rally cannot alter the economic law according to which wages are
determined by the relation between supply and demand in the labour
market. Hence the Unions remain powerless against all _great_ forces
which influence this relation. In a commercial crisis the Union itself
must reduce wages or dissolve wholly; and in a time of considerable
increase in the demand for labour, it cannot fix the rate of wages higher
than would be reached spontaneously by the competition of the capitalists
among themselves. But in dealing with minor, single influences they are
powerful. If the employer had no concentrated, collective opposition to
expect, he would in his own interest gradually reduce wages to a lower
and lower point; indeed, the battle of competition which he has to wage
against his fellow-manufacturers would force him to do so, and wages
would soon reach the minimum. But this competition of the manufacturers
among themselves is, _under average conditions_, somewhat restricted by
the opposition of the working-men.

Every manufacturer knows that the consequence of a reduction not
justified by conditions to which his competitors also are subjected,
would be a strike, which would most certainly injure him, because his
capital would be idle as long as the strike lasted, and his machinery
would be rusting, whereas it is very doubtful whether he could, in such a
case, enforce his reduction. Then he has the certainty that if he should
succeed, his competitors would follow him, reducing the price of the
goods so produced, and thus depriving him of the benefit of his policy.
Then, too, the Unions often bring about a more rapid increase of wages
after a crisis than would otherwise follow. For the manufacturer's
interest is to delay raising wages until forced by competition, but now
the working-men demand an increased wage as soon as the market improves,
and they can carry their point by reason of the smaller supply of workers
at his command under such circumstances. But, for resistance to more
considerable forces which influence the labour market, the Unions are
powerless. In such cases hunger gradually drives the strikers to resume
work on any terms, and when once a few have begun; the force of the Union
is broken, because these few knobsticks, with the reserve supplies of
goods in the market, enable the bourgeoisie to overcome the worst effects
of the interruption of business. The funds of the Union are soon
exhausted by the