on which they are expended.

As population increases, these necessaries will be constantly rising in
price, because more labour will be necessary to produce them. If, then,
the money wages of labour should fall, whilst every commodity on which
the wages of labour were expended rose, the labourer would be doubly
affected, and would be soon totally deprived of subsistence. Instead,
therefore, of the money wages of labour falling, they would rise; but
they would not rise sufficiently to enable the labourer to purchase as
many comforts and necessaries as he did before the rise in the price of
those commodities. If his annual wages were before 24_l._, or six
quarters of corn when the price was 4_l._ per quarter, he would probably
receive only the value of five quarters when corn rose to 5_l._ per
quarter. But five quarters would cost 25_l._; he would therefore receive
an addition in his money wages, though with that addition he would be
unable to furnish himself with the same quantity of corn and other
commodities, which he had before consumed in his family.

Notwithstanding, then, that the labourer would be really worse paid, yet
this increase in his wages would necessarily diminish the profits of the
manufacturer; for his goods would sell at no higher price, and yet the
expense of producing them would be increased. This, however, will be
considered in our examination into the principles which regulate
profits.

It appears, then, that the same cause which raises rent, namely, the
increasing difficulty of providing an additional quantity of food with
the same proportional quantity of labour, will also raise wages; and
therefore if money be of an unvarying value, both rent and wages will
have a tendency to rise with the progress of wealth and population.

But there is this essential difference between the rise of rent and the
rise of wages. The rise in the money value of rent is accompanied by an
increased share of the produce; not only is the landlord's money rent
greater, but his corn rent also; he will have more corn, and each
defined measure of that corn will exchange for a greater quantity of all
other goods which have not been raised in value. The fate of the
labourer will be less happy: he will receive more money wages, it is
true, but his corn wages will be reduced; and not only his command of
corn, but his general condition will be deteriorated, by his finding it
more difficult to maintain the market rate of wage