WAGES,  PROFITS  AND  INTEREST  18»
greater.  This  movement,  as  the  one  previously ­
  dealt  with,  would  continue  until  the
earnings  of  employers  were  just  sufficient  to
maintain  the  supply  under  the  new  conditions.
In  other  words,  the  payment  of  employers
for  the  work  that  they  do  is  governed  on  the
one  side  by  the  surpluses  over  expenses  of
production  when  businesses  are  of  different
sizes,  and  on  the  other  side  by  the  incomes
at  which  different  numbers  of  employers
will  be  forthcoming.  So  we  may  say  that  the
earnings  of  employers  are  settled  by  demand
and  supply.  The  surpluses  just  mentioned
express  the  demand,  and  supply  means  the
supplies  of  organising  power  forthcoming
when  different  incomes  are  to  be  expected.
The  importance  of  marginal  effects  in  this
theory  is  apparent.
It  will  be  understood  that  the  earnings  of
employers  for  the  work  that  they  do  can  only
be  regarded  as  approximating  to  a  defined
limit  in  an  exaggerated  long  run,  a  long  run
which  is  much  longer  than  the  time  required
to  bring  interest  or  wages  to  their  normal
levels.  The  reason  is  that  an  industrial
business  is  an  economic  organism  of  very
slow  growth,  and  that  once  a  business  has
been  established,  unless  it  is  worked  at  a
positive  loss  apart  from  payments  to  cover  the