Rate of Wages and

Price of

Labour.

the cost of living, and on the other the rate of production. The colliers in Belgium may be as well remunerated at the low wages as those in Newcastle at the higher, if we take into account the cost of food and house rent; and the high rate paid in Sydney may be low when we calculate the high rent and cost of food. The position of employers and employed is often perplexing. The employer looks not only to the rate, but to the amount of wages which he must give for a given work. The workman is only interested in the wages. It is quite the same for a farmer who wants a field trenched whether the amount that he can afford to give for the work is divided by three able and industrious men, or five or seven weak and lazy. But it makes all the dif ference with the labourer if he is to get a third or a fifth of that given amount. The amount of wages and price of labour, or the earnings of the labourers, are, in fact, two different things. The same amount of wages may produce twice as much labour, where the labourer is in earnest in his work. Besides, a much greater amount of labour will be performed in a summer than in a winter's day-in fine, than in bad weather; in countries where the people are less given to enjoyments than in countries where pleasure seems to be the first and most attractive pursuit. Allowing, therefore, that in some foreign countries the rate of wages may be lower, the amount of wages paid for a given quantity of work may still be greater than in England. Productive Some very valuable facts on this question are furnished by Mr. Alexander Redgrave, Factory Inspector, in his recent report. Taking the total of cotton fac tories, the average number of persons employed to

powers of

British and

Fore gn

Labourers,

&c.

(1) Report of Inspectors of Factories for the year ending the 31st of October, 1866, 1867.

spindles was as follows:-In France, 1 person to 14 spindles; in Russia, 1 to 38; in Prussia, 1 to 37; in Bavaria, 1 to 46; in Austria, 1 to 49; in Belgium, 1 to 50; in Saxony, 1 to 50; in Switzerland, 1 to 55; in the smaller states of Germany, 1 to 55; and in Great Britain, 1 to 74 spindles. To make an exact calculation, it is not sufficient to take the wages of labour, but, as Mr. Redgrave said, we must take in conjunction with it the power of the operator as a producer; and here we find that the English operative has an advantage over his foreign competitor, sufficient with some other qualifications to counterbalance the mere cheapness of wages. If we give more to a British workman it is because he works more and works better. When, in fact, we consider the whole amount of wages paid for the total work performed, we find a much greater equality in the rate of wages throughout the world than we are apt at first to think. And it is the rate for labour, and not the rate for the day or for the month, that constitutes the regulating rate of wages.

APPROPRIATION OF WAGES.

Number in a Family-Number of Earners-Cost of Food and DrinkHouse Rent-Clothing-Medical and Benevolent Objects-Implements and Tools Savings' Banks Building Societies - Incomes of the Working compared with those of the Middle and Higher Classes.

IN ORDER to ascertain the real value of wages, it is necessary to examine what amount of comfort they are capable of supplying to the workman. And here I must enter into some interesting details. The economic condition of a family depends primarily on the number of members composing it, and their respective ages. Among skilled labourers, the usual habit is to marry as soon as they terminate their apprenticeship; but among the unskilled, many enter into the bonds of matrimony at a still earlier period, so that very early in life many of them have large families dependent upon them. Of all labourers the farm labourers receive the lowest rate of money wages, yet even among them the number in a 'family far exceeds the average for the kingdom. In the report of Dr. Edward Smith" on the food of the poorer labouring classes, it was shown that in 500 families visited in the United Kingdom the total number of members was 2757, giving an average of 551 in a family; the proportion in England being 5.75; in Wales, 4.79; in Scotland, 4.59; and in Ireland, 5.17. In the manufacturing districts the same averages would generally

(1) Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, 1864.

one earner.

of Earners

Women and

obtain. We may take, then, as a fact that the number in a family amongst the working classes rather exceeds the number in a family throughout the kingdom, indicating clearly that there are causes in operation among the working classes tending to the increase of families which far outweigh the check which low incomes must necessarily produce. In a family, however, there are usually more than Number In agricultural pursuits, where the money in a Family. wages are low, generally the wife will keep a cow or Labour of attend to the pigs and poultry, and the children are all Children. at work; or in other cases the wife and daughters are working in the manufacture of hosiery, lace, or strawplaiting. In the manufacturing districts there is extensive labour for women and children. In towns, the daughters of artisans are often employed as domestic servants. In most cases, therefore, in the families of our working classes, the grown-up portion of the family may be considered to be all workers and at work, unless disabled by disease, or kept idle from want of employment. In a moral, and to a great extent economic, aspect, the system of placing every member of a family in industrial pursuits must be considered highly prejudicial. Careful attendance to household duties should be the first thought in every well-arranged family. Due attention to the wants and comforts of the husband, the bringing-up of children in health and good morals, the maintenance of order and neatness in household arrangements, are duties which the wife and mother alone can satisfactorily fulfil. Let these be neglected, and the surest and safest foundations of comfort and happiness are ruthlessly torn away. Whatever benefit may be obtained from the earnings of the wife or mother, it is more than counterbalanced by the want of supervision and care, the want of economy and order,

Expenditure

of the Working Classes.

in Food.

above all, the disregard to the intellectual and moral advance of the family which her absence is certain to produce. If indeed the money expenditure thereby caused to the household were carefully calculated, it might be proved that on the whole the amount lost is greater than the amount earned.

The expenditure of our working men may be divided into four distinct heads: viz. 1st, food; 2nd, house rent, with fire and lighting; 3rd, clothing; and 4th, education, health, and recreation. The proportion which each of these bears to the whole must, of course, vary considerably, but generally we may calculate that more than half, or rather two-thirds, of the income is devoted to food, and the remainder is expended in the other three items. The Expenditure Cost of food materially depends on the dietary used; and there is much difference in this respect between the habits of farm labourers and artisans, and between workmen in the receipt of high or low wages. Dr. Edward Smith, in his report on the food of farm labourers, gave the cost of food to be, on an average, for the United Kingdom, 2/10 per adult weekly; in England, 2/113; in Wales, 3/51; in Scotland, 3/34; and in Ireland, 1/93; Ireland exceeding the other divisions in cheapness of living, whilst in England the value of the food consumed was less than in Wales or Scotland. With this additional circumstance in favour of Ireland, that for the money expended the labourer obtained nearly twice as much carbon and more than two and a half times as much nitrogen as was procured in England. Then followed Scotland in point of economy, and England was lowest. The Irish farm labourers are greater eaters of breadstuff than the English or Scotch, but meat is most consumed by the English. Meat or bacon was consumed by 99 per cent. of all the families included in the inquiry in England, by 84 in Wales, 72 in Scotland,