PROBLEMS  OF  DISTRIBUTION  233

product  would  be  depleted.  Whether,  then,
the  workpeople  would  gain  or  lose  in  the  long
run  would  depend  (assuming  that  these
reactions  would  be  met  with)  upon  whether
their  larger  share  of  the  smaller  product
was  greater  than  the  smaller  share  of  the
larger  product  which  they  had  previously
received.  Up  to  a  certain  point  the  former
sum  might  conceivably  be  the  greater  ;  if
it  were,  up  to  that  point  the  concerted
action  supposed  on  the  part  of  labour
would  have  worked  to  their  advantage.
In  going  beyond  any  such  point,  however,
they  would  lose,  that  is  if  they  attempted
to  grasp  a  share  of  the  national  product
in  excess  of  a  given  amount  which  it  is
possible  theoretically  to  define.  Inanimate
nature  presents  analogies  :  if  a  rhubarb  bed
is  too  greedily  plucked  one  year  its  powers
of  recovery  may  be  so  weakened  that  it  will
never  be  the  same  again.
The  reader  must  not  close  the  book  at  this
point  and  run  away  with  the  false  and
mischievous  idea  that  an  important  practical
conclusion  has  been  deduced.  For  practical
purposes  our  argument  is  as  yet  one-sided.  It
has  now  to  be  qualified.  So  far  we  have  been
dealing  with  a  highly  abstract  case  implying
assumptions  all  of  which  could  not  possibly