hich the
difficulty arose presupposes it) that the cost of production of an
article consists generally of two parts,--the _wages_ of the labour
employed, and the _profits_ of those who, in any antecedent stage of
the production, have advanced any portion of those wages. An article,
therefore, may be the produce of the same quantity of labour as before,
and yet, if any portion of the profits which the last producer has to
make good to previous producers can be economized, the cost of
production of the article is diminished.

Now, in our example, a diminution of this sort is supposed to have taken
place in the cost of production of corn. The production of that article
has become less costly, in the ratio of six to five. A quantity of corn,
the means of producing which could not previously have been secured but
at an expense of 120 quarters, can now be produced by means which 100
quarters are sufficient to purchase.

But the labourer is supposed to receive the same quantity of corn as
before. He receives one quarter. The cost of production of wages has,
therefore, fallen one-sixth. A quarter of corn, which is the
remuneration of a single labourer, is indeed the produce of the same
quantity of labour as before; but its cost of production is nevertheless
diminished. It is now the produce of 10/18 of a man's labour, and
nothing else; whereas formerly it required for its production the
conjunction of that quantity of labour with an expenditure, in the form
of reimbursement of profit, amounting to one-fifth more.

If the cost of production of wages had remained the same as before,
profits could not have risen. Each labourer received one quarter of
corn; but one quarter of corn at that time was the result of the same
cost of production, as 1 1/5 quarter now. In order, therefore, that each
labourer should receive the same cost of production, each must now
receive one quarter of corn, _plus_ one-fifth. The labour of 100 men
could not be purchased at this price for less than 120 quarters; and the
produce, 180 quarters, would yield only 50 per cent, as first supposed [7].

It is, therefore, strictly true, that the rate of profits varies
inversely as the cost of production of wages. Profits cannot rise,
unless the cost of production of wages falls exactly as much; nor fall,
unless it rises.

The proof of this position has been stated in figures, and in a
particular case: we shall now state it in general terms, and for all
cases