60
tremendous calls of the State debt caused by the war, and thetaxes for tlie defence of the country as well as the colonies. Thathusbandry in the future will he more capable to bear these ever-increasing public burdens was beyond every possibility ; thereforeindustry was to be strengthened in the common interest of thecountry.
The further point of view, that free imports, and therewithcheapening of foodstuffs, must lessen the production costs of theindustry, is less seldom mentioned, perhaps because many manu-facturers were short-sighted enough to introduce this advantagein the unpopular form of reduction of wages. But that it wasthought about is shown by the writings of Ure and Cobden (53).
Ure lingers repeatedly on the advantage which the Continentpossesses in the greater cheapness of foodstuffs. In January,1836, the average price of wheat per quarter in Hamburg,Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Stettin had been £1 8s. Id., againstwhich in London it was £2 4s. Od. A similar relation existedbetween England and North America . But even Ure does notarrive at a correct understanding regarding the influence of theprices of foodstuffs in the production costs of the industry. Hisgaze rests in the first instance on the possibility of reductionin wages. If in England the amount of wages just reachedsufficient to guarantee the worker a scanty existence, this wagecould not be permanently reduced. But where for the wagespaid far more could be bought than was really necessary, therewas created the possibility of a reduction in wages. Thus werethe lower wages on the Continent explained by the cheapnessin the prices of food.
The manufacturers of Lancashire were certainly correct whenthey considered that cheap food meant also cheap labour ; theywere, however, mistaken in confounding cheap labour with lowerwages. Cheap labour, like low wages, is only in that beginningstage of centralised industrial development in which the workeraccomplishes no more than is necessary for satisfying thescantiest needs of life. If the latter become cheap, there istherewith, indeed, the possibility given of reducing wages, andthis is the only way to cheapen labour. It is otherwise wherothe modern worker develops himself from that extensive factorv-proletarianism. The English manufacturers certainly knew already
53. Compare R. Cobden : “ Political Writings,” I., p. 286. Ure: “CottonManufacture,” I., Intro., pp. 18, 36, 47, 56.