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THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

lence of those tumultuous combinations, which, partly fromthe interposition of the civil magistrate, partly from the su-perior steadiness of the masters, partly from the necessitywhich the greater part of the workmen are under of submit-ting for the sake of present subsistence, generally end in no-thing, but the punishment or ruin of the ringleaders.

But though in disputes with their workmen, masters mustgenerally have the advantage, there is however a certain rate,below which it seems impossible to reduce, for any consider-able time, the ordinary wages even of the lowest species oflabour.

A man must always live by his work, and his wages mustat least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even uponmost occasions be somewhat more; otherwise it would beimpossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of suchworkmen could not last beyond the first generation. Mr.Cantillon seems, upon this account, to suppose that the lowestspecies of common labourers must everywhere earn at leastdouble their maintenance, in order that one with another theymay be enabled to bring up two children; the labour of thewife, on account of her necessary attendance on the children,being supposed no more than sufficient to provide for herself.But one half the children born, it is computed, die before theage of manhood. The poorest labourers, therefore, accord-ing to this account, must, one with another, attempt to rearat least four children, in order that two may have an equalchance of living to that age. But the necessary maintenanceof four children, it is supposed, may be nearly equal to thatof one man. The labour of an able-bodied slave, the sameauthor adds, is computed to be worth double his main-tenance ; and that of the meanest labourer, he thinks, cannotbe worth less than that of an able-bodied slave. Thus farat least seems certain, that, in order to bring up a family,the labour of the husband and the wife together must, evenin the lowest species of common labour, be able to earnsomething more than what is precisely necessary for theirown maintenance; but in what proportion, whether in thatabove mentioned, or in any other, I shall not take upon meto determine.

There are certain circumstances, however, which some-times give the labourers an advantage, and enable them toraise their wages considerably above this rate; evidently thelowest which is consistent with common humanity.