Page:Malthus 1823 The Measure of Value.djvu/67

 demand and supply enter powerfully into the costs of production according to this latter definition, and that therefore their dominion as to prices and value is absolutely universal.

Nor would they be less so in their effect on the general progress of wealth. If commodities and the materials of capital increase faster than the effectual demand for them, profits fall prematurely, and capitalists are ruined without a proportionate benefit to the labouring classes, because an increasing demand for labour cannot go on under such circumstances. If the value of commodities and the materials of capital increase for some time without an increase of their quantity, the labouring classes must soon be supported on the lowest amount of food on