OF LABOUR.

AT

case in the preceding extract. He says, that if
by improvements in machinery and agriculture,
the whole produce of a country were doubled,
while the quantity of labour employed continued
 the same, and if before this increase of
produce, of every hundred hats, coats, and
quarters of corn, the labourer received 25, and
after the increase only 22, then wages would
have fallen, although the labourer actually received
 44, where he before received only 25.
But if by a fall of wages is meant a fall in the
value of labour; if, further, by value we mean
the power of commanding other things in exchange,
 and if the degrees of that power are in
proportion to the quantity commanded, then it
is evident, that so far from wages falling they
would have risen, inasmuch as a definite portion
 of labour would command in exchange an
increased quantity of hats, coats, and corn.
I have said, that an alteration in the proportion
 of the product assigned to the labourer is
one cause of variation in the value of labour:
for it is manifest, that if out of a fixed quantity
of hats, coats, and corn, the labourer receives