Wages, like other things, may be regulated either by competition or by custom. In this country there are few kinds of labour of which the remuneration would not be lower than it is, if the employer took the full advantage of competition. Competition, however, must be regarded, in the present state of society, as the principal regulator of wages, and custom or individual character only as a modifying circumstance, and that in a comparatively slight degree.
Wages, then, depend mainly upon the demand and supply of labour; or as it is often expressed, on the proportion between population and capital. By population is here meant the number only of the labouring class, or rather of those who work for hire; and by capital only circulating capital, and not even the whole of that, but the part which is expended2 in the direct purchase of labour. To this, however, must be added all funds which, without forming a part of capital, are paid in exchange for labour, such as the wages of soldiers, domestic servants, and all other unproductive labourers. There is unfortunately no mode of expressing by one familiar term, the aggregate3 of what has been called the wages-fund of a country: and as the wages of productive labour form nearly the whole of that fund, it is usual to overlook the smaller and less important part, and to say that wages depend on population and capital. It will be convenient to employ this expression, remembering, however, to consider it as elliptical, and not as a literal statement of the entire truth.
With these limitations of the terms, wages not only depend upon the relative amount of capital and population, but cannot, under the rule of competition, be affected4 by anything else. Wages (meaning, of course, the general rate) cannot rise, but by an increase of the aggregate funds employed in hiring labourers, or a diminution5 in the number of the competitors for hire; nor fall, except either by a diminution of the funds devoted6 to paying labour, or by an increase in the number of labourers to be paid.
§2. There are, however, some facts in apparent contradiction to this doctrine7, which it is incumbent8 on us to consider and explain.
For instance, it is a common saying that wages are high when trade is good. The demand for labour in any particular employment is more pressing, and higher wages are paid, when there is a brisk demand for the commodity produced; and the contrary when there is what is called a stagnation9: then workpeople are dismissed, and those who are retained must submit to a reduction of wages: though in these cases there is neither more nor less capital than before. This is true; and is one of those complications in the concrete phenomena10, which obscure and disguise the operation of general causes: but it is not really inconsistent with the principles laid down. Capital which the owner does not employ in purchasing labour, but keeps idle in his hands, is the same thing to the labourers, for the time being, as if it did not exist. All capital is, from the variations of trade, occasionally in this state. A manufacturer, finding a slack demand for his commodity, forbears to employ labourers in increasing a stock which he finds it difficult to dispose of; or if he goes on until all his capital is locked up in unsold goods, then at least he must of necessity pause until he can get paid for some of them. But no one expects either of these states to be permanent; if he did, he would at the first opportunity remove his capital to some other occupation, in which it would still continue to employ labour. The capital remains11 unemployed12 for a time, during which the labour market is overstocked, and wages fall. Afterwards the demand revives, and perhaps becomes unusually brisk, enabling the manufacturer to sell his commodity even faster than he can produce it: his whole capital is then brought into complete efficiency, and if he is able, he borrows capital in addition, which would otherwise have gone into some other employment. At such times wages, in his particular occupation, rise. If we suppose, what in strictness is not absolutely impossible, that one of these fits of briskness13 or of stagnation should affect all occupations at the same time, wages altogether might undergo a rise or a fall. These, however, are but temporary fluctuations14: the capital now lying idle will next year be in active employment, that which is this year unable to keep up with the demand will in its turn be locked up in crowded warehouses15; and wages in these several departments will ebb16 and flow accordingly: but nothing can permanently17 alter general wages, except an increase or a diminution of capital itself (always meaning by the term, the funds of all sorts, devoted to the payment of labour) compared with the quantity of labour offering itself to be hired.
