Page:Malthus 1823 The Measure of Value.djvu/43

 If instead of labourers being sent out of the country, labourers were imported, the result would be just opposite. A smaller quantity of produce would be awarded to the labourer and profits would rise. A given quantity of produce, which had been obtained by the same (Quantity of labour as before, would rise in value on account of the rise of profits, while this rise of profits, in reference to the wages of the labourer, would be balanced by the smaller quantity of labour necessary to obtain the diminished produce awarded to the labourer.

In the former case of the demand for labour, 'it appeared that the greater earnings of the labourer were occasioned, not by a rise in the value of labour, but by a fall in the value of the produce for which the labour was exchanged. And in the latter case of the abundance of labour, it appeared that the small earnings of the labourer were occasioned by a rise in the value of the produce, and not by a fall in the value of the labour.

The result would be similar, if instead of supposing the same quantity of produce to be obtained by the same quantity of labour, we were to suppose the greatest variations to take place in the fertility of the soil, and, consequently, in the productive power of labour.