{92

ON THE CAUSES

circumstances, there are divers subordinate
monopolies, occasioning labour to be paid
after different rates. In trades, which require
application for a greater or smaller period be-
fore they are learned, the workmen are evi-
dently protected from immediate competition;
and should there be an increase in the de-
mand for their work, their labour would rise
in value, and remain enhanced till more ar-
tizans possessed of their peculiar skill had been
formed.
It scarcely needs to be mentioned, in this
place, that although labourers cannot be pur-
posely augmented or reduced in number by the
application of capital, or its diversion into
different channels, like material commodities,
yet they may be augmented or reduced in
another way. The high value of labour, com-
pared with commodities in general, enabling the
labourers to live in abundance, marriages are en-
couraged, or at least more children are reared,
and population is increased ; so that, after the
lapse of a certain interval, thesame effect is pro-