Again, it is another common notion that high prices make high wages; because the producers and dealers18, being better off, can afford to pay more to their labourers. I have already said that a brisk demand, which causes temporary high prices, causes also temporary high wages. But high prices, in themselves, can only raise wages if the dealers, receiving more, are induced to save more, and make an addition to their capital, or at least to their purchases of labour. This is indeed likely enough to be the case; and if the high prices came direct from heaven, or even from abroad, the labouring class might he benefited, not by the high prices themselves, but by the increase of capital occasioned by them. The same effect, however, is often attributed to a high price which is the result of restrictive laws, or which is in some way or other to be paid by the remaining members of the community; they having no greater means than before to pay it with. High prices of this sort, if they benefit one class of labourers, can only do so at the expense of others; since if the dealers by receiving high prices are enabled to make greater savings19, or otherwise increase their purchases of labour, all other people by paying those high prices have their means of saving, or of purchasing labour, reduced in an equal degree; and it is a matter of accident whether the one alteration20 or the other will have the greatest effect on the labour market. Wages will probably be temporarily higher in the employment in which prices have risen, and somewhat lower in other employments: in which case, while the first half of the phenomenon excites notice, the other is generally overlooked, or if observed, is not ascribed to the cause which really produced it. Nor will the partial rise of wages last long: for though the dealers in that one employment gain more, it does not follow that there is room to employ a greater amount of savings in their own business: their increasing capital will probably flow over into other employments, and there counterbalance the diminution previously21 made in the demand for labour by the diminished savings of other classes.
Another opinion often maintained is, that wages (meaning of course money wages) vary with the price of food; rising when it rises, and falling when it falls. This opinion is, I conceive, only partially22 true; and in so far as true, in no way affects the dependence23 of wages on the proportion between capital and labour: since the price of food, when it affects wages at all, affects them through that law. Dear or cheap food, caused by variety of seasons, does not affect wages (unless they are artificially adjusted to it by law or charity): or rather, it has some tendency to affect them in the contrary way to that supposed; since in times of scarcity24 people generally compete more violently for employment, and lower the labour market against themselves. But dearness or cheapness of food, when of a permanent character, and capable of being calculated on beforehand, may affect wages. In the first place, if the labourers have, as is often the case, no more than enough to keep them in working condition, and enable them barely to support the ordinary number of children, it follows that if food grows permanently dear.er without a rise of wages, a greater number of the children will prematurely25 die; and thus wages will ultimately be higher, but only because the number of people will be smaller, than if food had remained cheap. But, secondly, even though wages were high enough to admit of food’s becoming more costly26 without depriving the labourers and their families of necessaries; though they could bear, physically27 speaking, to be worse off, perhaps they would not consent to be so. They might have habits of comfort which were to them as necessaries, and sooner than forego which, they would put an additional restraint on their power of multiplication28; so that wages would rise, not by increase of deaths but by diminution of births. In these cases, then, wages do adapt themselves to the price of food, though after an interval29 of almost a generation. Mr. Ricardo considers these two cases to comprehend all cases. He assume, that there is everywhere a minimum rate of wages: either the lowest with which it is physically possible to keep up the population, or the lowest with which the people will choose to do so. To this minimum he assumes that the general rate of wages always tends; that they can never be lower, beyond the length of time required for a diminished rate of increase to make itself felt, and can never long continue higher. This assumption contains sufficient truth to render it admissible for the purposes of abstract science; and the conclusion which Mr. Ricardo draws from it, namely, that wages in the long run rise and fall with the permanent price of food, is, like almost all his conclusions, true hypothetically, that is, granting the suppositions from which he sets out. But in the application to practice, it is necessary to consider that the minimum of which he speaks, especially when it is not a physical, but what may be termed a moral minimum, is itself liable to vary. If wages were previously so high that they could bear reduction, to which the obstacle was a high standard of comfort habitual30 among the labourers, a rise in the price of food, or any other disadvantageous change in their circumstances, may operate in two ways: it may correct itself by a rise of wages brought about through a gradual effect on the prudential check to population; or it may permanently lower the standard of living of the class, in case their previous habits in respect of population prove stronger than their previous habits in respect of comfort. In that case the injury done to them will be permanent, and their deteriorated31 condition will become a new minimum, tending to perpetuate32 itself as the more ample minimum did before. It is to be feared that of the two modes in which the cause may operate, the last is the most frequent, or at all events sufficiently33 so, to render all propositions ascribing a self-repairing quality to the calamities34 which befal the labouring classes, practically of no validity. There is considerable evidence that the circumstances of the agricultural labourers in England have more than once in our history sustained great permanent deterioration35, from causes which operated by diminishing the demand for labour, and which, if population had exercised its power of self-adjustment in obedience36 to the previous standard of comfort, could only have had a temporary effect: but unhappily the poverty in which the class was plunged37 during a long series of years brought that previous standard into disuse; and the next generation, growing up without having possessed38 those pristine39 comforts, multiplied in turn without any attempt to retrieve40 them.1
