“cost”  comes  out  of  higher  PRICES  107
amenable  to  taxation,  might  pass  to  the  workers  in  the
shape  of  increased  wages.  Although  the  common  belief
of  working  men  that  the  “  eight-hours’  day  ”  or  any  other
increased  cost  of  production  could  be  paid  for  out  of
profit  does  not  admit  the  sweeping  application  it  often
receives,  there  are  unquestionably  many  trades  which  in
normal  conditions  could  and  actually  would  bear  the
“  cost.”  In  these  cases  the  transfer  of  would-be  profits
and  rents  to  wages  in  attainment  of  a  shorter  workingday
  for  a  larger  number  of  workers  would  be  directly
instrumental  in  raising  the  consumption  of  the  community,
for  if  our  former  analysis  be  correct  a  far  larger  proportion ­
  of  the  wages  than  of  the  profits  and  rents  will  be
spent  upon  consumables.
§9.  Where  the  “  Cost*  Comes  out  of
Higher  Prices.
Again,  there  will  be  other  cases  where,  trade  competition
being  keen,  profits  are  too  low  to  bear  the  increased  cost,
but  where  prices  might  be  raised  and  consumers  made
to  bear  the  cost.  This  would  be  the  case  where  international ­
  competition  is  excluded  and  where,  as  in  the
case  of  necessaries  or  prime  comforts,  the  necessary  rise
of  price  would  not  appreciably  affect  consumption.  The
objection  which  is  sometimes  raised  to  the  effect  that
such  a  rise  of  prices  though  it  might  benefit  the  workers
in  some  trades  would  not  benefit  the  whole  body  of
workers  since  in  their  capacity  of  consumers  they  would
suffer,  does  not  seem  convincing.
The  rise  of  price  will  really  operate  in  the  same  way
as  a  new  tax  which  it  is  sought  to  place  upon  wages,  the
real  incidence  of  which  may  be  tested  by  taking  the  posi-