Page:Thoughts on the Corn laws, addressed to the working classes of the county of Gloucester.djvu/13

9 slight degree) his wages. It is the increase of population, the augmented number of labourers, which gradually but certainly follows, that, by creating a greater competition for employment, brings down wages. If the increase of food in the country had not enabled a greater number of labourers to exist, there could have been no increased competition for employment to reduce wages.

Now if the wages of the labourer fall in exactly the same proportion as the price of food, it is evident that he can buy exactly the same quantity of food that he could before his wages were reduced. If he only earns sixpence, where he earned a shilling before, he can buy as much bread for sixpence as he could before for a shilling.

The next question we have to consider is, whether the other articles of his consumption will fall in the same proportion as wages and food. If they do, the labourer will be in exactly the same position that he was before; for if he works cheaper, he buys cheaper.

It is very evident that everything that is bought and sold is somehow or other the produce of labour, and that its price must of course be affected by the amount paid for the labour used in its manufacture.

Upon a closer inspection, however, we shall find that there are some parts of the price charged