The converse41 case occur when, by improvements in agriculture, the repeal42 of corn laws, or other such causes, the necessaries of the labourers are cheapened, and they are enabled, with the same wages, to command greater comforts than before. Wages will not fall immediately; it is even possible that they may rise; but they will fall at last, so as to leave the labourers no better off than before, unless during this interval of prosperity the standard of comfort regarded as indispensable by the class, is permanently raised. Unfortunately this salutary effect is by no means to be counted upon; it is a much more difficult thing to raise, than to lower, the scale of living which the labourer will consider as more indispensable than marrying and having a family. If they content themselves with enjoying the greater comfort while it lasts, but do not learn to require it, they will people down to their old scale of living. If from poverty their children had previously been insufficiently44 fed or improperly46 nursed, a greater number will now be reared, and the competition of these, when they grow up, will depress wages, probably in full proportion to the greater cheapness of food. If the effect is not produced in this mode, it will be produced by earlier and more numerous marriages, or by an increased number of births to a marriage. according to all experience, a great increase invariably takes place in the number of marriages, in seasons of cheap food and full employment. I cannot, therefore, agree in the importance so often attached to the repeal of the corn laws, considered merely as a labourers’ question, or to any of the schemes, of which some one or other is at all times in vogue48, for making the labourers a very little better off. Things which only affect them a very little, make no permanent impression upon their habits and requirements, and they soon slide back into their former state. To produce permanent advantage, the temporary cause operating upon them must be sufficient to make a great change in their condition-a change such as will be felt for many years, notwithstanding any stimulus49 which it may give during one generation to the increase of people. When, indeed, the improvement is of this signal character, and a generation grows up which has always been used to an improved scale of comfort, the habits of this new generation in respect to population become formed upon a higher minimum, and the improvement in their condition becomes permanent. Of cases in point, the most remarkable50 is France after the Revolution. The majority of the population being suddenly raised from misery51, to independence and comparative comfort; the immediate43 effect was that population, notwithstanding the destructive wars of the period, started forward with unexampled rapidity, partly because improved circumstances enabled many children to be reared who would otherwise have died, and partly from increase of births. The succeeding generation however grew up with habits considerably52 altered; and though the country was never before in so prosperous a state, the annual number of births is now nearly stationary53,2 and the increase of population extremely slow.3
§3. Wages depend, then, on the proportion between the number of the labouring population, and the capital or other funds devoted to the purchase of labour. we will say, for shortness, the capital. If wages are higher at one time or place than at another, if the subsistence and comfort of the class of hired labourers are more ample, it is for no other reason than because capital bears a greater proportion to population. It is not the absolute amount of accumulation or of production, that is of importance to the labouring class; it is not the amount even of the funds destined54 for distribution among the labourers: it is the proportion between those funds and the numbers among whom they are shared. The condition of the class can be bettered in no other way than by altering that proportion to their advantage; and every scheme for their benefit, which does not proceed on this as its foundation, is, for all permanent purposes, a delusion55.
In countries like North America and the Australian colonies, where the knowledge and arts of civilized56 life, and a high effective desire of accumulation, co-exist with a boundless57 extent of unoccupied land, the growth of capital easily keeps pace with the utmost possible increase of population, and is chiefly retarded58 by the impracticability of obtaining labourers enough. All, therefore, who can possibly be born, can find employment without overstocking the market: every labouring family enjoys in abundance the necessaries, many of the comforts, and some of the luxuries of life; and, unless in case of individual misconduct, or actual inability to work, poverty does not, and dependence need not, exist. A similar advantage, though in a less degree, is occasionally enjoyed by some special class of labourers in old countries, from an extraordinarily59 rapid growth, not of capital generally, but of the capital employed in a particular occupation. So gigantic has been the progress of the cotton manufacture since the inventions of Watt60 and Arkwright, that the capital engaged in it has probably quadrupled in the time which population requires for doubling. While, therefore, it has attracted from other employments nearly all the hands which geographical61 circumstances and the habits or inclinations62 of the people rendered available; and while the demand it created for infant labour has enlisted63 the immediate pecuniary64 interest of the operatives in favour of promoting, instead of restraining, the increase of population; nevertheless wages in the great seats of the manufacture are generally so high, that the collective earnings65 of a family amounts, on an average of years, to a very satisfactory sum; and there is, as yet, no sign of permanent decrease, while the effect has also been felt in raising the general standard of agricultural wages in the counties adjoining.
