cost of production, as 1 1/5 quarter now. In order, therefore, that each
labourer should receive the same cost of production, each must now
receive one quarter of corn, _plus_ one-fifth. The labour of 100 men
could not be purchased at this price for less than 120 quarters; and the
produce, 180 quarters, would yield only 50 per cent, as first supposed [7].

It is, therefore, strictly true, that the rate of profits varies
inversely as the cost of production of wages. Profits cannot rise,
unless the cost of production of wages falls exactly as much; nor fall,
unless it rises.

The proof of this position has been stated in figures, and in a
particular case: we shall now state it in general terms, and for all
cases.

We have supposed, for simplicity, that wages are paid in the finished
commodity. The agricultural labourers, in our example, were paid in
corn, and if we had called them weavers, we should have supposed them to
be paid in cloth. This supposition is allowable, for it is obviously of
no consequence, in a question of value, or cost of production, what
precise article we assume as the medium of exchange. The supposition
has, besides, the recommendation of being conformable to the most
ordinary state of the facts; for it is by the sale of his own finished
article that each capitalist obtains the means of hiring labourers to
renew the production; which is virtually the same thing as if, instead
of selling the article for money and giving the money to his labourers,
he gave the article itself to the labourers, and they sold it for their
daily bread.

Assuming, therefore, that the labourer is paid in the very article he