uch greater quantities are made with the same
labour, the artisan will probably be able to sell his share of the
produce for more than before, that is, his wages will rise instead of
falling by the cheapening of the produce. The tradesman, again, may gain
less on each separate article that he sells, but he may sell so much
more than before, that his total profits may be increased. The result to
which we come is, then, that #all increase of produce, and cheapening of
goods tends to the benefit of the public, and this is the true way in
which people are made richer#.

#44. How Differences of Wages arise.# It is very important to understand
rightly the reasons of the great differences which exist between the
rates of wages paid in different occupations. Some kinds of labourers
are paid a hundred or even a thousand times as much for a day's work as
others, and it may seem very unfair that there should be such great
differences. We must learn to see that this is the necessary result of
the various characters and abilities of persons, partly arising from the
actual strength of mind and body with which they were born, partly from
the opportunities of education and experience which they have happened
to enjoy. We are often told that all men are born free and equal;
however this may be in a legal point of view, it is not true in other
ways. One child is often strong and stout from its earliest years;
another weakly and unfit for the same exertion. In mind there are still
more remarkable differences.

The rates of wages in different employments are governed by #the laws of
supply and demand# which we shall afterwards consider. Just as goods
rise in price when there is little in the market and much is wanted, so
the price of men's labour rises when much of any particular kind is
wanted and little is to be had. It does not matter much whether we speak
of demand for goods or demand for the labour, which is necessary to make
the goods. If more things of a certain sort are wanted, then more men
able to make them must be found. If I buy an aneroid barometer, I use up
the labour of a man able to make such a barometer; if many people take a
fancy to have aneroid barometers, and only a few workmen have the
necessary skill to make them, they can ask a high price for their
labour. It is true that people buying barometers do not usually pay the
workmen for making them; a man with capital gets the barometers made
beforehand and puts them in