But those circumstances of a country, or of an occupation, in which population can with impunity66 increase at its utmost rate, are rare, and transitory. Very few are the countries presenting the needful union of conditions. Either the industrial arts are backward and stationary, and capital therefore increases slowly; or the effective desire of accumulation being low, the increase soon reaches its limit; or, even though both these elements are at their highest known degree, the increase of capital is checked, because there is not fresh land to be resorted to, of as good quality as that already occupied. Though capital should for a time double itself simultaneously67 with population, if all this capital and population are to find employment on the same land, they cannot without an unexampled succession of agricultural inventions continue doubling the produce; therefore, if wages do not fall, profits must; and when profits fall, increase of capital is slackened. Besides, even if wages did not fall, the price of food (as will be shown more fully68 hereafter) would in these circumstances necessarily rise; which is equivalent to a fall of wages.
Except, therefore, in the very peculiar69 cases which I have just noticed, of which the only one of any practical importance is that of a new colony, or a country in circumstances equivalent to it; it is impossible that population should increase at its utmost rate without lowering wages. Nor will the fall be stopped at any point, short of that which either by its physical or its moral operation, checks the increase of population. In no old country, therefore, does population increase at anything like its utmost rate; in most, at a very moderate rate: in some countries, not at all. These facts are only to be accounted for in two ways. Either the whole number of births which nature admits of, and which happen in some circumstances, do not take place; or if they do, a large proportion of those who are born, die. The retardation70 of increase results either from mortality or prudence71; from Mr. Malthus’s positive, or from his preventive check: and one or the other of these must and does exist, and very powerfully too, in all old societies. Wherever population is not kept down by the prudence either of individuals or of the state, it is kept down by starvation or disease.
Mr. Malthus has taken great pains to ascertain72, for almost every country in the world, which of these checks it is that operates; and the evidence which he collected on the subject, in his Essay on Population, may even now be read with advantage. Throughout Asia, and formerly73 in most European countries in which the labouring classes were not in personal bondage74, there is, or was, no restrainer of population but death. The mortality was not always the result of poverty: much of it proceeded from unskilful and careless management of children, from uncleanly and otherwise unhealthy habits of life among the adult population, and from the almost periodical occurrence of destructive epidemics76. Throughout Europe these causes of shortened life have much diminished, but they have not ceased to exist. Until a period not very remote, hardy77 any of our large towns kept up its population, independently of the stream always flowing into them from the rural districts: this was still true of Liverpool until very recently; and even in London, the mortality is larger, and the average duration of life shorter, than in rural districts where there is much greater poverty. In Ireland, epidemic75 fevers, and deaths from the exhaustion78 of the constitution by insufficient45 nutriment, have always accompanied even the most moderate deficiency of the potato crop. Nevertheless, it cannot now be said that in any part of Europe, population is principally kept down by disease, still less by starvation, either in a direct or in an indirect form. The agency by which it is limited is chiefly preventive, not (in the language of Mr. Malthus) positive. But the preventive remedy seldom, I believe, consists in the unaided operation of prudential motives79 on a class wholly or mainly composed of labourers for hire, and looking forward to no other lot. In England, for example, I much doubt if the generality of agricultural labourers practise any prudential restraint whatever. They generally marry as early, and have as many children to a marriage, as they would or could do if they were settlers in the United States. During the generation which preceded the enactment80 of the present Poor Law, they received the most direct encouragement to this sort of improvidence81: being not only assured of support, on easy terms, whenever out of employment, but, even when in employment, very commonly receiving from the parish a weekly allowance proportioned to their number of children; and the married with large families being always, from a short-sighted economy, employed in preference to the unmarried; which last premium82 on population still exists. Under such prompting, the rural labourers acquired habits of recklessness, which are so congenial to the uncultivated mind that in whatever manner produced, they in general long survive their immediate causes. There are so many new elements at work in society, even in those deeper strata83 which are inaccessible84 to the mere47 movements on the surface, that it is hazardous85 to affirm anything positive on the mental state or practical impulses of classes and bodies of men, when the same assertion may be true today, and may require great modification86 in a few years time. It does, however, seem, that if the rate of increase of population depended solely87 on the agricultural labourers, it would, as far as dependent on births, and unless repressed by deaths, be as rapid in the southern counties of England as in America. The restraining principle lies in the very great proportion of the population composed of the middle classes and the skilled artizans, who in this country almost equal in number the common labourers, and on whom prudential motives do, in a considerable degree, operate.
