bonus to the men; but with the limitation that, before any dividend is declared, 2 per cent. should be set aside for a sinking fund, which shall be the property of the firm. It is very doubtful, however, whether such an agreement can prove satisfactory. Generally it will be found that a contract of wages is decidedly preferable to any partnership of capital and labour.

tract of

And what are wages? Wages are the rent of indus- The Contries; the purchase price of industrial services; the Wages. remuneration received by the labourer in recompense for the exertion of his faculties of mind and body. The labourer who receives wages is understood to transfer to his employer, for a consideration, his portion of the profits which may be derived from his industry, the employer taking the risk of gaining or losing by the transaction. In this new relation, the parties are at liberty to deal as they please the one to demand, and the other to give whatever their respective interests suggest. But there are certain conditions under which alone they can be mutually helpful. The labourer should remember that it is the amount of capital, or that portion of wealth which is destined for reproduction, which regulates and provides for the wages of labour; that, however fertile the soil, however favourable the position of the country, however great the extent of territory, unless there be capital in hand to maintain the labourers who have to cultivate it, and to procure the necessary implements for the purpose, nothing can be done; that the more capital there is to divide among a certain number of labourers, the higher will be the wages; that the larger the number of labourers competing for the same, the less will be the sum gained by each; that every increase of such capital must necessarily promote a corresponding increase of wages, unless there be as great an increase of competition

among labourers. The labourers are, in fact, deeply interested in the increase of capital. They absolutely depend upon it for their welfare; and the only and best means they can use to increase their own resources is to favour the increase of capital, so that the fund which is destined for their maintenance may keep pace with the increase in the number of labourers, whilst whatever they do which diminishes or retards such increase must necessarily recoil on themselves. The capitalist must remember that the labourer must live, that he must maintain his family, that he must educate his children, and have a share of relaxation and enjoyment, without which life is a burden. He must not forget that the best way to make a labourer work well is to pay him well; to keep him happy and cheerful, strong and healthy; and that if he will deal justly by his labourers, they will neither neglect their labour nor be disaffected—they will neither complain nor be disposed to strike. If, on the one hand, the employer has a right to endeavour to lower the wages, lest by enhancing the cost of production too high he becomes unable to compete with the foreign producer, and thus lose the trade altogether, on the other the labourer has a right to expect that the wages shall bear a certain proportion to the profits of the undertaking, be they high or low. And while the competition among labourers is favourable to the master in keeping the wages at the minimum limits of the labourer's wants, the freedom of labour, an extensive field of industry in the Colonies and in the United States of America,* and the right to combine among themselves, to control, as far as possible, such competition, enable the labourers to resist the attempt to lower wages below what is just and necessary.

*The emigration from the United Kingdom in ten years (1856 to 1865) averaged 160,000 per annum.

value of

It is very difficult to say what is the intrinsic value Intrinsic of labour. We may measure it by the cost of main- Labour. tenance of the labourer, and by the skill and time

requisite for the labour. As the value of
As the value of any article is
regulated by the cost of producing it, so the value
of labour is ultimately governed by the cost of sub-
sistence of the labourer and his family. However
large the competition among labourers, the wages can
never go far below, or will not continue long at less
than, the actual cost of bare living. This is the natural
or necessary rate of wages, which must differ with the
cost of articles of food and clothing at different times
and in different countries. There is a material differ-
ence, for example, in the cost of maintenance of a
British labourer who eats daily wheaten bread and
butcher's meat, and of a Chinaman who lives almost
exclusively on rice. But this minimum rate of wages
can only prevail where there are as many labourers as
can possibly be required, and where all such labourers
are equally efficient. This is, however, far from being
the case in all instances, and especially in skilled labour.
There the rate of wages must rise above this minimum
in proportion to the circumstances incident to each kind
of labour, to the peculiar skill and aptitude required,
and to the relative repugnance, the fatigue, discomfort,
wear and tear, and damage, attending them.

