176 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 
the same, there would soon be an increase in 
the proportion of the people engaged in 
carpentering. Nevertheless the inference would 
be quite invalid that when wages are higher 
in one calling than in another larger supplies 
of labour will be forthcoming for the former 
than for the latter. It may very well be that 
the higher wages in the one calling are neces 
sary to overcome adverse influences which 
deter labour from entering it. The work may 
be very laborious, or very monotonous, or 
exceptionally unpleasant or unhealthy ; or 
it may be irregular, or entail lengthy and 
expensive training ; or the chance of failing in 
the calling may be unusually high. All that 
can be affirmed is that, when full allowance is 
made for these incidents, an increased supply 
of labour for a particular avocation can only 
be enticed by the offer of a more generous 
recompense. Neither must we conclude that, 
apart from payment to counteract these 
deterring influences, the levels of wages will 
actually incline in the long run to be the same 
throughout a community. They would, were it 
a fact that any one workman was as valuable 
as any other, and that the taste of any 
one workman with reference to different sorts 
of work was the same as that of any other. 
These conditions are not, however, found in