§4. Where a labouring class who have no property but their daily wages, and no hope of acquiring it, refrain from over-rapid multiplication,the cause, I believe, has always hitherto been, either actual legal restraint, or a custom of some sort, which, without intention on their part, insensibly moulds the conduct, or affords immediate inducements not to marry. It is not generally known in how many countries of Europe direct legal obstacles are opposed to improvident88 marriages. The communications made to the original Poor Law Commission by our foreign ministers and consuls89 in different parts of Europe, contain a considerable amount of information on this subject. Mr. Senior, in his preface to those communications,4 says that in the countries which recognise a legal right to relief, “marriage on the part of persons in the actual receipt of relief appears to be everywhere prohibited, and the marriage of those who are not likely to possess the means of independent support is allowed by very few. Thus we are told that in Norway no one can marry without ‘showing to the satisfaction of the clergyman, that he is permanently settled in such a manner as to offer a fair prospect90 that he can maintain a family.’
“In Mecklenburg, that ‘marriages are delayed by conscription in the twenty-second year, and military service for six years; besides, the parties must have a dwelling91, without which a clergyman is not permitted to marry them. The men marry at from twenty-five to thirty, the women not much earlier, as both must first gain by service enough to establish themselves.’
“In Saxony, that ‘a man may not marry before he is twenty-one years old, if liable to serve in the army. In Dresden, professionists (by which words artizans are probably meant) may not marry until they become masters in their trade.’
“In Wurtemburg, that ‘no man is allowed to marry till his twenty-fifth year, on account of his military duties, unless permission be especially obtained or purchased: at that age he must also obtain permission, which is granted on proving that he and his wife would have together sufficient to maintain a family or to establish themselves; in large towns, say from 800 to 1000 florins (from 66l. 13s. 4d. to 84l. 3s. 4d.); in smaller, from 400 to 500 florins; in villages, 200 florins (16l. 13s. 4d.)’"5
The minister at Munich says, “The great cause why the number of the poor is kept so low in this country arises from the prevention by law of marriages in cases in which it cannot be proved that the parties have reasonable means of subsistence; and this regulation is in all places and at all times strictly92 adhered to. The effect of a constant and firm observance of this rule has, it is true, a considerable influence in keeping down the population of Bavaria, which is at present low for the extent of country, but it has a most salutary effect in averting93 extreme poverty and consequent misery.”6
At Lubeck, “marriages among the poor are delayed by the necessity a man is under, first, of previously proving that he is in a regular employ, work, or profession, that will enable him to maintain a wife: and secondly, of becoming a burgher, and equipping himself in the uniform of the burgher guard, which together may cost him nearly 4l.”7 At Frankfort, “the government prescribes no age for marrying, but the permission to marry is only granted on proving a livelihood95.” 8
The allusion96, in some of these statements, to military duties, points out an indirect obstacle to marriage, interposed by the laws of some countries in which there is no direct legal restraint. In Prussia, for instance, the institutions which compel every able-bodied man to serve for several years in the army, at the time of life at which imprudent marriages are most likely to take place, are probably a full equivalent, in effect on population, for the legal restrictions97 of the smaller German states.
