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  necessary ­
  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