SECTION CLXXI.. History of the Wages of Common Labor.--in the Lower Stages of

HISTORY OF THE WAGES OF COMMON LABOR.--IN THE LOWER STAGES OF CIVILIZATION.

In very low stages of civilization, where there is scarcely any such thing as rent, and where capital is extremely rare, the wages of labor, notwithstanding its small amount absolutely speaking, must eat up the greatest part of the product.[171-1] With every further advance, the condition of the laboring class is modified, according as the natural decline in this relative amount of their wages is outweighed or counterbalanced, or neither outweighed nor counterbalanced, by the increase in the aggregate product; in other words, in the national income in general as compared with the number of workmen.