第7章 Definition of High and Low Wages(2)

But even these differences afford no premises, from which the positive condition of the labouring classes, in any country,can be inferred, and but imperfect grounds for estimating their relative condition. The only data which enable us toascertain the .actual situation of the labourers at any given time and place, or their comparative situation of different timesand places, are the quantity and quality of the commodities which form their wages, if paid in kind, or are purchaseablewith their wages, if paid in money. And as the actual or comparative situation of the labourer is the principal object of thefollowing inquiry, I shall use the word wages, to express, not the money, but the commodities, which the labourer receives;and I shall consider wages to rise as the quantity or quality of those commodities is increased or improved, and to fall asthat quantity or quality is diminished or deteriorated.

It is obvious, too, that the labourer's situation does not depend on the amount which he receives at any one time, but on hisaverage receipts during a given period -- during a week, a month, or a year; and that the longer the period taken, the moreaccurate will be the estimate. Weekly wages have, of course, more tendency to equality than daily ones, and annual thanmonthly; and, if we could ascertain the amount earned by a man during five, or ten, or twenty years, we should know hissituation better than if we confined our attention to a single year. There is, however, so much difficulty in ascertaining theamount of wages during very long periods, that, I think, a single year will be the best that we can take. It comprehendswhat, in most climates, are very different, summer and winter wages; it comprehends also the period during which the mostimportant vegetable productions come to maturity in temperate climates, and on that account has generally been adoptedby political economists as the average period for which capital is supposed to be advanced.

I should observe, that I include, as part of the wages of the married labourer, those of his wife and unemancipated children.

To omit them would lead to inaccurate estimates of the comparative situation of the labourers in different countries, or indifferent occupations. In those employments which are carried on under shelter, and with the assistance of that machinerywhich affords power, and requires human aid only for its direction, the industry of a woman, or a child, approaches inefficiency to that .of a full-grown man. A girl of fourteen can manage a power-loom nearly as well as her father; but wherestrength, or exposure to the seasons, are required, little can be done by the wife, or the girls, or even by the boys, until theyapproach the age at which they usually quit their father's house. The earnings of tile wife and children of many aManchester weaver or spinner exceed, or equal, those of himself. Those of the wife and children of an agricultural labourer,or of a carpenter, or coal-heaver, are generally unimportant -- while the husband, in each case, receive 15 s., a week; theweekly income of the one family may be 30 s., and that of the other only 17 s. or 18 s.

It must be admitted. however. that the workman does not retain the whole of this apparent pecuniary advantage. The wife is taken from her household labours, and a part of increased wages is employed inpurchasing, what might otherwise, be produced at home. The moral inconveniences are still greater. The infant childrensuffer from the want of maternal attention, and those who are older from the deficiency of religious, moral, and intellectualeducation, and childish relaxation and amusemcnt. The establishment of infant and Sunday schools, and laws regulating thenumber of hours during which children may labour, are palliatives of these evils, but they must exist. to a certain degree,whenever the labour of the wife and children is the subject of sale; and. though not, perhaps. strictly within the province ofpolitical economy. must never be omitted in any estimate of tile causes affecting the welfare of the labouring classes.

The last preliminary point to which I have to call your attention is, the difference between the rate of wages and the priceof labour .

If men were the only labourers, and if every man worked eq, lally hard, and for the same number of hours, during the year,these two expressions would be synonymous. If each man, for instance, worked three hundred days during each year, andten hours during each day, one-three-thousandth part of each man's yearly wages would be the price of an hour's labour.

But neither of these propositions is true. The yearly wages of a family often include, as we have seen, the results of thelabour of the wife and children. And few things are less uniform than the number of working days during the year, or ofworking hours during the day, or the degree of exertion undergone during those hours.

The established annual holidays in Protestant countries; are between fifty and sixty. In many Catholic countries they exceedone hundred. Among the Hindoos, they are said to occupy nearly half the year. But these holidays are confined to a certainportion of the population; the labour of a sailor, or a soldier, or a menial servant, admits of scarcely any distinction of days.

Again, in northern and southern latitudes, the hours of out-door labour are limited by the duration of light; and in' allclimates by the weather. When the labouter Works under shelter, the daily hours of labour may be uniform throughout theyear. And, independently of natural causes, the daily hours of labour vary in different countries, and in differentemployments in the same country. The daily hours of labour are, perhaps, longer in France than in England, and, certainly,are longer in England than in Hindostan. In Manchester, the manufacturer generally works twelve hours a day; inBirmingham, ten: a London shopman is seldom employed more than eight or nine.