Page:Shop Talks on Economics.djvu/50

 would cease and prices would return to their former level and equilibrium.

"The general rise in the rate of wages would, therefore, after a temporary disturbance of market prices, only result in a general fall in the rate of profit, without any permanent change in the prices of commodities."

We will use a concrete illustration to explain Marx's point. In a mining camp the miners secured a gain of wages of from $2.00 to $3.00 a day. The man who ran the only restaurant in the camp thought he could raise the price of board from $4.00 to $5.00 a week. For a week or two the miners paid the advanced prices, but the third week a new restaurant was opened by a man who heard of the "prosperity" in this particular camp, and inside of two months there were four restaurants competing for trade in Golden Gulch. This competition among the restaurant keepers forced board down to $3.00 a week. Some of them moved away until board fell to the average rate of board in that state.

As long as prices were better there new investors came to Golden Gulch, and when they fell below the average price for board investors went away.

Marx says that when workmen and women get higher wages, they spend this increase in better food, better homes and better clothing. This stimulates the demand for food, clothing and houses. More capitalists begin to invest in food production, in houses and