[Footnote 160-8: Just as the husband binds himself in marriage. While in concubinage there is apparent equality, it costs the woman a much greater sacrifice than the man.] SECTION CLXI. WAGES OF LABOR.--THE MINIMUM OF WAGES. Human labor cannot, any more than any other commodity, be supplied, in the long run, at a price below the cost of production.[161-1] [161-2] The cost of production here embraces not only the necessary or customary means of subsistence of the workman himself, but also of his family; that is, of the coming generation of workmen. The number of the latter depends essentially on the demand for labor. If this demand be such that it may be satisfied by an average of six children to a family, the rate of wages must be such as to support the workman himself and to cover the cost of bringing up six children.[161-3] Where it is customary for the wife and child, as well as for the father, to work for wages, the father does not need to earn the entire support of the family, and hence individual wages may be smaller.[161-4] But if it were to fall below the cost mentioned above, it would not be long before increased mortality and emigration, and a diminution of marriages and births would produce a diminution of the supply; the result of which would be, if the demand remained the same, a renewed rise of wages. Conversely, it would be more difficult for the rate of wages to be maintained long much above that same cost, in proportion as the gratification of the sexual appetite was more generally considered the highest pleasure of sense, and the love of parents for their children as the most natural human duty. As Adam Smith says, where there is a great demand for men, there will always be a large supply of them.[161-5] [Footnote 161-1: Compare _Engel's_ beautiful lecture on the cost of labor to itself (_Selbstkosten_ = _self-cost_), Berlin, 1866.] [Footnote 161-2: _Wolkoff_ zealously and rightly argues, that the minimum wages is not the _taux naturel_ of wages. (Lectures, 118 ff., 284.) _von Thünen_ also divides wages into two component parts--that which the workman must lay out in his support in order to continue able to work, and that which he receives for his actual exertion. (Isolirter Staat., II, 1, 92 seq.)] [Footnote 161-3: _Gasparin_ distinguishes five periods in the career of a workman generally: a, he is supported by his parents; b, he supports himself and is in a condition to save something; c, he marries, and supports his children with trouble; d, the children are able to work, and the father lives more comfortably; e, his strength and resources decline. (_Villermé_, Tableau de l'État physique et moral des Ouvriers, 1840, II, 387.)]