OF LABOUR.

59

His assertion in another place, that “ the la-
bourer is only paid a really high price for his
labour, when his wages will purchase the pro-
duce of a great deal of labour#*,” is only an-
other mode of stating the same doctrine, and
amounts to this, that wages are high only
when a great proportion of the article pro-
duced falls to the labourer. For wages at the
same period being on a level in the different
branches of industry, if a man’s wages (to use
Mr. Ricardo’s language) will purchase the pro-
duce of a great deal of labour, they will pur-
chase the produce of a great deal of any sort
of labour, consequently the produce of a great
deal of his own labour, that is, the proportion
falling to him of the produce of his own labour
will be great.

The author of the Templars’ Dialogues, who
pushes Mr. Ricardo’s doctrines to their re-
motest consequences, and thus, if they are un-
true, necessarily exposes their incorrectness by

* Principles of Pol. Econ. and Taxation. p. 322, 3d ed.