WAGES,  PROFITS  AND  INTEREST  185

given  industry  there  is  a  fixed  number  of
employers.  As  they  are  equally  efficient  and
enjoy  alike  the  confidence  of  capitalists,  they
will  have  businesses  of  about  the  same  size,
employing  the  same  number  of  work-people—
any  difference  of  ideas  which  the  employers
might  have  in  the  matter  of  the  proportions
in  which  the  factors  in  production  are  best
organized  being  disregarded  for  the  moment.
Then  each  employer  would  get  for  himself  the
difference  between  the  total  receipts  for  his
output  and  his  total  outlay,  the  total  outlay
being  made  up  of  the  payment  for  land  or
premises,  cost  of  any  necessary  material  and
accessories,  interest  on  capital  and  wages  for
labour.  It  has  to  be  proved  that  this  difference ­
  will  normally  be  a  positive  quantity  ;
that  after  all  expenses  of  production  are  paid
there  will  be  something  left  over.
That  something  may  be  left  over  can
be  demonstrated  from  what  we  have  learnt
already  in  Chapter  III.  Let  us  picture  to
ourselves  the  doings  of  an  employer  who,
after  starting  a  business  on  a  very  small  scale,
gradually  expands  it,  and  consider,  in  the
light  of  the  generalisations  already  laid  down
with  reference  to  production,  how  expenses
will  be  affected  by  an  increase  of  the  output.
Because  in  the  larger  business  more  division