A well-known and very popular chapter of Adam Smith1 contains the best exposition yet given of this portion of the subject. I cannot indeed think his treatment so complete and exhaustive as it has sometimes been considered; but as far as it goes, his analysis is tolerably successful.
The differences, he says, arise partly from the policy of Europe, which nowhere leaves things at perfect liberty, and partly “from certain circumstances in the employments themselves, which either really, or at least in the imaginations of men, make up for a small pecuniary3 gain in some, and counterbalance a great one in others.” These circumstances he considers to be: “First, the agreeableness or disagreeableness of the employments themselves; secondly4, the easiness and cheapness, or the difficulty and expense of learning them; thirdly, the constancy or inconstancy of employment in them; fourthly, the small or great trust which must be reposed5 in those who exercise them; and fifthly, the probability or improbability of success in them.”
Several of these points he has very copiously6 illustrated7: though his examples are sometimes drawn8 from a state of facts now no longer existing. “The wages of labour vary with the ease or hardship, the cleanliness or dirtiness, the honourableness10 or dishonourableness of the employment. Thus, in most places, take the year round, a journeyman tailor earns less than a journeyman weaver11. His work is much easier.” Things have much altered, as to a weaver’s remuneration, since Adam Smith’s time; and the artizan whose work was more difficult than that of a tailor, can never, I think, have been the common weaver. “A journeyman weaver earns less than a journeyman smith. His work is not always easier, but it is much cleanlier.” A more probable explanation is, that it requires less bodily strength. “A journeyman blacksmith, though an artificer, seldom earns so much in twelve hours as a collier, who is only a labourer, does in eight. His work is not quite so dirty, is less dangerous, and is carried on in daylight, and above ground. Honour makes a great part of the reward of all honourable9 professions. In point of pecuniary gain, all things considered,” their recompense is, in his opinion, below the average. “Disgrace has the contrary effect. The trade of a butcher is a brutal12 and an odious13 business; but it is in most places more profitable than the greater part of common trades. The most detestable of all employments, that of public executioner, is, in proportion to the quantity of work done, better paid than any common trade whatever.”
One of the causes which make hand-loom14 weavers15 cling to their occupation in spite of the scanty16 remuneration which it now yields, is said to be a peculiar17 attractiveness arising from the freedom of action which it allows to the workman. “He can play or idle,” says a recent authority,2 “as feeling or inclination18 lead him; rise early or late, apply himself assiduously or carelessly, as he pleases, and work up at any time by increased exertion19, hours previously20 sacrificed to indulgence or recreation. There is scarcely another condition of any portion of our working population thus free from external control. The factory operative is not only mulcted of his wages for absence, but, if of frequent occurrence, discharged altogether from his employment. The bricklayer, the carpenter, the painter, the joiner, the stonemason, the outdoor labourer, have each their appointed daily hours of labour, a disregard of which would lead to the same result.” Accordingly, “the weaver will stand by his loom while it will enable him to exist, however miserably22; and many, induced temporarily to quit it, have returned to it again, when work was to be had.”
“Employment is much more constant,” continues Adam Smith, “in some trades than in others. In the greater part of manufactures, a journeyman may be pretty sure of employment almost every day in the year that he is able to work” (the interruptions of business arising from overstocked markets, or from a suspension of demand, or from a commercial crisis, must be excepted). “A mason or bricklayer, On the contrary, can work neither in hard frost nor in foul23 weather, and his employment at all other times depends upon the occasional calls of his customers. He is liable, in consequence, to be frequently without any. What he earns, therefore, while he is employed, must not only maintain him while he is idle, hut make him some compensation for those anxious thought of so precarious24 a situation must sometimes computed26 earnings27 of the greater part of manufacturers, are nearly upon a level with the day wages of common labourers, those of masons and bricklayers are generally from one-half more to double those wages. No species of skilled labour, however, seems more easy to learn than that of masons and bricklayers. The high wages of those workmen, therefore, are not so much the recompense of their skill, as the compensation for the inconstancy of their employment.
“When the inconstancy of the employment is combined with the hardship, disagreeableness, and dirtiness of the work, it sometimes raises the wages of the most common labour above those of the most skilled artificers. A collier working by the piece, is supposed, at Newcastle, to earn commonly about double, and in many parts of Scotland about three times, the wages of common labour. His high wages arise altogether from the hardship, disagreeableness, and dirtiness of his work. His employment may, upon most occasions, be as constant as he pleases. The coal-heavers in London exercise a trade which in hardship, dirtiness, and disagreeableness, almost equals that of colliers; and from the unavoidable irregularity in the arrival of coal-ships, the employment of the greater part of them is necessarily very inconstant. If colliers, therefore, commonly earn double and triple the wages of common labour, it ought not to seem unreasonable28 that coal-heavers should sometimes earn four or five times those wages. In the inquiry29 made into their condition a few years ago, it was found that at the rate at which they were then paid, they could earn about four times the wages of common labour in London. How extravagant30 soever these earnings may appear, if they were more than sufficient to compensate31 all the disagreeable circumstances of the business, there would soon be so great a number of competitors as, in a trade which has no exclusive privilege, would quickly reduce them to a lower rate.”