“So strongly,” says Mr. Kay, “do the people of Switzerland understand from experience the expediency98 of their sons and daughters postponing99 the time of their marriages, that the councils of state of four or five of the most democratic of the cantons, elected, be it remembered, by universal suffrage100, have passed laws by which all young persons who marry before they have proved to the magistrate101 of their district that they are able to support a family, are rendered liable to a heavy fine. In Lucerne, Argovie, Unterwalden, and I believe, St. Gall102, Schweitz, and Uri, laws of this character have been in force for many years.”9
§5. Where there is no general law restrictive of marriage, there are often customs equivalent to it. When the guilds103 or trade corporations of the Middle Ages were in vigour104, their bye-laws or regulations were conceived with a very vigilant105 eye to the advantage which the trade derived106 from limiting competition: and they made it very effectually the interest of artizans not to marry until after passing through the two stages of apprentice107 and journeyman, and attaining108 the rank of master.10 In Norway, where the labour is chiefly agricultural, it is forbidden by law to engage a farm-servant for less than a year; which was the general English practice until the poor-laws destroyed it, by enabling the farmer to cast his labourers on parish pay whenever he did not immediately require their labour. In consequence of this custom, and of its enforcement by law, the whole of the rather limited class of agricultural labourers in Norway have an engagement for a year at least, which, if the parties are content with one another, naturally becomes a permanent engagement: hence it is known in every neighbourhood whether there is, or is likely to be, a vacancy109, and unless there is, a young man does not marry, knowing that he could not obtain employment. The custom still exists in Cumberland and Westmoreland, except that the term is half a year instead of a year; and seems to be still attended with the same consequences. The farm-servants “are lodged110 and boarded in their masters’ houses, which they seldom leave until, through the death of some relation or neighbour, they succeed to the ownership or lease of a cottage farm. What is called surplus labour does not here exist.” 11 I have mentioned in another chapter the check to population in England during the last century, from the difficulty of obtaining a separate dwelling place.12 Other customs restrictive of population might be specified111: in some parts of Italy, it is the practice, according to Sismondi, among the poor, as it is well known to be in the higher ranks, that all but one of the sons remain unmarried. But such family arrangements are not likely to exist among day-labourers. They are the resource of small proprietors112 and metayers, for preventing too minute a subdivision of the land.
In England generally there is now scarcely a relic113 of these indirect checks to population; except that in parishes owned by one or a very small number of landowners, the increase of resident labourers is still occasionally obstructed114, by preventing cottages from being built, or by pulling down those which exist; thus restraining the population liable to become locally chargeable, without any material effect on population generally, the work required in those parishes being performed by labourers settled elsewhere. The surrounding districts always feel themselves much aggrieved115 by this practice, against which they cannot defend themselves by similar means, since a single acre of land owned by any one who does not enter into the combination, enables him to defeat the attempt, very profitably to himself, by covering that acre with cottages. To meet these complaints an Act has within the last few years been passed by Parliament, by which the poor-rate is made a charge not on the parish, but on the whole union. This enactment, in other respects very beneficial, removes the small remnant of what was once a check to population: the value of which, however, from the narrow limits of its operation, had become very trifling116.
§6. In the case, therefore, of the common agricultural labourer, the checks to population may almost be considered as non-existent. If the growth of the towns, and of the capital there employed, by which the factory operatives are maintained at their present average rate of wages notwithstanding their rapid increase, did not also absorb a great part of the annual addition to the rural population, there seems no reason in the present habits of the people why they should not fall into as miserable117 a condition as the Irish previous to 1846; and if the market for our manufactures should, I do not say fall off, but even cease to expand at the rapid rate of the last fifty years, there is no certainty that this fate may not be reserved for us. Without carrying our anticipations118 forward to such a calamity119, which the great and growing intelligence of the factory population would, it may be hoped, avert94, by an adaptation of their habits to their circumstances; the existing condition of the labourers of some of the most exclusively agricultural counties, Wiltshire, Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, is sufficiently painful to contemplate120. The labourers of these counties, with large families, and eight or perhaps nine shillings for their weekly wages when in full employment, have for some time been one of the stock objects of popular compassion121: it is time that they had the benefit also of some application of common sense.
