it cheaply; and the selling price depends on the relation between the
necessity to buy on one hand, or to sell on the other. Diminish
suddenly and largely the competition for the purchase of food, and the
farmer becomes the prey of the mechanic. Increase it suddenly and
largely, and the mechanic becomes the prey of the farmer; whereas a
gradual and gentle increase in the demand for food is accompanied by a
similar increase in the demand for the products of the loom and the
anvil, and both farmer and mechanic prosper together, because the
competition for purchase and the competition for sale grow together
and balance each other. So, too, with labour. Wages are dependent upon
the relation between the number of those who desire to buy and to sell
labour. Diminish suddenly the number of those who desire to sell it,
and the farmer may be ruined. Diminish suddenly the number of those
who desire to buy it, and the labourer may become the slave of the
farmer.

For almost two centuries, men possessed of capital and desirous to
purchase labour had been induced to transfer it to the colonies, and
the government secured to them the right to obtain labourers on
certain specified terms--such terms as made the labourer a mere
instrument in the hands of the capitalist, and prevented him from
obtaining any of those habits or feelings calculated to inspire him
with a love for labour. At once, all control over him was withdrawn,
and the seller of labour was converted into the master of him who was
thus, by the action of the government, placed in such a situation that
he _must_ buy it or be ruined. Here was a disturbance of the order of
things that had existed, almost as great as that which occurs when the
powerful steam, bursting the boiler in which it is enclosed, ceases to
be the servant and becomes the master of man; and it would have
required but little foresight to enable those who had the government