ECONOMIC EXPERTS 741 
disparaged. It is possible, however, at this date to give them 4-D. 1776 
discriminating appreciation. The doctrine of the Wages 
Fund, and the popular dread of over-population, were well- 
founded in fact, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century ; and put 
. . . . forward a 
but in so far as the teaching, which was true in the ex- ‘doctrine of 
ceptional conditions of the time, was formulated in principles ona” 
which were supposed to be valid for all future ages, it was iii 
mistaken and misleading. 
The exponents of the Wages Fund maintained the position 
that it was impossible for combinations of workmen to raise 
wages. They held that the rate of wages was necessarily 
determined by the relation between the numbers applying 
for work and the fund set apart by the capitalists for the 
payment of wages. This principle is convenient for purposes 
of special analysis; at any given moment there is, as a matter 
of fact, a wages fund which consists of all the money available 
there and then for paying labour. It is altogether a mistake, 
however, to suppose that this sum is in any sense fixed ; as it 
is constantly fluctuating, according as masters find it worth 
their while to set a greater or a smaller amount of labour 
at work. The Classical Economists were guilty of neglecting all forts 
this constant fluctuation in the sums assigned to the payment of labourers 
of wages; the circumstances of their time did not allow them ae 
to observe it. As a matter of fact the wages fund was 
practically stationary during the period of depression which 
succeeded the war. This fund appeared to be fixed, because 
the conditions which would have enabled masters to raise 
wages were rarely realised. This was particularly true of 
those trades in which the cost of production by machinery 
and by hand were nearly balanced. If the rates of payment 
to labour were raised, then production by hand would be un- 
remunerative, and it would be displaced by the introduction 
of machines ; or on the other hand, if prices improved and it 
became profitable to manufacture on a larger scale, it would 
pay to introduce machines rather than to increase the number 
of hands. The competition of machinery gave a regular since they 
fixity to the wages fund at this time; but the Classical thar 
Economists allowed themselves to generalise from the circum- Se 
stances of their own day, as if they were normal for all time.