Unhappily, sentimentality rather than common sense usually presides over the discussion of these subjects; and while there is a growing sensitiveness to the hardships of the poor, and a ready disposition122 to admit claims in them upon the good offices of other people, there is an all but universal unwillingness123 to face the real difficulty of their position, or advert124 at all to the conditions which nature has made indispensable to the improvement of their physical lot. Discussions on the condition of the labourers, lamentations over its wretchedness, denunciations of all who are supposed to be indifferent to it, projects of one kind Or another for improving it, were in no country and in no time of the world so rife125 as in the present generation; but there is a tacit agreement to ignore totally the law of wages, or to dismiss it in a parenthesis126, with such terms as “hardhearted Malthusianism;” as if it were not a thousand times more hardhearted to tell human beings that they may, than that they may not, call into existence swarms127 of creatures who are sure to he miserable, and most likely to be depraved; and forgetting that the conduct, which it is reckoned so cruel to disapprove128, is a degrading slavery to a brute129 instinct in one of the persons concerned, and most commonly, in the other, helpless submission130 to a revolting abuse of power.
So long as mankind remained in a semi-barbarous state, with the indolence and the few wants of a savage131, it probably was not desirable that population should be restrained; the pressure of physical want may have been a necessary stimulus, in that stage of the human mind, to the exertion132 of labour and ingenuity133 required for accomplishing that greatest of all past changes in human modes of existence, by which industrial life attained134 predominance over the hunting, the pastoral, and the military or predatory state. Want, in that age of the world, had its uses, as even slavery had; and there may be corners of the earth where those uses are not yet superseded135, though they might easily be so were a helping136 hand held out by more civilized communities. But in Europe the time, if it ever existed, is long past, when a life of privation had the smallest tendency to make men either better workmen or more civilized beings. It is, on the contrary, evident, that if the agricultural labourers were better off, they would both work more efficiently137, and be better citizens. I ask, then, is it true, or not, that if their numbers were fewer they would obtain higher wages? This is the question, and no other: and it is idle to divert attention from it, by attacking any incidental position of Malthus or some other writer, and pretending that to refute that, is to disprove the principle of population. Some, for instance, have achieved an easy victory over a passing remark of Mr. Malthus, hazarded chiefly by way of illustration, that the increase of food may perhaps be assumed to take place in an arithmetical ratio, while population increases in a geometrical: when every candid138 reader knows that Mr. Malthus laid no stress on this unlucky attempt to give numerical precision to things which do not admit of it, and every person capable of reasoning must see that it is wholly superfluous139 to his argument. Others have attached immense importance to a correction which more recent political economists140 have made in the mere language of the earlier followers141 of Mr. Malthus. Several writers had said that it is the tendency of population to increase faster than the means of subsistence. The assertion was true in the sense in which they meant it, namely, that population would in most circumstances increase faster than the means of subsistence, if it were not checked either by mortality or by prudence. But inasmuch as these checks act with unequal force at different times and places, it was possible to interpret the language of these writers as if they had meant that population is usually gaining ground upon subsistence, and the poverty of the people becoming greater. Under this interpretation142 of their meaning, it was urged that the reverse is the truth: that as civilization advances, the prudential check tends to become stronger, and population to slacken its rate of increase, relatively143 to subsistence; and that it is an error to maintain that population, in any improving community, tends to increase faster than, or even so fast as, subsistence. The word tendency is here used in a totally different sense from that of the writers who Armed the proposition: but waving the verbal question, is it not allowed on both sides, that in old countries, population presses too closely upon the means of subsistence? And though its pressure diminishes, the more the ideas and habits of the poorest class of labourers can be improved, to which it is to be hoped that there is always some tendency in a progressive country, yet since that tendency has hitherto been, and still is, extremely faint, and (to descend144 to particulars) has not yet extended to giving to the Wiltshire labourers higher wages than eight shillings a week, the only thing which it is necessary to consider is, whether that is a sufficient and suitable provision for a labourer? for if not, population does, as an existing fact, bear too great a proportion to the wages-fund; and whether it pressed still harder or not quite so hard at some former period, is practically of no moment, except that, if the ratio is an improving one, there is the better hope that by proper aids and encouragements it may be made to improve more and faster.
