improved.

The reader will observe in what manner I have guarded the
proposition. I am well aware, and indeed have myself stated in
another place, that the price of provisions often rises, without
a proportionate rise of labour: but this cannot possibly happen
for any length of time, if the demand for labour continues
increasing at the same rate, and the habits of the labourer are
not altered, either with regard to prudence, or the quantity of
work which he is disposed to perform.

The peculiar evil to be apprehended is, that the high money
price of labour may diminish the demand for it; and that it has
this tendency will be readily allowed, particularly as it tends
to increase the prices of exportable commodities. But repeated
experience has shown us that such tendencies are continually
counterbalanced, and more than counterbalanced by other
circumstances. And we have witnessed, in our own country, a
greater and more rapid extension of foreign commerce, than
perhaps was ever known, under the apparent disadvantage of a very
great increase in the price of corn and labour, compared with the
prices of surrounding countries.

On the other hand, instances everywhere abound of a very low
money price of labour, totally failing to produce an increasing
demand for it. And among the labouring classes of different
countries, none certainly are so wretched as those, where the
demand for labour, and the population are stationary, and yet the
prices of provisions extremely low, compared with manufactures
and foreign commodities. However low they may be, it is certain,