Page:Malthus 1823 The Measure of Value.djvu/63

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occasioned by tithes, cannot be balanced by an increase of their value, and that, consequently, tithes must fall mainly on the landlord.

On the subject of labour it would determine, that the increasing value of the funds destined for the maintenance of labour can alone occasion an increase in the demand for it, or the will and power to employ a greater number of labourers; and that it is consistent with theory, as well as general experience, that high corn wages, in proportion to the quantity of work done, should frequently occur with a very slack demand for labour;[1] or, in other words, that when the value of the whole produce falls from excess of supply compared with the demand, it cannot have the power of setting the same number of labourers to work.

On the subject of profits, it would show, that they are determined, not by the varying value of a given quantity of labour compared with the constant value of the commodities which it produces, but, as is more conformable to

  1. Practically, in all countries such as South America and Ireland, where there is a slack demand for labour, and the people are but half employed, the food wages of labour are high, compared with the work done.