vely small collection would fall
considerably short of that which could have been ventured without fear
of causing another price increase--and without waiting for the test of
profit accumulation discussed elsewhere.[62]

Fourthly, changes in a relatively small collection of prices,
particularly if foodstuff prices bulk largely in the collection, are
apt to be more convulsive than general price movements. They are likely
to vary more than general price movements from year to year, and,
indeed, from season to season. This is so, although it is true that
retail prices tend to be far more stable than wholesale prices.[63]

Lastly, as Mitchell states, as a business factor crops are less an
effect than a cause of change in conditions. "Good crops tend to bring
prosperity and poor crops depression in the seasons which
follow...."[64] If foodstuffs fall because of a good harvest, it is more
likely than not that the next industrial year will be a good year. There
is, therefore, a preliminary presumption that there will be no occasion
for wage reduction (if wage adjustments to falling prices are
contemplated--which subject will be discussed immediately hereinafter).
If foodstuff prices rise because of a poor harvest, there is a
preliminary presumption that the succeeding industrial period will not
be one of very great activity. Therefore, an increase in wages
corresponding to the rise in the prices of food products would not serve
to increase very much, if at all, the command of the wage earners over
foodstuffs. This possibility of a divergence in the movement in the
price of provisions and of wages was pointed out, indeed, by Adam Smith.
To give the explanation in his words, "In a year of sudden and
extraordinary plenty, there are funds in the hands of many of the
employers of industry, sufficient to maintain and employ a greater
number of people than had been employed the year before; and this
extraordinary number cannot always be had. Those masters, therefore, who
want more workmen bid against one another, in order to get them, which
sometimes raises both the real and money price of their labor. The
contrary of this happens in a year of sudden and extraordinary
scarcity."[65]

2. Such are the disadvantages attaching to a policy of wage adjustment
based on the doctrine of the maintenance of the standard of life. It may
now be asked whether there is any alternative method to which smaller
disadvantages attach?

As to the