AND ON-THE CONTINENT.

9

of French trade to be in the first place ascribed. Justso the development in stock-farming and garden and vineculture, the products of which now for the first time found con-sumers. Even the farmers themselves had not suffered to any extentby the falling of wheat prices. Messance proceeds, like Postle-thwait, in the first instance on the ground of increased consump-tion, although he mentions also the increase of industriousness andlabour power in consequence of lower wheat prices and higherwages. In the cloth factories at Elbeuf and the silk and linenmills at Rouen we have the proofs. Messance communicates anumber of tables, which, as Receiver of Taxes, stood at his service.From these, indeed, it was clear during 1740 and 1763 that theyears of dear wheat had been mostly years of less produc-tion, and vice versa; that in every case the dearest showed theleast, the cheapest the largest production.

Y. The teaching of Adam Smith was, however, far from hikingimmediate root. The almost universally accepted wage-theoryof Ricardo stood as more important in opposition. Ricardocertainly acknowledges clearly that the minimum standard ofliving, to which according to him the worker was chained, de-pended upon the customary standard of living. But in his furtherstatements, as in those of his supporters, this customary limit,though capable of being raised, disappeared behind the bare mini-mum of existence, solely decided by physiological laws. Theeconomical prosperity of a country—i.e., according to the personaleconomical standpoint of Ricardo, the profit of the employers—depended, for him, on low wages. Therefore, countries in whichwages were low had an advantage over countries with high wages.In the latter countries capital was to be led into the channels inwhich the least labour in its own country was necessary— a stepbackward from the theory of Tucker (19). According, therefore,to Ricardo, centralised industrial development (20), which he hadalready in his mind, does not necessarily at the same time meansocial development: for however much national economy advancedand riches increased the worker remained chained to the minimumstandard of life. That which A. Young had uttered as a practicaldemand was with Ricardo a law of nature.

19. Compnrp. on Ricardo's position, Herkner: “ Die sociale Reform als Gebotdes wirtscbaftlichen Fortschritts ” (Leipzig, 1891), p. 12.

20. Factory system development.— Translator.