These inequalities of remuneration, which are supposed to compensate for the disagreeable circumstances of particular employments, would, under certain conditions, be natural consequences of perfectly32 free competition: and as between employments of about the same grade, and filled by nearly the same description of people, they are, no doubt, for the most part, realized in practice. But it is altogether a false view of the state of facts, to present this as the relation which generally exists between agreeable and disagreeable employments. The really exhausting and the really repulsive33 labours, instead of being better paid than others, are almost invariably paid the worst of all, because performed by those who have no choice. It would be otherwise in a favourable34 state of the general labour market. If the labourers in the aggregate35, instead of exceeding, fell short of the amount of employment, work which was generally disliked would not be undertaken, except for more than ordinary wages. But when the supply of labour so far exceeds the demand that to find employment at all is an uncertainty36, and to be offered it on any terms a favour, the case is totally the reverse. Desirable labourers, those whom every one is anxious to have, can still exercise a choice. The undesirable37 must take what they can get. The more revolting the occupation, the more certain it is to receive the minimum of remuneration, because it devolves on the most helpless and degraded, on those who from squalid poverty, or from want of skill and education, are rejected from all other employments. Partly from this cause, and partly from the natural and artificial monopolies which will be spoken of presently, the inequalities of wages are generally in an opposite direction to the equitable38 principle of compensation erroneously represented by Adam Smith as the general law of the remuneration of labour. The hardships and the earnings, instead of being directly proportional, as in any just arrangements of society they would be, are generally in an inverse39 ratio to one another.
One of the points best illustrated by Adam Smith, is the influence exercised on the remuneration of an employment by the uncertainty of success in it. If the chances are great of total failure, the reward in case of success must be sufficient to make up, in the general estimation, for those adverse40 chances. But, owing to another principle of human nature, if the reward comes in the shape of a few great prizes, it usually attracts competitors in such numbers, that the average remuneration may be reduced not only to zero, but even to a negative quantity. The success of lotteries41 proves that this is possible: since the aggregate body of adventurers in lotteries necessarily lose, otherwise the undertakers could not gain. The case of certain professions is considered by Adam Smith to be similar. “The probability that any particular person shall ever be qualified42 for the employment to which he is educated, is very different in different occupations. In the greater part of mechanic trades, success is almost certain, but very uncertain in the liberal professions. Put your son apprentice43 to a shoemaker, there is little doubt of his learning to make a pair of shoes; but send him to study the law, it is at least twenty to one if ever he makes such proficiency45 as will enable him to live by the business. In a perfectly fair lottery46, those who draw the pries47 ought to gain all that is lost by those who draw the blanks. In a profession where twenty fail for one that succeeds, that one ought to gain all that should have been gained by the unsuccessful twenty. The counsellor-at-law, who, perhaps, at near forty years of age, begins to make something by his profession, ought to receive the retribution, not only of his own so tedious and expensive education, but of that of more than twenty others who are never likely to make anything by it. How extravagant soever the fees of counsellors-at-law may sometimes appear, their real retribution is never equal to this. Compute25 in any particular place, what is likely to be annually48 gained, and what is likely to be annually spent, by all the different workmen in any common trade, such as that of shoemakers or weavers, and you will find that the former sum will generally exceed the latter. But make the same computation with regard to all the counsellors and students of law, in all the different inns of court, and you will find that their annual gains bear but a small proportion to their annual expense, even though you rate the former as high, and the latter as low, as can well be done.”
Whether this is true in our own day, when the gains of the few are incomparably greater than in the time of Adam Smith, but also the unsuccessful aspirants50 much more numerous, those who have the appropriate information must decide. It does not, however, seem to be sufficiently51 considered by Adam Smith, that the prizes which he speaks of comprise not the fees of counsel only, but the places of emolument52 and honour to which their profession gives access, together with the coveted53 distinction of a conspicuous54 position in the public eye.
Even where there are no great prizes, the mere55 love of excitement is sometimes enough to cause an adventurous56 employment to be overstocked. This is apparent “in the readiness of the common people to enlist57 as soldiers, or to go to sea. . . . . The dangers and hair-breadth escapes of a life of adventures, instead of disheartening young people, seem frequently to recommend a trade to them. A tender mother, among the inferior ranks of people, is often afraid to send her son to school at a sea-port town, lest the sight of the ships and the conversation and adventures of the sailors should entice44 him to go to sea. The distant prospect58 of hazards from which we can hope to extricate59 ourselves by courage and address, is not disagreeable to us, and does not raise the wages of labour in any employment. It is otherwise with those in which courage and address can be of no avail. In trades which are known to be very unwholesome, the wages of labour are always remarkably60 high. Unwholesomeness is a species of disagreeableness, and its effects upon the wages of labour are to be ranked under that general head.”
