FullReads

1.–Quarters of Corn produced by Ten Men.
2.–Yearly Corn Wages to each Laborer.
3.–Yearly Corn Wages of the whole Ten Men.
4.–Rate of Profits under the foregoing Circumstances.
5.–Quantity of Labor required to produce the Wages of Ten Men.
6.–Quantity of Profits on the Advance of Labor.
7.–Invariable Value of the Wages of a given Number of Men.
8.–Value of 100 Quarters of Corn under the varying
Circumstances supposed.
9.–Value of the Product of the Labor of Ten Men under the
Circumstances supposed.

[Footnote: *This is an oversight on the part of Mr. Malthus, and not an error of the press; for 7.14 would be the value of the 100 quarters on the supposition that the entire product of the ten men (namely, 140 quarters) went to wages; but the wages in this case (Delta) being 120 quarters, the true value on the principle of this table is manifestly 8.33. ]

SECTION I.

Phed
. Now, X., you know that I abhor arithmetical calculations; besides which, I have no faith in any propositions of a political economist which he cannot make out readily without all this elaborate machinery of tables and figures. Under these circumstances, I put it to you, as a man of feeling, whether you ought to inflict upon me this alarming pile of computations; which, by your gloomy countenance, I see that you are meditating.

X
. Stop, recollect yourself: not I it is, remember, that impose this elaborate “table” upon you, but Mr. Malthus. The yoke is his. I am the man sent by Providence to lighten this yoke. Surrender yourself, therefore, to my guidance, Phaedrus, and I will lead you over the hill by so easy a road that you shall never know you have been climbing. You see that there are nine columns; that, I suppose, does not pass your skill in arithmetic. Now, then, to simplify the matter, begin by dismissing from your attention every column but the first and the last; fancy all the rest obliterated.

Phed
. Most willingly; it is a heavenly fancy.

X
. Next look into the first column, and tell me what you see there.

Phed
. I see “lots” of 150s and 140s, and other ill-looking people of the same description.

X
. Well, these numbers express the products of the same labor on land of different qualities. The quantity of labor is assumed to be always the same; namely, the labor of ten men for a year (or one man for ten years, or twenty men for half a year, etc.). The producing labor, I say, is always the same; but the product is constantly varying. Thus, in the case Alpha the product is one hundred and fifty quarters; in the cases Delta and Epsilon, when cultivation has been compelled by increasing population to descend upon inferior land, the product of equal labor is no more than one hundred and forty quarters; and in the case Iota it has fallen to one hundred and twenty quarters. Now, upon Mr. Ricardo’s principle of valuation, I demand to know what ought to be the price of these several products which vary so much in quantity.

Phed
. Why, since they are all the products of the same quantity of labor, they ought all to sell for the same price.

X
. Doubtless; not, however, of necessity for the same money price, since money may itself have varied, in which case the same money price would be really a very different price; but for the same price in all things which have not varied in value. The Xi product, therefore, which is only ninety quarters, will fetch the same real price as the Alpha or Gamma products, which are one hundred and fifty. But, by the way, in saying this, let me caution you against making the false inference that corn is at the same price in the case Xi as in the case Alpha or Gamma; for the inference is the very opposite; since, if ninety quarters cost as much as one hundred and fifty, then each individual quarter of the ninety costs a great deal more. Thus, suppose that the Alpha product sold at four pounds a quarter, the price of the whole would be six hundred pounds. Six hundred pounds, therefore, must be the price of Xi, or the ninety quarters; but that is six pounds, thirteen shillings, four pence, a quarter. This ought to be a needless caution; yet I have known economists of great name stand much in need of it.