uantity than before; in that case not only the quantity, but the value
of capital will rise.

Or capital may increase without its value increasing, and even while its
value is actually diminishing; not only may an addition be made to the
food and clothing of a country, but the addition may be made by the aid
of machinery, without any increase, and even with an absolute diminution
in the proportional quantity of labour required to produce them. The
quantity of capital may increase, while neither the whole together, nor
any part of it singly, will have a greater value than before.

In the first case, the natural price of wages, which always depends on
the price of food, clothing, and other necessaries, will rise; in the
second, it will remain stationary, or fall; but in both cases the market
rate of wages will rise, for in proportion to the increase of capital
will be the increase in the demand for labour; in proportion to the work
to be done will be the demand for those who are to do it.

In both cases too the market price of labour will rise above its natural
price; and in both cases it will have a tendency to conform to its
natural price, but in the first case this agreement will be most
speedily effected. The situation of the labourer will be improved, but
not much improved; for the increased price of food and necessaries will
absorb a large portion of his increased wages; consequently a small
supply of labour, or a trifling increase in the population, will soon
reduce the market price to the then increased natural price of labour.

In the second case, the condition of the labourer will be very greatly
improved; he will receive increased money wages, without having to pay
any increased price, and perhaps, even a diminished price for the
commodities which he and his family consume; and it will not be till
after a great addition has been made to the population, that the market
price of wages will again sink to their then low and reduced natural
price.

Thus, then, with every improvement of society, with every increase in
its capital, the market wages of labour will rise; but the permanence of
their rise will depend on the question, whether the natural price of
wages has also risen; and this again will depend on the rise in the
natural price of those necessaries, on which the wages of labour are
expended.

It is not to be understood that the natural price of wages, estimated
even in food and necessaries, is absolut