§2. The preceding are cases in which inequality of remuneration is necessary to produce equality of attractiveness, and are examples of the equalizing effect of free competition. The following are cases of real inequality, and arise from a different principle. “The wages of labour vary according to the small or great trust which must be reposed in the workmen. The wages of goldsmiths and jewellers are everywhere superior to those of many other workmen, not only of equal, but of much superior ingenuity61; on account of the precious materials with which they are intrusted. We trust our health to the physician, our fortune and sometimes our life and reputation to the lawyer and attorney. Such confidence could not safely be reposed in people of a very mean or low condition. Their reward must be such, therefore, as may give them that rank in society which so important a trust requires.”
The superiority of reward is not here the consequence of competition, but of its absence: not a compensation for disadvantages inherent in the employment, but an extra advantage; a kind of monopoly price, the effect not of a legal, but of what has been termed a natural monopoly. If all labourers were trustworthy, it would not be necessary to give extra pay to working goldsmiths on account of the trust. The degree of integrity required being supposed to be uncommon63, those who can make it appear that they possess it are able to take advantage of the peculiarity64, and obtain higher pay in proportion to its rarity. This opens a class of considerations which Adam Smith, and most other political economists65, have taken into far too little account, and from inattention to which, he has given a most imperfect exposition of the wide difference between the remuneration of common labour and that of skilled employments.
Some employments require a much longer time to learn, and a much more expensive course of instruction than others; and to this extent there is, as explained by Adam Smith, an inherent reason for their being more highly remunerated. If an artizan must work several years at learning his trade before he can earn anything, and several years more before becoming sufficiently skilful67 for its finer operations, he must have a prospect of at last earning enough to pay the wages of all this past labour, with compensation for the delay of payment, and an indemnity68 for the expenses of his education. His wages, consequently, must yield, over and above the ordinary amount, an annuity69 sufficient to repay these sums, with the common rate of profit, within the number of years he can expect to live and to be in working condition. This, which is necessary to place the skilled employments, all circumstances taken together, on the same level of advantage with the unskilled, is the smallest difference which can exist for any length of time between the two remunerations, since otherwise no one would learn the skilled employments. And this amount of difference is all which Adam Smith’s principles account for. When the disparity is greater, he seems to think that it must be explained by apprentice laws, and the rules of corporations which restrict admission into many of the skilled employments. But, independently of these or any other artificial monopolies, there is a natural monopoly in favour of skilled labourers against the unskilled, which makes the difference of reward exceed, sometimes in a manifold proportion, what is sufficient merely to equalize their advantages. If unskilled labourers had it in their power to compete with skilled, by merely taking the trouble of learning the trade, the difference of wages might not exceed what would compensate them for that trouble, at the ordinary rate at which labour is remunerated. But the fact that a course of instruction is required, of even a low degree of costliness70, or that the labourer must be maintained for a considerable time from other sources, suffices everywhere to exclude the great body of the labouring people from the possibility of any such competition. Until lately, all employments which required even the humble71 education reading and writing, could be recruited only from a select class, the majority having had no opportunity of acquiring those attainments72. All such employments, accordingly, were immensely overpaid, as measured by the ordinary remuneration of labour. Since reading and writing have been brought within the reach of a multitude, the monopoly price of the lower grade of educated employments has greatly fallen, the competition for them having increased in an almost incredible degree. There is still, however, a much greater disparity than can be accounted for on the principle of competition. A clerk from whom nothing is required but the mechanical labour of copying, gains more than an equivalent for his mere exertion if he receives the wages of a bricklayer’s labourer. His work is not a tenth part as hard, it is quite as easy to learn, and his condition is less precarious, a clerk’s place being generally a place for life. The higher rate of his remuneration, therefore, must be partly ascribed to monopoly, the small degree of education required being not even yet so generally diffused73 as to call forth74 the natural number of competitors; and partly to the remaining influence of an ancient custom, which requires that clerks should maintain the dress and appearance of a more highly paid class. In some manual employments, requiring a nicety of hand which can only be acquired by long practice, it is difficult to obtain at any cost workmen in sufficient numbers, who are capable of the most delicate kind of work; and the wages paid to them are only limited by the price which purchasers are willing to give for the commodity they produce. This is the case with some working watchmakers, and with the makers49 of some astronomical75 and optical instruments. If workmen competent to such employments were ten times as numerous as they are, there would be purchasers for all which they could make, not indeed at the present prices, but at those lower prices which would be the natural consequence of lower wages. Similar considerations apply in a still greater degree to employments which it is attempted to confine to persons of a certain social rank, such as what are called the liberal professions; into which a person of what is considered too low a class of society, is not easily admitted, and if admitted, does not easily succeed.
