Note 173-3 — Chapter III

Dans aucune histoire on ne rencontre un seul trait, qui prouve que l'aisance du peuple par le travail a nui à son obéissance, (Forbonnais.) This is true only of well governed countries. When, in England, about the middle of the eighteenth century, a great improvement took place in the condition of the laboring classes, Postlethwayt (Great Britain's commercial Interests, 1759) was one of the first to recognize its general beneficial character; also Th. Mortimer. (Elements of Commerce, Politics and Finance, 1774, 82 ff.) Benjamin Franklin, before the American revolution, was of opinion that high wages made people lazy. (On the Price of Corn, 1776. On the laboring Poor, 1768.) He afterwards, however, acknowledged its generally good effect, and that even the products of labor might be cheapened thereby. (On the Augmentation of Wages, which will be occasioned in Europe by the American Revolution. Works II, 435 ff.) See further, Paoletti, Veri Mezzi di render felici le Società, ch. 15; Ricardo, Principles, ch. 5; Th. Brassey, on Work and Wages, 1872. Umpfenbach, Nat. Oek, 181, calls the costliness of labor to the purchaser of labor, "givers' wages," their purchasing power to the laborer himself, "receivers' wages," and is of opinion, that as civilization advances, the former declines and the latter rises.