the goods would sell for L22,000 at 5 per cent. 21,000 4 per cent. 20,800 3 per cent. 20,600: therefore when profits fell from 10 to 3 per cent. the goods, which were produced with equal capitals, would fall 68 per cent. if the machine would last 100 years. 28 per cent. if the machine would last 10 years. 13 per cent. if it would last 3 years. And little more than 6 per cent. if it} would last only } 1 year. These results are of such importance to the science of political economy, yet accord so little with some of its received doctrines, which maintain that every rise in wages is necessarily transferred to the price of commodities, that it may not be superfluous to elucidate the subject still further. A manufacturer of hats employs a hundred men at an annual expense of 50_l._ each, who produce him commodities of the value of 8000_l._ A machine calculated to last precisely a year, and to do equally well the same work as the 100 men, is offered to him for 5000_l._, the sum, exactly, that he is expending on wages. It will be a matter of indifference to the manufacturer, whether he purchase the machine, or continue to employ the men. Now if the wages of labour rise 10 per cent. and an additional capital of 500_l._ be consequently required to enable him to employ the same labour, whilst his commodities continue to sell for 8000_l._, he will no longer hesitate, but will at once purchase the machine, and will do the same annually, while wages continue above the original 5000_l._ But will he be able now to purchase the machine at the former price? will not its value be increased, in consequence of the rise of labour? It would be increased, if there were no stock employed in its construction, and no profits to be paid to the maker of it. If, for example, the machine were produced by 100 men working one year upon it with wages of 50_l._ each, and its price were 5000_l._, should those wages rise to 55_l._ its price would be 5500_l._: but this cannot be the case; less than 100 men are employed, or it could not be sold for 5000_l._; for out of the 5000_l._ must be paid the profits of the stock which employed the men. Suppose then that only eighty-five men were employed at an expense of 4250_l._ per annum, and that the 750_l._, which the sale of the machine would produce over and above the wages advanced to the men, constituted the profits of the engineer's stock. When wages rose 10 per cent., he would be obliged to employ an additional capital of 425_l._, and would therefore employ 4675_l._, instead of 4250_l._, on which capital he would only get a profit of 325_l._ if he continued to sell his machine for 5000_l._; but this is precisely the case of all manufacturers and capitalists; the rise of wages affects them all. If therefore the maker of the machine should