good workmen, equal almost to their master in education," for instance, in the case of overseers of labor; since every better inducement to the taste for labor which is not only juster but more complicative, is not only a condition but also the effect of higher culture. But if the economy of a people is ripe for share-wages, and masters begin to introduce them in earnest in individual cases, the work produced will be improved to such a degree that it can not be long before all others will be necessitated to follow them.14

If, howerer, workmen are to enjoy the fruit of their industry, it is necessary, first of all, that public order should be secure. Even the most industrious become discouraged where despotism or anarchy prevails. On the other hand, even the greatest security is no sufficient incentive to a nation of fatalists.15

always paid a certain quota of the profits. Leo, in Raumer's historischem Taschenbuch, 1835, 524. The same was often the case in China. McCulloch, Comm. Diction. v. Canton. In England, its employment was rendered very difficult by the laws of partnership, which made each individual, except in great chartered societies, responsible for all kinds of debts contracted by the rest of the firm. 7. S. Mill, B. IV, ch. 7, 5.

13 The house painter Leclaire, in Paris, obtained very high results in this respect. Leclaire, Répartition des Bénéfices du Travail, 1842. He retained for his own services as contractor the sum of 6,000 francs, and paid each workman the salary he had hitherto received. What remained was, at the end of the year, equally divided among all. Leclaire assures us that he was always satisfied with the system. The paying of a proportion of the general profits to laborers is advisable only in case their ability of surveying the whole is not much inferior to that of their employers. Where a special proportion is paid, in special branches of business, it is sufficient if their supervision extends over that particular branch. But a sharing in the profits of business always supposes a corresponding supervision of the business itself, and also the keeping of accounts.

14 A very good remedy against indigence among the lower classes. (Umpfenbach, National Ekonomie, 1867, 214.) But whether it will ever be possible to make the remuneration of the navvy or that of a type-setter depend on the final success of his work, quære.

15 Tournefort, speaking of the fatalism of the Turks, says that they always and everywhere leave the world as they found it. According to their own proverb, no grass grows again where the Osman has set foot.

SECTION XL.

LABOR.-LABOR-POWER OF INDIVIDUALS.

The average labor-power of individuals varies very much in different nations. The reason of this is, in part, doubtless a difference in natural endowments. Thus, for instance, no people surpass the English and Anglo-American in energy, none the German in intelligence in work or the French in taste. Where we can assume that the same meaning is attached to the expression, "military capacity," by the different recruiting bureaus, important conclusions as to the physical labor-power of different localities may be drawn from the ratio existing be

1 The experiments made with the dynamometer in 1800 ff. show that the average force manuelle of an inhabitant of Van Dieman's Land is to that of an inhabitant of New Holland, of Timor, of a French marine, and of an English colonist in Australia, in the ratio of 50, 51, 58, 69, 71 kilogrammes. Péron, Voyage de Découverte aux Terres australes, 2d ed., II, 417. It was found more recently in the American army, that the average lifting-power of white soldiers was 314 to 343 lbs; of white marines, 307; students, 308; negroes, 323; mulattos, 348; and Indians, 419. Gould, Investigations in the Military and Anthropolog. Statistics of American Soldiers, 1869, 458, seq. According to English manufacturers, an English laborer accomplishes almost as much again as a French one(?), and the latter in turn more than an Irishman. An English contractor, who had worked in French manufactories, expressed his opinion concerning the French to this effect: "It cannot be called work they do; it is only looking at it and wishing it done." Senior, Outlines, 149. Thus, for instance, a good English spinner with a machine of 8oo spindles could produce 66 lbs. of yarn, No. 40, while a Frenchman could produce only 48 lbs. (M. Mohl, Reise durch Frankreich, 535; compare Dingler, Polyt. Journal, I, 63 seq.) That the Americans also are inferior to the English in strength and dexterity is attested by the American Hewitt. See Brentano, Arbeitergilden, II, 231. A Berlin wood-sawyer accomplished as much in ten days as a West Prussian from Labiau in twenty-seven days. J. G. Hoffmann. English farmers on the Hellespont prefer to pay Greek laborers £10 per year "besides their keep," rather than £3 to Turkish laborers. (Lord Carlisle, Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters, 1854, p. 77 seq.) In Paulopinang, the Malayan agricultural laborer receives $22 per month, the Malabar, $4, the Chinese, $6; for which compensation they work respectively 26, 28 and 30 days. Ritter, Erdkunde, v, 54.

VOL, I.-10

tween the number of those fit for military service and those who are legally liable to military duty.2

But these conclusions are greatly modified by the state of civilization and that of society. Where the laboring classes are despised and paid in a manner unworthy of human beings, the badness of their work will be in keeping with the estimation in which it is held. The reverse of this, also, is usually true under different circumstances. (§ 173.) Thus, it has been noticed in France, that native workmen, provided with as substantial food as English workmen, are scarcely inferior to the the latter in the technic value of their labor. A Mecklenburg day laborer eats almost twice as much as a Thuringian workman, but then he accomplishes almost twice as much. Hence, employers gain in the long run by paying their workmen well. As civilization advances, the same number of workmen become, not only more industrious and more capable, but the same quantity and quality of labor becomes, as a rule, cheaper.1

Little light can be thrown on this subject by a comparison of different countries. Thus, in France, there are 614 persons in every 1,000 examined fit for military service; in Bavaria, 705; in Denmark, 523; in Austria, 498; in Prussia, 284; in Saxony, 259; in England, where the conscription is from among the lowest classes, 665; and in Württemberg, 490. (Wappäus, Allg. Bevölkerungsstatistik, II, 71, 140. Massy, Remarks on the Examination of Recruits, 1854. (Memminger, Würt. Jahrb., 1843, 103.) The comparison of different parts of the same state is much more instructive. Thus, in Saxony, cities afford only 197, and the flat country only 265 per 1,000 (Sächs. statist. Ztschr., 1856, No. 4 ff.); and in France there are among those of illegitimate birth a very large number unfit for military service. (Journ. des Econ., 1850, XXV, 69.) According to the Austrian Annual of military statistics, there were in 1870, on an average, throughout the entire monarchy, 211 per 1,000 of those liable to enter the ranks of the military, fit for service; in the Innsbruck command, 325; in Lemberg, 179.