So complete, indeed, has hitherto been the separation, so strongly marked the line of demarcation, between the different grades of labourers, as to be almost equivalent to an hereditary76 distinction of caste; each employment being chiefly recruited from the children of those already employed in it, or in employments of the same rank with it in social estimation, or from the children of persons who, if originally of a lower rank, have succeeded in raising themselves by their exertions77. The liberal professions are mostly supplied by the sons of either the professional, or the idle classes: the more highly skilled manual employments are filled up from the sons of skilled artizans, or the class of tradesmen who rank with them: the lower classes of skilled employments are in a similar case; and unskilled labourers, with occasional exceptions, remain from father to son in their pristine78 condition. Consequently the wages of each class have hitherto been regulated by the increase of its own population, rather than of the general population of the country. If the professions are overstocked, it is because the class of society from which they have always mainly been supplied, has greatly increased in number, and because most of that class have numerous families, and bring up some at least of their sons to professions. If the wages of artizans remain so much higher than those of common labourers, it is because artizans are a more prudent79 class, and do not marry so early or so inconsiderately. The changes, however, now so rapidly taking place in usages and ideas, are undermining all these distinctions; the habits or disabilities which chained people to their hereditary condition are fast wearing away, and every class is exposed to increased and increasing competition from at least the class immediately below it. The general relaxation80 of conventional barriers, and the increased facilities of education which already are, and will be in a much greater degree, brought within the reach of all, tend to produce, among many excellent effects, one which is the reverse; they tend to bring down the wages of skilled labour. The inequality of remuneration between the skilled and the unskilled is, without doubt, very much greater than is justifiable81; but it is desirable that this should be corrected by raising the unskilled, not by lowering the skilled. If, however, the other changes taking place in society are not accompanied by a strengthening of the checks to population on the part of labourers generally, there will be a tendency to bring the lower grades of skilled labourers under the influence of a rate of increase regulated by a lower standard of living than their own, and thus to deteriorate82 their condition without rising that of the general mass; the stimulus83 given to the multiplication84 of the lowest class being sufficient to fill up without difficulty the additional space gained by them from those immediately above.
§3. A modifying circumstance still remains85 to be noticed, which interferes86 to some extent with the operation of the principles thus far brought to view. While it is true, as a general rule, that the earnings of skilled labour, and especially of any labour which requires school education, are at a monopoly rate, from the impossibility, to the mass of the people, of obtaining that education; it is also true that the policy of nations, or the bounty88 of individuals, formerly89 did much to counteract90 the effect of this limitation of competition, by offering eleemosynary instruction to a much larger class of persons than could have obtained the same advantages by paying their price. Adam Smith has pointed21 out the operation of this cause in keeping down the remuneration of scholarly or bookish occupations generally, and in particular of clergymen, literary men, and schoolmasters, or other teachers of youth. I cannot better set forth this part of the subject than in his words.
“It has been considered as of so much importance that a proper number of young people should he educated for certain professions, that sometimes the public, and sometimes the piety91 of private founders92, have established many pensions, scholarships, exhibitions, bursaries, &c. for this purpose, which draw many more people into those trades than could otherwise pretend to follow them. In all Christian93 countries, I believe, the education of the greater part of churchmen is paid for in this manner. Very few of them are educated altogether at their own expense. The long, tedious, and expensive education, therefore, of those who are, will not always procure94 them a suitable reward, the church being crowded with people who, in order to get employment, are willing to accept of a much smaller recompense than what such an education would otherwise have entitled them to; and in this manner the competition of the poor takes away the reward of the rich. It would be indecent, no doubt, to compare either a curate or a chaplain with a journeyman in any common trade. The pay of a curate or a chaplain, however, may very properly be considered as of the same nature with the wages of a journeyman. They are, all three, paid for their work according to the contract which they may happen to make with their respective superiors. Till after the middle of the fourteenth century, five marks, containing as much silver as ten pounds of our present money, was in England the usual pay of a curate or a stipendiary parish priest, as we find it regulated by the decrees of several different national councils. At the same period fourpence a day, containing the same quantity of silver as a shilling of our present money, was declared to be the pay of a master-mason, and threepence a day, equal to ninepence of our present money, that of a journeyman mason.3 The wages of both these labourers, therefore, supposing them to have been constantly employed, were much superior to those of the curate. The wages of the master-mason, supposing him to have been without employment one-third of the year, would have fully96 equalled them. By the 12th of Queen Anne, c. 12, it is declared, ‘That whereas for want of sufficient maintenance and encouragement to curates, the cures have in several places been meanly supplied, the bishop97 is therefore empowered to appoint by writing under his hand and seal a sufficient certain stipend95 or allowance, not exceeding fifty, and not less than twenty pounds a year.’ Forty pounds a year is reckoned at present very good pay for a curate, and notwithstanding this act of parliament, there are many curacies under twenty pounds a year. This last sum does not exceed what is frequently earned by common labourers in many country parishes. Whenever the law has attempted to regulate the wages of workmen, it has always been rather to lower them than to raise them. But the law has upon many occasions attempted to raise the wages of curates, and for the dignity of the Church, to oblige the rectors of parishes to give them more than the wretched maintenance which they themselves might be willing to accept of. And in both cases the law seems to have been equally ineffectual, and has never been either able to raise the wages of curates or to sink those of labourers to the degree that was intended, because it has never been able to hinder either the one from being willing to accept of less than the legal allowance, on account of the indigence98 of their situation and the multitude of their competitors; or the other from receiving more, on account of the contra competition of those who expected to derive99 either profit or pleasure from employing them.”
