amount of desirable objects which a given amount of profit will command. The causes which decide the rate of profit have been already considered. It has been shown that they depend on the proportion which the supply of capital employed in providing wages bears to the supply of labour. The rate being given, the amount of the profit received by any given capitalist must depend, of course, on the amount of his capital. It follows that, when the rate of profit falls in consequence of an increase of capital without a proportionate increase of labourers, the situation of the existing capitalists, as a body, cannot be deteriorated, unless the fall in the rate has been so great as to overbalance the increase of the amount. Two millions, at five per cent., would give as large an amount of profit as one million at ten. At seven and a half per cent. they would give a much larger. And such is the tendency of an increase of capital to produce, not indeed a corresponding, but still a positive increase of population, that we believe there is no instance on record of the whole amount of profits having diminished with an increase of the whole amount of capital."

It is supposed that profits tend to fall, but that the amount to be divided among the capitalists, as a body, does not fall. This would be poor consolation to the owner who found his means of enjoyment in a course of constant reduction. Profits, however, do not fall. Any given quantity of capital will now give the possessor a greater command over the conveniences and enjoyments of life than at any past period. The fall in the rate of profit is a necessary consequence, and an evidence, of the increased productiveness of labour.

"Totally distinct from the amount of profit is the amount of desirable objects which a given amount of profit will purchase. A Chinese and an English capitalist, each of whose annual profit will command the labour of ten families for a year, will enjoy in different degrees the comforts and conveniences of life. The Englishman will have more woollen goods and hardware, the Chinese more tea and silk. The difference depends on the different productiveness of labour in China and in England in the production of those commodities which are used by the capitalists in each country. In the command of labour, and in the rank in society which that command gives, they are on a par. We have seen that, as population advances, labour has a tendency to become less efficient in the production of raw produce,

* Outline of Political Economy, p. 212.

and more productive in manufactures. The same amount of profit, therefore, will enable the capitalist in a thinly peopled country to enjoy coarse profusion, or among a dense population moderate refinement. A South American, with an annual income commanding the labour of one hundred families, would live in a log-house on the skirts of a forest, and keep, perhaps, one hundred horses. An Englishman, with the same command of labour, would live in a well furnished villa, and keep a chariot and pair. Each would possess sources of enjoyment totally beyond the reach of the other."*

To estimate profit by its command of labour leads to great error. With every increase in the productiveness of capital, there is a diminution in the quantity of labour that it will command. When it is most productive, any given amount of capital will command least labour, but most commodities. Having already shown this very fully, we shall not repeat the argument.

The following passage gives Mr. Senior's views of the relative interests of the labourer and the capitalist.

"The labourer is far more interested in the comparative rate of profit than in the comparative period for which capital is advanced. The productiveness of labour and the period of advance being given, we have seen that the amount of his share of the product depends on the rate of profit. It is his interest, therefore, in the first place, that when capital is employed in the production of the commodities which he consumes, all other things remaining the same, the rate of profit should be low. And if it were possible that the rate of profit in other employments could be higher, capital would be diverted from the only production in which the labourer is directly interested-the produc tion of commodities for his own use-and the general fund for the maintenance of labour would be diminished. All other things, therefore, remaining the same, it is the labourer's interest that the rate of profit should be universally low. But it must be recollected, first, that the average period for which capital is advanced, especially in the production of the commodities used by labourers, is so short that the capitalist's share is small even when profits are high: if the advance has been for six months, the capitalist's share, at the rate of twenty per cent. per annum, would be less than one eleventh : and, secondly, that a high rate of profit is generally found to accompany a great productiveness of labour. And therefore that, in general, the + Page 76, ante.

* Outline of Political Economy, p. 212.

labourer is better paid, or, in other words, receives a larger amount of commodities when profits are high, that is when he receives a small share, than when profits are low, that is when he receives a large share, of the value of what he produces. The increase of the labourer's share from ten elevenths to twenty-one-twenty-seconds, which would be the consequence in the case which we have supposed of a fall of profits by one half, would add very little to the amount of his wages.

