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POLITICAL  ECONOMY

cheaper  for  the  poor—and  transparently
more  can  be  produced  for  the  poor  when  their
demand  has  to  compete  to  a  less  extent
with  rich  people’s  demand  for  consumers’
goods.
It  has  been  counterclaimed  above,  as  against
the  pessimists  who  dread  lest  wages  should
fall  as  more  machinery  is  used,  that  the
effect  of  using  capital  in  production  is  to
intensify  the  demand  for  labour,  so  that  a
bigger  real  wage  will  be  paid  when  much
capital  is  used  than  when  little  capital  is
used.  The  ground  on  which  this  counterclaim ­
  rests  is  that  the  productivity  of  labour
is  enhanced  with  every  additional  accession
of  suitable  appliances  :  and  labour  is  remunerated, ­
  if  our  theory  is  correct,  in  proportion
to  its  productivity.  The  rate  of  interest
may  be  very  high,  and  the  proportion  of
the  national  income  absorbed  by  capitalists
may  be  very  large,  but  nevertheless  t  he  capital
must  have  added  to  the  national  product
under  normal  conditions  a  larger  amount  than
is  paid  for  it.  Another  way  of  proving  this
conclusion  is  to  derive  it  from  the  doctrine  of
consumers’  surplus  ;  for  capital  as  well  as
labour  is  paid  only  its  marginal  worth,  and  the
initial  returns  to  capital  are  very  much  higher
than  the  later  returns.  Hence  there  is  a