Sayfa 167 / 2651

What are the common wages of labour, depends everywhere upon the

contract usually made between those two parties, whose interests

are by no means the same. The workmen desire to get as much, the

masters to give as little, as possible. The former are disposed

to combine in order to raise, the latter in order to lower, the

wages of labour.

It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of the two parties

must, upon all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the

dispute, and force the other into a compliance with their terms.

The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more easily:

and the law, besides, authorises, or at least does not prohibit,

their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen. We

have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the price

of work, but many against combining to raise it. In all such

disputes, the masters can hold out much longer. A landlord, a

farmer, a master manufacturer, or merchant, though they did not

employ a single workman, could generally live a year or two upon

the stocks, which they have already acquired. Many workmen could

not subsist a week, few could subsist a month, and scarce any a

year, without employment. In the long run, the workman may be as

necessary to his master as his master is to him; but the

necessity is not so immediate.