Page:Thoughts on the Corn laws, addressed to the working classes of the county of Gloucester.djvu/26

22 money will purchase a bigger loaf than before, but the master manufacturer, in handing the loaf on to his workman, snips off a piece large enough only to leave the remainder equal to the old small loaf, and puts the difference into his pocket in the shape of wages saved, while he turns up his eyes and says, "What a blessing cheap food is to the labouring man! I am a big-loafian."

In short, unless wages are reduced, by the taking off the duty upon corn, we shall not be able to extend our manufactures; and if wages are lowered with the fall in the price of corn, the labouring classes will be in a much worse situation than they are at present.

Mr. Ebenezer Elliot, at the Sheffield meeting, said, "You listen to men who tell you that when food is dear, wages rise; and when food is cheap, wages fall; but what do your bellies say? Have you foundit so? Three years ago, bread was one shilling and sixpence the stone—were your wages low then? No, never higher. Now bread is three shillings the stone. Have your wages doubled? No, they are sinking."

All this is sound reasoning as far as it goes. Wages are very little, if at all, affected by a single dear year or a single cheap year. Indeed they may sometimes rise in a cheap year, and fall in a dear one. It requires the average price of food to be changed for many years together, before any alteration is necessarily effected in the rate of wages.