M 
WAGES, PROFITS AND INTEREST 177 
the world as it is. Consequently wages in 
some trades would be poor in comparison 
with those in other trades, even if labour could 
move with ease from place to place and trade 
to trade. Moreover, for the performance of 
a particular kind of work which was agreeable 
rather than disagreeable comparatively rare 
qualities might be requisite, so that substantial 
remuneration would have to be paid for it. 
Our general conclusion is that wages in a 
given trade are settled by the marginal worth 
of labour in that trade and the supply price 
for labour in the trade, that is the wage at 
which an additional labourer will be forth 
coming. The wage is the amount at which 
equal quantities of labour will be demanded 
and supplied. It is marginal incidents, we 
see, which clinch the bargain. It may be, 
however, that the lowest class of labour has 
no supply price—that its numbers are inde 
pendent of its wages given sufficient for 
subsistence—in which case its wages are 
settled finally by its numbers in relation to 
the marginal worth associated with them. 
We now arrive at the conditions of the supply 
of capital. Capital we must be content to 
regard for the present as wealth devoted to 
production. Few, if any, industries can be 
carried on to-day without it. The demand