In professions in which there are no benefices, such as law (?) and physic, if an equal proportion of people were educated at the public expense, the competition would soon be so great as to sink very much their pecuniary reward. It might then not be worth any man’s while to educate his son to either of those professions at his own expense. They would be entirely100 abandoned to such as had been educated by those public charities; whose numbers and necessities would oblige them in general to content themselves with a very miserable101 recompense.
“That unprosperous race of men, commonly called men of letters, are pretty much in the situation which lawyers and physicians probably would be in upon the foregoing supposition. In every part of Europe, the greater part of them have been educated for the church, but have been hindered by different reasons from entering into holy orders. They have generally, therefore, been educated at the public expense, and their numbers are everywhere so great as to reduce the price of their labour to a very paltry102 recompense.
“Before the invention of the art of printing the only employment by which a man of letters could make anything of his talents, was that of a public or private teacher, or by communicating to other people the curious and useful knowledge which he had acquired himself: and this is still surely a more honourable, a more useful, and in general even a more profitable employment than that other of writing for a bookseller, to which the art of printing has given occasion. The time and study, the genius, knowledge, and application requisite103 to qualify an eminent104 teacher of the sciences, are at least equal to what is necessary for the greatest practitioners105 in law and physic. But the usual reward of the eminent teacher bears no proportion to that of the lawyer or physician; because the trade of the one is crowded with indigent106 people who have been brought up to it at the public expense, where those of the other two are encumbered107 with very few who have not been educated at their own. The usual recompense, however, of public and private teachers, small as it may appear, would undoubtedly108 be less than it is, if the competition of those yet more indigent men of letters who write for bread was not taken out of the market. Before the invention of the art of printing, a scholar and a beggar seem to have been terms very nearly synonymous. The different governors of the universities before that time appear to have often granted licences to their scholars to beg.”
§4. The demand for literary labour has so greatly increased since Adam Smith wrote, while the provisions for eleemosynary education have nowhere been much added to, and in the countries which have undergone revolutions have been much diminished, that little effect in keeping down the recompense of literary labour can now be ascribed to the influence of those institutions. But an effect nearly equivalent is now produced by a cause somewhat similar — the competition of persons who, by analog109 with other arts, may be called amateurs. Literary occupation is one of those pursuits in which success may be attained110 by persons the greater part of whose time is taken up by other employments; and the education necessary for it, is the common education of all cultivated persons. The inducements to it, independently of money, in the present state of the world, to all who have either vanity to gratify, or personal or public objects to promote, are strong. These motives111 now attract into this career a great and increasing number of persons who do not need its pecuniary fruits, and who would equally resort to it if it afforded no remuneration at all. In our own country (to cite known examples), the most influential112, and on the whole most eminent philosophical113 writer of recent times (Bentham), the greatest political economist66 (Ricardo), the most ephemerally celebrated114, and the really greatest poets (Byron and Shelley), and the most successful writer of prose (Scott), were none of them author by profession; and only two of the five, Scott and Byron, could have supported themselves by the works which they wrote. Nearly all the higher departments of authorship are, to a great extent, similarly filled. In consequence, although the highest pecuniary prizes of successful authorship are incomparably greater than at any former period, yet on any rational calculation of the chances, in the existing competition, scarcely any writer can hope to gain a living by books, and to do so by magazines and reviews becomes daily more difficult. It is only the more troublesome and disagreeable kinds of literary labour, and those which confer no personal celebrity115, such as most of those connected with newspapers, or with the smaller periodicals, on which an educated person can now rely for subsistence. Of these, the remuneration is, on the whole, decidedly high; because, though exposed to the competition of what used to be called “poor scholars” (persons who have received a learned education from some public or private charity), they are exempt117 from that of amateurs, those who have other means of support being seldom candidates for such employments. Whether these considerations are not connected with something radically118 amiss in the idea of authorship as a profession, and whether any social arrangement under which the teachers of mankind consist of persons giving out doctrines119 for bread, is suited to be, or can possibly be, a permanent thing — would be a subject well worthy62 of the attention of thinkers.
The clerical, like the literary profession, is frequently adopted by persons of independent means, either from religious zeal120, or for the sake of the honour or usefulness which may belong to it, or for a chance of the high prizes which it holds out: and it is now principally for this reason that the salaries of curates are so low., those salaries, though considerably121 raised by the influence of public opinion, being still generally insufficient122 as the sole means of support for one who has to maintain the externals expected from a clergyman of the established church.
