Page:Thoughts on the Corn laws, addressed to the working classes of the county of Gloucester.djvu/19

15 necessaries of life; while his comfortable condition depends upon the command he has over articles of comfort not absolutely necessary to existence.

Suppose that, in consequence of improvements in machinery, a greater amount of cotton goods is produced by the same expenditure; although increased wages may be paid to the labourer in money, the only addition that is made to the wealth of the community consists of cotton. If, therefore, the labourer spend part of his additional wages in other articles, the increased demand will have a tendency to raise their price, so that he will not obtain increased comfort in the exact proportion as his wages are raised. The degree in which increased demand raises price, varies materially in different descriptions of goods. In most of the principal manufactures of this country, supply follows so closely upon demand, (the amount produced being, in a great measure, limited by the quantity which can be disposed of at a remunerative price,) that a very considerable addition to the supply can be produced at a trifling, and often at only a temporary, advance of price. In the manufacture of complicated machinery, an increased demand sometimes appears even to have a tendency to lower the cost of production. Mr, Taylor, before a Committee of the House of Commons, gave the following evidence:—"I have invariably observed, that an increased demand for