It is not, however, against reason, that the argument on this subject has to struggle; but against a feeling of dislike, which will only reconcile itself to the unwelcome truth, when every device is exhausted145 by which the recognition of that truth can be evaded146. It is necessary, therefore, to enter into a detailed147 examination of these devices, and to force every position which is taken up by the enemies of the population principle in their determination to find some refuge for the labourers, some plausible148 means of improving their condition, without requiring the exercise, either enforced or voluntary, of any self-restraint, or any greater control than at present over the animal power of multiplication. This will be the object of the next chapter.
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1
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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aggregate
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| adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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diminution
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| n.减少；变小 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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incumbent
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| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
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stagnation
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| n. 停滞 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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unemployed
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| adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的 | |
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briskness
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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fluctuations
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| 波动，涨落，起伏( fluctuation的名词复数 ) | |
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warehouses
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| 仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 ) | |
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ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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dealers
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| n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者 | |
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savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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dependence
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| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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prematurely
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| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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multiplication
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| n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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30
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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31
deteriorated
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| 恶化，变坏( deteriorate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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perpetuate
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| v.使永存，使永记不忘 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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34
calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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deterioration
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| n.退化；恶化；变坏 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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38
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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pristine
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| adj.原来的，古时的，原始的，纯净的，无垢的 | |
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40
retrieve
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| vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索 | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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42
repeal
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| n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消 | |
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43
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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44
insufficiently
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| adv.不够地，不能胜任地 | |
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45
insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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46
improperly
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| 不正确地，不适当地 | |
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47
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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48
Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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49
stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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50
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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51
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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52
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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54
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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55
delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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56
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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57
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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58
retarded
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| a.智力迟钝的，智力发育迟缓的 | |
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extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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60
watt
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| n.瓦，瓦特 | |
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61
geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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62
inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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64
pecuniary
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| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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66
impunity
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| n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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67
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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68
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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70
retardation
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| n.智力迟钝，精神发育迟缓 | |
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71
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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72
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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73
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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74
bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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75
epidemic
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| n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的 | |
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epidemics
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| n．流行病 | |
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77
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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80
enactment
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| n.演出，担任…角色；制订，通过 | |
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81
improvidence
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| n.目光短浅 | |
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82
premium
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| n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的 | |
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83
strata
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| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
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84
inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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85
hazardous
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| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
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86
modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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improvident
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| adj.不顾将来的，不节俭的，无远见的 | |
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consuls
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| 领事( consul的名词复数 )； （古罗马共和国时期）执政官 （古罗马共和国及其军队的最高首长，同时共有两位，每年选举一次） | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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91
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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averting
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| 防止，避免( avert的现在分词 )； 转移 | |
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avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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postponing
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| v.延期，推迟( postpone的现在分词 ) | |
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100
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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101
magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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102
gall
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| v.使烦恼，使焦躁，难堪；n.磨难 | |
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guilds
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| 行会，同业公会，协会( guild的名词复数 ) | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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apprentice
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| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
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attaining
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的现在分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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vacancy
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| n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺 | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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specified
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| adj.特定的 | |
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proprietors
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| n.所有人，业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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obstructed
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| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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aggrieved
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| adj.愤愤不平的，受委屈的；悲痛的；（在合法权利方面）受侵害的v.令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式)；令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词) | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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anticipations
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| 预期( anticipation的名词复数 )； 预测； （信托财产收益的）预支； 预期的事物 | |
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calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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unwillingness
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| n. 不愿意，不情愿 | |
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advert
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| vi.注意，留意，言及；n.广告 | |
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rife
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| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
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parenthesis
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| n.圆括号，插入语，插曲，间歇，停歇 | |
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swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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disapprove
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| v.不赞成，不同意，不批准 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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efficiently
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| adv.高效率地，有能力地 | |
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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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economists
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| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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evaded
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| 逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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