When an occupation is carried on chiefly by persons who derive the main portion of their subsistence from other sources, its remuneration may be lower almost to any extent, than the wages of equally severe labour in other employments. The principal example of the kind is domestic manufactures. When spinning and knitting were carried on in every cottage, by families deriving123 their principal support from agriculture, the price at which their produce was sold (which constituted the remuneration of the labour) was often so low, that there would have been required great perfection of machinery124 to undersell it. The amount of the remuneration in such a case, depends chiefly upon whether the quantity of the commodity, produced by this description of labour, suffices to supply the whole of the demand. If it does not, and there is consequently a necessity for some labourers who devote themselves entirely to the employment, the price of the article must be sufficient to pay those labourers at the ordinary rate, and to reward therefore very handsomely the domestic producers. But if the demand is so limited that the domestic manufacture can do more than satisfy it, the price is naturally kept down to the lowest rate at which peasant families think it worth while to continue the production. It is, no doubt, because the Swiss artizans do not depend for the whole of their subsistence upon their looms125, that Zurich is able to maintain a competition in the European market with English capital, and English fuel and machinery.4 Thus far, as to the remuneration of the subsidiary employment; but the effect to the labourers of having this additional resource, is almost certain to be (unless peculiar counteracting126 causes intervene) a proportional dilution127 of the wages of their main occupation. The habits of the people (as has already been so often remarked) everywhere require some particular scale of living, and no more, as the condition without which they will not bring up a family. Whether the income which maintains them in this condition comes from one source or from two, makes no difference: if there is a second source of income, they require less from the first; and multiply (at least this has always hitherto been the case) to a point which leaves them no more from both employments, than they would probably have had from either if it had been their sole occupation.
For the same reason it is found that, caeteris paribus, those trades are generally the worst paid, in which the wife and children of the artizan aid in the work. The income which the habits of the class demand, and down to which they are almost sure to multiply, is made up, in those trades, by the earnings of the whole family, while in others the same income must be obtained by the labour of the man alone. It is even probable that their collective earnings will amount to a smaller sum than those of the man alone in other trades; because the prudential restraint on marriage is unusually weak when the only consequence immediately felt is an improvement of circumstances, the joint128 earnings of the two going further in their domestic economy after marriage than before. Such accordingly is the fact, in the case of hand-loom weavers. In most kinds of weaving, women can and do earn as much as men, and children are employed at a very early age; but the aggregate earnings of a family are lower than in almost any other kind of industry, and the marriages earlier. It is noticeable also that there are certain branches of hand-loom weaving in which wages are much above the rate common in the trade, and that these are the branches in which neither women nor young persons are employed. These facts were authenticated129 by the inquiries130 of the Hand-loom Weavers Commission, which made its report in 1841. No argument can be hence derived131 for the exclusion132 of women from the liberty of competing in the labour market; since, even when no more is earned by the labour of a man and a woman than would have been earned by the man alone, the advantage to the woman of not depending on a master for subsistence may be more than an equivalent. It cannot, however, be considered desirable as a permanent element in the condition of a labouring class, that the mother of the family (the case of a single woman is totally different) should be under the necessity of working for subsistence, at least elsewhere than in their place of abode133. In the case of children, who are necessarily dependent, the influence of their competition in depressing the labour market is an important element in the question of limiting their labour, in order to provide better for their education.
§5. It deserves consideration, why the wages of women are generally lower, and very much lower, than those of men. They are not universally so. Where men and women work at the same employment, if it be one for which they are equally fitted in point of physical power, they are not always unequally paid. Women, in factories, sometimes earn as much as men; and so they do in hand-loom weaving, which, being paid by the piece, brings their efficiency to a sure test. When the efficiency is equal, but the pay unequal, the only explanation that can be given is custom; grounded either in a prejudice, or in the present constitution of society, which, making almost every woman, socially speaking, an appendage134 of some man, enables men to take systematically135 the lion’s share of whatever belongs to both. But the principal question relates to the peculiar employments of women. The remuneration of these is always, I believe, greatly below that of employments of equal skill and equal disagreeableness, carried on by men. In some of these cases the explanation is evidently that already given: as in the case of domestic servants, whose wages, speaking generally, are not determined136 by competition, but are greatly in excess of the market value of the labour, and in this excess, as in almost all things which are regulated by custom, the male sex obtains by far the largest share. In the occupations in which employers take full advantage of competition, the low wages of women as compared with the ordinary earnings of men, are a proof that the employments are overstocked; that although so much smaller a number of women, than of men, support themselves by wages, the occupations which law and usage make accessible to them are comparatively so few, that the field of their employment is still more overcrowded. It must be observed, that as matters now stand, a sufficient degree of overcrowding may depress the wages of women to a much lower minimum than those of men. The wages, at least of single women, must be equal to their support, but need not be more than equal to it; the minimum, in their case, is the pittance137 absolutely requisite for the sustenance138 of one human being. Now the lowest point to which the most superabundant competition can permanently139 depress the wages of a man, is always somewhat more than this. Where the wife of a labouring man does not by general custom contribute to his earnings, the man’s wages must be at least sufficient to support himself, a wife, and a number of children adequate to keep up the population, since if it were less the population would not be kept up. And even if the wife earns something, their joint wages must be sufficient to support not only themselves, but (at least for some years) their children also. The ne plus ultra of low wages, therefore (except during some transitory crisis, or in some decaying employment), can hardly occur in any occupation which the person employed has to live by, except the occupations of women.