On the contrary, it is the interest of the labourer that profits should be universally high. They can be so only when production is great, and the greater it is, the larger is the proportion of the labourer. Mr. Senior supposes high wages to be accompanied by a small share of production. We trust we have satisfied the reader that wages rise with the increase of the labourer's share, and that profits rise with the diminution of the capitalist's share, and that it is the interest of the workman that capital should be productive, and its reward, in commodities, large, certain that every increase of profit is attended with the power on his part to retain a larger share of the commodities he produces.

Mr. Senior supposes, that

"The inequality in the rate of profit throughout the civilized world is much less than the inequality of wages."

If profit be measured by the rate of interest such will be found to be the case, but if it be measured by the income secured by any given quantity of labour accumulated in all its various forms of lands, houses, &c.-it will be found to be otherwise. Where the superior soils only are cultivated the labour required to secure in old age a given income is great; but as population increases as capital accumulates-and as the inferior soils are cultivated, there is a constant diminution. Any given quantity of labour will secure the future enjoyment of a larger quantity of commodities in the United States, and in Great Britain, at the present time, than at any time past, or than can be obtained in any other part of the world.

* Outline of Political Economy, p. 211.

+ Ibid. p. 223.

CHAPTER XVI.

REVIEW. CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON VALUE.

THE author of "A Critical Dissertation upon the Nature, Measure, and Causes of Value," denies that labour is its sole cause. He divides "commodities, or things possessing value," into three classes, as follows

"1. Commodities which are monopolized, or protected from competition by natural or adventitious circumstances.

"2. Commodities, in the production of which some persons possess greater facilities than the rest of the community, and which therefore the competition of the latter cannot increase, except at a greater cost. "3. Commodities, in the production of which competition operates without restraint.

"A cursory attention to these classes will at once show, that their respective causes of value cannot be the same. Let us therefore take them in detail, and examine the causes operating on each class."* He says

"Monopolies may be divided into two kinds; those in which there is only one interest concerned, and those in which there are separate interests."+

Of the first he says

"Those peculiar wines which are produced in very limited quan tity, and those works of art, which from their excellence or rarity have acquired a fanciful value, will be exchanged for a very different quantity of the produce of ordinary labour, according as the society is rich or poor, as it possesses abundance or scarcity of such produce, or as it may be in a rude or polished state."'+

Of the numerous authors and painters who have flourished since the revival of the arts and of letters, the works of a very small number still retain a value equal to that of the talent which would be necessary for their reproduction. Were Raffaelle, or Titian, restored to life, their works, now executed, would be worth almost as much as they command under ex* Page 186.

* Page 185.

+ Ibid.

isting circumstances, while those of many of their contemporaries would have little more value than that of the canvass upon which they were painted. The former have not risen much above what would be the cost of reproduction, while the others have fallen below the cost of production. Had the family of Shakspeare preserved a copyright in the works of their illustrious ancestor, its value would be immense, but not greater than would be that of equal ability employed in the production of similar works at the present time.

Were Burgundy reduced to the situation in which it existed under Charlemagne, it would be found that the cost of bringing it into its present state would be greater than its present selling price. The accumulated capital of former times, in vineyards, is not equal in value to the labour that would now be required to clear the ground, prepare the soil, erect the buildings, and make the roads and other improvements from which its present value is derived. Chambertin and Clos de Vougeot, like the pictures of Titian and the works of Shakspeare, have preserved a value nearly approaching that at which they could now be reproduced, while much of the labour expended upon other lands, other pictures, and other books has left no trace behind. Much, however, of that which is attached to the possession of all the articles thus referred to is the result of fashion, and a picture that sells at one time for £1000, may afterwards produce but £500. The Valdarfer Boccacio was purchased by the Duke of Marlborough for £2,200, and a few months afterwards was offered for £800. Such values are fanciful, and subject to no laws. At one time a particular species of wine is in demand because it is fashionable, while at another it is rejected, and the vineyard which preduces it ceases to have much value.

It is admitted that these values depend upon the state of society, and that they tend to rise with the increase of wealth. That wealth consists in the possession of roads and canals, and other machinery, by which the quality of labour is improved and value is given to such places as produce fine wines and silks. When labour is inferior in quality there is little demand for either, because it will scarcely command a sufficient supply of the commonest necessaries of life. Improvement in the quality of common labour is accompanied by a rise in that of