. The reason why the consumer pays a tax upon
any manufactured commodity, or an advance in the price of any of its
component parts, is because, if he cannot or will not pay this advance
of price, the commodity will not be supplied in the same quantity as
before; and the next year there will only be such a proportion in the
market, as is accommodated to the number of persons who will consent
to pay the tax. But, in the case of labour, the operation of withdrawing
the commodity is much slower and more painful. Although the
purchasers refuse to pay the advanced price, the same supply will
necessarily remain in the market, not only the next year, but for some
years to come. Consequently, if no increase take place in the demand,
and the advanced price of provisions be not so great, as to make it
obvious that the labourer cannot support his family, it is probable, that

he will continue to pay this advance, till a relaxation in the rate of the
increase of population causes the market to be under-supplied with
labour; and then, of course, the competition among the purchasers will
raise the price above the proportion of the advance, in order to restore
the supply. In the same manner, if an advance in the price of labour has
taken place during two or three years of great scarcity, it is probable
that, on the return of plenty, the real recompense of labour will
continue higher than the usual average, till a too rapid increase of
population causes a competition among the labourers, and a consequent
diminution of the price of labour below the usual rate.
This account of the manner in which the price of corn may be expected
to operate upon the price of labour, according to the laws which
regulate the progress of population, evidently shows, that corn and
labour rarely keep an even pace together; but must often be separated at
a sufficient distance and for a sufficient time, to change the direction of
capital.
As a further confirmation of this truth, it may be useful to consider,
secondly, the consequences