PROBLEMS OF DISTRIBUTION 233 
product would be depleted. Whether, then, 
the workpeople would gain or lose in the long 
run would depend (assuming that these 
reactions would be met with) upon whether 
their larger share of the smaller product 
was greater than the smaller share of the 
larger product which they had previously 
received. Up to a certain point the former 
sum might conceivably be the greater ; if 
it were, up to that point the concerted 
action supposed on the part of labour 
would have worked to their advantage. 
In going beyond any such point, however, 
they would lose, that is if they attempted 
to grasp a share of the national product 
in excess of a given amount which it is 
possible theoretically to define. Inanimate 
nature presents analogies : if a rhubarb bed 
is too greedily plucked one year its powers 
of recovery may be so weakened that it will 
never be the same again. 
The reader must not close the book at this 
point and run away with the false and 
mischievous idea that an important practical 
conclusion has been deduced. For practical 
purposes our argument is as yet one-sided. It 
has now to be qualified. So far we have been 
dealing with a highly abstract case implying 
assumptions all of which could not possibly