WAGES,  PROFITS  AND  INTEREST  171

business  equalled  what  he  had  to  pay  for  it.
In  short  in  organising  his  business  he
would  act  according  to  the  law  of  equimarginal ­
  returns  which  is  fully  expounded
in  Chapter  II.
In  the  above  example  the  nature  of  the
demand  for  one  of  the  agents  in  production
is  made  fully  explicit.  Let  us  next  consider
how  demand  works  in  relation  to  supply,  still
concentrating  our  attention  on  the  reward
of  labour.  Suppose  that  this  happens  to  have
settled  at  £2  a  week  as  a  result  of  the  forces
previously  operative  and  that  each  employer
has  101  workpeople,  when  all  workpeople  are
employed,  though  the  marginal  worth  of
labour  to  each  of  them  is  £2  3s.  a  week,  as
stated  in  the  table.  Then  each  employer
will  strive  to  get  more  labour  because  to
succeed  in  getting  it  would  be  to  augment  his
profit.  But  ex  hypothesi  there  is  no  more
labour  to  be  had  :  we  imagined  that  all  the
labour  was  occupied  when  each  employer  had
101  hands.  The  effect  of  the  employers’
action,  therefore,  cannot  be  to  enlarge  their
businesses  but  will  probably  be  to  lever  up
the  rate  of  wages  until  it  approximates  roughly
to  £2  3s.  a  week.  Exactly  the  same  can  be
said  with  reference  to  the  payment  for  other
factors.