§6. Thus far, we have, throughout this discussion, proceeded on the supposition that competition is free, so far as regards human interference; being limited only by natural causes, or by unintended effect of general social circumstances. But law or custom may interfere87 to limit competition. If apprentice laws, or the regulations of corporate140 bodies, make the access to a particular employment slow, costly141, or difficult, the wages of that employment may be kept much above their natural proportion to the wages of common labour. They might be so kept without any assignable limit, were it not that wages which exceed the usual rate require corresponding prices, and that there is a limit to the price at which even a restricted number of producers can dispose of all they produce. In most civilized142 countries, the restrictions143 of this kind which once existed have been either abolished or very much relaxed, and will, no doubt, soon disappear entirely. In some trades, however, and to some extent, the combinations of workmen produce a similar effect. Those combinations always fail to uphold wages at an artificial rate, unless they also limit the number of competitors. But they do occasionally succeed in accomplishing this. In several trades the workmen have been able to make it almost impracticable for strangers to obtain admission either as journeymen or as apprentices144, except in limited numbers, and under such restrictions as they choose to impose. It was given in evidence to the Hand-loom Weavers Commission, that this is one of the hardships which aggravate145 the grievous condition of that depressed146 class. Their own employment is overstocked and almost ruined; but there are many other trades which it would not be difficult for them to learn: to this, however, the combinations of workmen in those other trades are said to interpose an obstacle hitherto insurmountable.
Notwithstanding, however, the cruel manner in which the exclusive principle of these combinations operates in a case of this peculiar nature, the question, whether they are on the whole more useful or mischievous147, requires to be decided116 on an enlarged consideration of consequences, among which such a fact as this is not one of the most important items. Putting aside the atrocities148 sometimes committed by workmen in the way of personal outrage149 or intimidation150, which cannot be too rigidly151 repressed; if the present state of the general habits of the people were to remain for ever unimproved, these partial combinations, in so far as they do succeed in keeping up the wages of any trade by limiting its numbers, might be looked upon as simply intrenching around a particular spot against the inroads of over-population, and making the wages of the class depend upon their own rate of increase, instead of depending on that of a more reckless and improvident152 class than themselves. What at first sight seems the injustice153 of excluding the more numerous body from sharing the gains of a comparatively few, disappears when we consider that by being admitted they would not be made better off, for more than a short time; the only permanent effect which their admission would produce, would be to lower the others to their own level. To what extent the force of this consideration is annulled154 when a tendency commences towards diminished over-crowding in the labouring classes generally, and what grounds of a different nature there may be for regarding the existence of trade combinations as rather to be desired than deprecated, will be considered in a subsequent chapter of this work, with the subject of Combination Laws.
§7. To conclude this subject, I must repeat an observation already made, that there are kinds of labour of which the wages are fixed155 by custom, and not by competition. Such are the fees or charges of professional persons: of physicians, surgeons, barristers, and even attorneys. These, as a general rule, do not vary, and though competition operates upon those classes as much as upon any others, it is by dividing the business, not, in general, by diminishing the rate at which it is paid. The cause of this, perhaps, has been the prevalence of an opinion that such persons are more trustworthy if paid highly in proportion to the work they perform; insomuch that if a lawyer or a physician offered his services at less than the ordinary rate, instead of gaining more practice, he would probably lose that which he already had. For analogous156 reasons it is usual to pay greatly beyond the market price of their labour, all persons in whom the employer wishes to place peculiar trust, or from whom he requires something besides their mere services. For example, most persons who can afford it, pay to their domestic servants higher wages than would purchase in the market the labour of persons fully as competent to the work required. They do this, not merely from ostentation157, but also from more reasonable motives; either because they desire that those they employ should serve them cheerfully, and be anxious to remain in their service; or because they do not like to drive a hard bargain with people whom they are in constant intercourse158 with; or because they dislike to have near their persons, and continuity in their sight, people with the appearance and habits which are the usual accompaniments of a mean remuneration. Similar feelings operate in the minds of persons in business, with respect to their clerks, and other employes. Liberality, generosity159, and the credit of the employer, are motives which, to whatever extent they operate, preclude160 taking the utmost advantage of competition: and doubtless such motives might, and even now do, operate on employers of labour in all the great departments of industry; and most desirable is it that they should. But they can never raise the average wages of labour beyond the ratio of population to capital. By giving more to each person employed, they limit the power of giving employment to numbers; and however excellent their moral effect, they do little good economically, unless the pauperism161 of those who are shut out, leads indirectly162 to a readjustment by means of an increased restraint on population.
