Chapter XVII: Section CLX: The Price of Common Labor

Like the price of every commodity, the immediate wages of common labor is determined by the relation of the demand and supply of labor. Other circumstances being the same, every great plague[160-1] or emigration[160-2] is wont, by decreasing the supply, to increase the wage's of labor; and a plague, the wages of the lowest kind of labor most.[160-3] And so, the increased demand, in harvest time, is wont to increase wages; and even day board during harvest time is wont to be better.[160-4] [160-5] In winter the diminished demand lowers wages again.[160-6] Among the most effective tricks of socialistic sophistry is, unfortunately, to caricature the correct principle: "labor is a commodity," into this other: "the laborer is a commodity."

Moreover, common labor has this peculiarity, that those who have it to supply are generally much more numerous than those who want it; while the reverse is the case with most other commodities. Another important peculiarity of the "commodity" labor, is, that it can seldom be bought, without at the same time reducing the person of the seller to a species of dependence. Thus, for instance, the seller cannot be in a place different from that in which his commodity is. Hence a change in the person, etc. of the buyer very readily necessitates in the workman a radical change of life, and that the levelling adjustment of local excess and want is rendered so difficult in the case of this commodity.[160-7] Hence, it is that, if in the long run the exchange of labor against wages is to be an equitable one (§ 110), the master of labor must, so to speak, incorporate part of his own personality into it, have a heart for faithful workmen and thus attach them to himself.[160-8]

[Footnote 160-1: High rate of Italian wages after the plague
in 1348, but also many complaints of the indolence and
dissoluteness of workmen. (_M. Villani_, I, 2 ff., 57 seq.
_Sismondi_, Gesch. der ital. Republiken in Mittelalter, VI,
39.) In England, the same plague increased the wages of
threshers from an average of 1.7 d. in 1348, to 3.3 d. in
1349. Mowers received, during the 90 years previous, 1/12 of
a quarter of wheat per acre; in 1371-1390, from 1/7 to 1/6.
The price of most of their wants was then from 1/8 to 1/12
as high as in _A. Young's_ time, and wages 1/4 as high.
(_Rogers_, I, 306, 271, 691.) The great earthquake in
Calabria, in 1783, produced similar effects. (_Galanti_, N.
Beschreiburg von Neapel, I, 450.) Compare _Jesaias_, 13, 12.
On the other hand, depopulation caused by unfortunate wars
is not very favorable to the rate of wages; instance,
Prussia in 1453 ff., after the Polish struggle, and Germany,
after the Thirty Years' War.]

[Footnote 160-2: How much it contributes to raise wages that
workmen can, in a credible way, threaten to move to other
places, is illustrated by the early high wages and personal
freedom of sailors. Compare _Eden_, State of the Poor, I,
36. In consequence of the recent great emigration from
Ireland, the weekly wages of farm hands in that country was
57.4 per cent. higher than in 1843-4. In Connaught, where
the emigration was largest, it was 87 per cent. higher.
(London Statist. Journ., 1862, 454.)]

[Footnote 160-3: Compare _Rogers_, I, 276, and _passim_.]

[Footnote 160-4: And this in proportion as the uncertainty
of the weather causes haste. In England, the harvest doubles
wages. (_Eden._) In East Friesland, it raises it from 8-10
ggr. to 2 thalers sometimes (_Steltzner_); in the steppes of
southern Russia, from 12-15, to frequently 40-50 _kopeks_.
This explains why the country people who come into the
weekly market are anxious, during harvest time, to get rid
of their stocks as fast as possible. According to the
Statist. Journal, 1862, 434, 448, the average wages in
harvest and other times, amounted to:

_In harvest time._ _Other times._
In Scotland for males, 18s. 7d. 12s. 11-1/2d.
" " females, 11s. 4d. 5s. 7d.
In Ireland " males, 12s. 9d. 6s. 11-1/2d.
" " females, 8s. 3d. 3s. 9d.
" " males, 15s. 4d. 7s. 1-1/4d.
" " females, 7s. 1-3/4d. 3s. 11d.

The reason why the wages of females rises more in harvest
time than the wages of males may be the same that in many
places in Ireland has made emigration more largely increase
the wages of women. (l. c., 454.) Every excess of workmen
depresses, and every scarcity of workmen enhances the wages
of the lowest strata relatively most.]

[Footnote 160-5: The wages of English sailors was usually
40-50 shillings a month. During the last naval war, it rose
to from 100 to 120, on account of the great demand created
by the English fleet. (_McCulloch_, On Taxation, 40.)]

[Footnote 160-6: The winter wages of German agricultural
laborers varies between 6.1 and 20 silver groschens; summer
wages between 7.9 and 27.5 silver groschens. _Emminghaus_,
Allg. Gewerbelehre, 81, therefore, advises that in winter
the meal time of workmen in the fields should be postponed
to the end of the day, and winter wages then made less low
than at present.]

[Footnote 160-7: _W. Thornton_, On Labour, its wrongful
Claims and rightful Dues, its actual, Present and possible
Future, 1869, II, ch. 1. _Harrison_, Fortnightly Review,
III, 50.]

[Footnote 160-8: Just as the husband binds himself in
marriage. While in concubinage there is apparent equality,
it costs the woman a much greater sacrifice than the man.]