Rates of

The present rates of wages in this country may be Present said generally to be fair and remunerative, though a Wages.

considerable difference obtains in different trades and occupations in different districts, and even in different times of the year. The general average rates resulting from the extensive inquiry hereafter instituted appears to be, for adult males, 22/6 in England and Wales, 20/6 in Scotland, and 14/4 in Ireland; for boys and youths under twenty, 6/6 in England, 7/8 in Scotland, and

Wages at
Home and
Abroad.

6/3 in Ireland; for adult women, 12/6 in England, 10/6 in Scotland, and 9/9 in Ireland; and for girls, 8/6 in England, 8/2 in Scotland, and 7/4 in Ireland. The total average in the United Kingdom being 198. for adult males, 7/3 for boys under twenty, 11s. for adult women, and 7/10 for girls.

Between mechanics and labourers the difference in wages is great. The mechanic or artisan, such as joiners or carpenters, designers, spinners, engineers, puddlers, moulders, forgers, shipwrights, modellers, and throwers in potteries, and other skilled workers, earn easily 30s., 40s., and even 50s. per week. Common weavers, agricultural labourers, dock labourers, and all those classed as common labourers, earn from 12s. to 25s. per week, the hours of labour being usually from ten to twelve hours a day, though in some cases longer hours are required, and overtime is paid.

In comparison with some foreign countries, the wages in England appear high. From reports given recently* regarding the condition of the collieries and iron forges in Belgium, it seems that in coal-mining hewers earn 2/10 to 4/2, wood-tree setters, 3/1 to 5s., wood-cutters' sawyers, 2/6 to 2/11, and leaders of coal, 2/6 to 2/11; sundries, 1/6 to 2/6 per day. In this country, in Newcastle and its neighbourhood, hewers earn 5/9, sawyers 3/6, and labourers 2/4 to 38. iron furnaces a puddler in Belgium earns 4/2 to 5s.; in Staffordshire, 7/6 to 7/10; the under hand in Belgium, 2/3 to 3/1; in this country, 2/6 to 2/11. In iron foundries a moulder in Belgium earns 2s. to 2/11; in Sheffield, 5s.; and so in other branches of labour. In France the wages are also lower than in this country. In 1860 the Chamber of Commerce of

* See the Times of the 24th and 27th of December, 1866.

In

Paris instituted an inquiry into the state of industry in that metropolis, and the general results were that, out of 290,759 men whose earnings were ascertained, as many as 212,000 earned from 3 to 5 francs a day, or an average of 4 francs a day; women earning from one-half to 2 francs a day. These wages, however, applied to Paris only, and did not include agricultural labour or other lower-paid occupations, especially in the provinces. Whilst in this country the engine-drivers earn 7s. 6d. a day; in Prussia first-class drivers earn 5s., and second 3s. 9d. In the United States of America, the Statistical Bureau of Washington recently published the wages paid in four places in the North, viz. Hartford, in Connecticut; Tunkhannock, a town in the iron regions of Pennsylvania; Tiffin, an agricultural town in Ohio; and Cairo, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi river, the extreme southern point of Illinois. Taking into account that the wages are paid in paper money, the averages were, carpenters, Hartford, 2 dols. 75 cents; Tunkhannock, 3 dols.; Tiffin, 3 dols. ; and Cairo, 3 dols. 50 cents, or 148. or 15s, a day; farm labourers, with board, in Hartford, 26 dols. 50 cents; in Tunkhannock and Tiffin, 27 dols. 50 cents per month, or 3s. to 3s. 6d. a day; but in Cairo 18 dols.; machinists, 3 dols. to 3 dols. 50 cents per day; ironfounders, 2 dols. 50 cents to 3 dols.; weavers, 1 dol. 50 cents in Hartford, and 2 dols. 50 cents in Cairo,(2) or 6s. to 10s. a day. At Sydney, in Australia, carpenters earn 98.; bricklayers, 10s.; plasterers, 9s.; painters, 8s.; bricklayers' labourers, 88.; plumbers, 10s.; quarrymen, 8s. to 10s. per day. But, however valuable these facts may be, it is idle to institute any comparison without calculating, on the one hand,

(1) See Times of the 29th of March, 1867.

(2) Ibid. 12th of February, 1867.

d