234

POLITICAL  ECONOMY

be  realized.  It  is  supposed  that  workpeople
are  in  a  position  to  sell  their  labour  in  the
lump,  which  is  to  say  that  they  are  so  placed
that  they  can  prevent  employers  from  dismissing ­
  any  hands  when  wages  rise.  Now
employers  as  a  body  would  certainly  be
wishful  to  dismiss  some  hands  when  the
trade  unions  had  forced  up  wages  in  the
manner  supposed,  because  wages,  which  we
imagined  to  have  been  equal  previously  to  the
marginal  worth  of  labour,  would  have  become
greater  than  the  marginal  worth  of  labour.
That  the  workpeople  would  get  wages  in
excess  of  their  marginal  worth,  if  they  got
their  way  in  the  case  put  above,  can  easily
be  demonstrated.  It  has  been  premised  that
the  quantities  both  of  employing  power  and
capital  engaged  in  industry  would  be  reduced.
This  being  so,  the  marginal  worth  of  labour
would  be  bound  to  fall  because  its  marginal
worth  varies  directly  as  the  quantity  of  the
other  factors  in  collaboration  with  which  it  is
working  ;  and  though  its  marginal  worth  would
fall  in  the  circumstances  considered,  its  wage
has  been  supposed  to  rise.  But  according  to
the  theory  of  wages,  the  employer  will  not  pay
labour  more  than  its  marginal  worth  :  if  an
attempt  is  made  to  force  him  to  do  so  he  will
turn  off  workpeople  until  he  reaches  the  point