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1
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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pecuniary
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| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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reposed
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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copiously
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| adv.丰富地，充裕地 | |
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illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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honourableness
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weaver
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| n.织布工；编织者 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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loom
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| n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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weavers
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| 织工，编织者( weaver的名词复数 ) | |
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scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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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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inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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compute
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| v./n.计算，估计 | |
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computed
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| adj.[医]计算的，使用计算机的v.计算，估算( compute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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compensate
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| vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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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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uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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undesirable
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| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
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equitable
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| adj.公平的；公正的 | |
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inverse
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| adj.相反的，倒转的，反转的；n.相反之物；v.倒转 | |
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adverse
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| adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的 | |
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lotteries
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| n.抽彩给奖法( lottery的名词复数 )；碰运气的事；彩票；彩券 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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apprentice
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| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
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entice
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| v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿 | |
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proficiency
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| n.精通，熟练，精练 | |
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lottery
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| n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事 | |
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pries
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| v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的第三人称单数 )；撬开 | |
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annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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aspirants
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| n.有志向或渴望获得…的人( aspirant的名词复数 )v.渴望的，有抱负的，追求名誉或地位的( aspirant的第三人称单数 )；有志向或渴望获得…的人 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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emolument
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| n.报酬，薪水 | |
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coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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extricate
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| v.拯救，救出；解脱 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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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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economist
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| n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人 | |
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skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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indemnity
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| n.赔偿，赔款，补偿金 | |
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annuity
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| n.年金；养老金 | |
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costliness
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| 昂贵的 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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attainments
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| 成就，造诣； 获得( attainment的名词复数 )； 达到； 造诣； 成就 | |
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diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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astronomical
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| adj.天文学的，（数字）极大的 | |
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hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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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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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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justifiable
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| adj.有理由的，无可非议的 | |
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deteriorate
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| v.变坏；恶化；退化 | |
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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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multiplication
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| n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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interferes
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| vi. 妨碍，冲突，干涉 | |
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87
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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88
bounty
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| n.慷慨的赠予物，奖金；慷慨，大方；施与 | |
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89
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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90
counteract
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| vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消 | |
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91
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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92
founders
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| n.创始人( founder的名词复数 ) | |
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93
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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94
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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95
stipend
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| n.薪贴；奖学金；养老金 | |
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96
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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97
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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98
indigence
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| n.贫穷 | |
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99
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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100
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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101
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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102
paltry
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| adj.无价值的，微不足道的 | |
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103
requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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104
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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105
practitioners
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| n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师） | |
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106
indigent
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| adj.贫穷的，贫困的 | |
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107
encumbered
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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108
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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109
analog
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| n.类似物，模拟 | |
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110
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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111
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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112
influential
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| adj.有影响的，有权势的 | |
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113
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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115
celebrity
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| n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望 | |
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116
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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117
exempt
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| adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者 | |
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118
radically
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| ad.根本地，本质地 | |
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119
doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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120
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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121
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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122
insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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123
deriving
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| v.得到( derive的现在分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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124
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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125
looms
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| n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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126
counteracting
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| 对抗，抵消( counteract的现在分词 ) | |
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127
dilution
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| n.稀释，淡化 | |
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128
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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129
authenticated
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| v.证明是真实的、可靠的或有效的( authenticate的过去式和过去分词 )；鉴定，使生效 | |
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130
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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131
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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132
exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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133
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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134
appendage
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| n.附加物 | |
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135
systematically
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| adv.有系统地 | |
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136
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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137
pittance
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| n.微薄的薪水，少量 | |
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138
sustenance
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| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
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139
permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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140
corporate
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| adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的 | |
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141
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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142
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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143
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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144
apprentices
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| 学徒，徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 ) | |
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145
aggravate
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| vt.加重(剧)，使恶化；激怒，使恼火 | |
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146
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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147
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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148
atrocities
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| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
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149
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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150
intimidation
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| n.恐吓，威胁 | |
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151
rigidly
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| adv.刻板地，僵化地 | |
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152
improvident
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| adj.不顾将来的，不节俭的，无远见的 | |
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153
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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154
annulled
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| v.宣告无效( annul的过去式和过去分词 )；取消；使消失；抹去 | |
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155
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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156
analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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157
ostentation
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| n.夸耀，卖弄 | |
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158
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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159
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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160
preclude
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| vt.阻止，排除，防止；妨碍 | |
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161
pauperism
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| n.有被救济的资格，贫困 | |
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162
indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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