3 M. Chevalier, Cours, I, 115. dustry of well paid workmen.

Adam Smith, B. I, ch. 8, noticed the great inAmong the uneducated, labor must almost necessarily be repulsive in proportion as it is illy remunerated.

4 Thus A. Young remarked that wages in Ireland are wretchedly low, while labor is far from being cheap. In his "Evidence in Respect to the Occupation of Land in Ireland,” II, 135, he says that a Scotch day laborer at is. per day is cheaper than an Irish day laborer at 1⁄2s. According to McCulloch, "Statis. Account of the British Empire," I, 666, industrial labor in Germany

The moral culture of a people exerts the greatest influence here. In every private undertaking, a great part of the expense attending it, and in every state, a great part of the expense of its police system, and of its system of administering justice, is occasioned only by the dishonesty of men. If all this expense could be dispensed with, and full confidence placed in individuals, it would be possible to devote much more time and energy to positively useful labor. In estimating the laborpower of different nations or different periods of time, the division of population according to age is also of importance. As a rule, the labor-power of males is greatest from the age of twenty-five to the age of forty-five. The more numerous, therefore, the class of the population between these ages is, the more favorably, other things being equal, is it situated as regards labor. But, as a rule, the relative number of fullgrown people is greatest in highly civilized nations. (§ 248.)

67

and France is dearer than in England, because in the former countries there are, ceteris paribus, twice as many laborers employed in most manufactures. See Senior, Lectures on Wages, 1839, 11, and the reports of the committees of parliament, passim on French manufactures (1825). The same has been experienced in the agricultural history of Schleswig-Holstein. Se: Hanssen, Archiv. der Politisch. Œk. IV, 421. La main d'œuvre est chère en Russie dès qu'il s'agit d'une certaine capacité et d'un certain degré d'instruction professionelle, tandis que celle de l'ouvrier ordinaire n'est nulle part aussi bas. (Tégoborsky.)

5 Thus even Columella, R. R. I, 9. J. S. Mill, Principles, I, ch. 7, 5.

Thus, for instance, the Lex Visigoth., VIII, 4, 16, graduates the fine to be paid by the murderer according to the age of his victim. It increases up to the 20th year in the case of males, and diminishes after the 50th. In the case of females, the maximum is attained between the ages of 15 and 40. Similarly even Moses, Book III, 27.

As to what concerns the two sexes, the force rénale of adult males is twice that of females in the human species. The difference between them in youth is not so great. The force manuelle of the two sexes at the age of 30 is as 9:5. (Quételet, Sur l'Homme II, p. 73 ff.) The numerical ratio of one sex to the other varies but little among those nations which have attained a certain degree of civilization. See infra, § 245.

8 It is of great importance to calculate here the number of days in the year in which the laborer is compelled to be idle on account of sickness. Fenger,

SECTION XLI.

LABOR.-EFFECT OF THE ESTEEM IN WHICH IT IS HELD.

As civilization advances, labor becomes more honorable.' All barbarous nations despise it as slavish. Pigrum et incrs videtur sudore adquirere quod possis sanguine parare: has been the motto of all medieval times. In heathen Iceland, the owner of a piece of land might be deprived of it by an adversary who could overpower him in single combat. This mode of acquisition was considered more honorable than purchase. It was Thor's own form of investiture. The ideas of the Romans on rightful acquisition may be inferred from the word mancipium (manu capere).1 Pure Christianity, on the other hand, preached the honorableness of labor from the first (Thess. 4, 11; II. Thess. 3, 8 seq.; Eph. 4, 28). And so in the time of the Reformation,2 when Christendom was returning to its primitive purity.

In keeping with this is the fact, that the most cultivated

(Quid faciant ætas annique tempus ad frequentiam et diuturnitatem morborum, Hafniæ 1840), finds the following result: Between 15 and 19 years,

7.2 days.

Between 35 and 39 years,

7.8 days.

The latter table is the result of a comparison made of the tables of seventy Scotch mutual aid societies. Compare Divgler, Polyt. Journal, XXIV, 168. 1 Tacit., Germ., 14. Leo, in Raumer's Taschenbuch, 1835, 418. Maxime sua esse credebant, quæ ex hostibus cepissent. (Gajus IV, 16.) Roman auction sub hasta! Similar views obtained among the Thracians. See Herodot, V, 6. In Sparta, even in the time of Agesilaus, economic labor was considered unworthy of a free man, (Plutarch, Ages, 26); while the Athenians, from the time of Solon, punished idleness, and from that of Pericles "knew no other festival but attending to their business." Thucyd., I. 70. For some happy observations on this subject, see Richl, Die deutsche Arbeit, 1861.

2 Compare Erasmus Colloq. (ed. Stallb.), 21 ff., 213 ff., 392 ff.