The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1903-09-26
What are Wages and how are
they Determined.
Continued from last week.

in silk. AnA Wh,lI. h'rr-ult Nh \
rise N VI G lrrCe o. COMMODITY \
mass Of capt istlONr n 'hat 40.
urlshing branch Of business, aud
Imagrallou ot capital into the pro
vince OF tie privileged business Will
last until the ordinary level 81 lr.
fits i 1rtaurd; or "a her, until tie
price Of the products SINK through
ovrrproducrI5u. Conversely, # tue
price Of commodity taiI4 below
the cost Of its productions, capital
will be Withdrawn from the prodnc
ton of The com uodItv. EXCEPT ~
the case e branch OF industry
which has become obsolete, and i
tn +, fore doomed to disappear, the
the changing proportion between
supply and demand pro tuces the
rise aud fall Of prices, making them
at OF time high at another l,w, If
through failure in the supply, Of
keep iOnal increase IN the demand
an important rise in the price Of a
commodity takes place, then the
price Of another commodity must
have fallen; for. ofconrse, the price
Of commodity ouly expresses IN
money the proportion in which 9th.
~ commodities can be exChangaJ
with 1T. For instance, if the ryj j,
OF a yard Of silk rises from 4, la,
to dollar aud a qnarter, the pric.
has fallen in comparison win silk
and IN the same way the price OF
all other commodities which remain
at their old price has fallen of com.
pared with silk. We huve 40 give 2
larger q1antity OF them in exchange
Let us turn to the first worthy cit
lzen we meet. He will not take an
instant to consider but will tell us
chat if the production of the goods
which l sell has cost me 800: and
| get Sll0; by their sale-withip
the year, you Observation-Disclosures
what call sound, honest, reason
able profit. But If make $3.50 or
1870 by the sale that is higher
proh; and if | were to get good
500; that would be an exceptional
Al enormous profit" What i if
then that serves our citizen az me-
asure Of his profit? The cost of pro
ducuon Of his goods. If he receives
IN exchange for them an amount of
other goods whose production hrs
cost, he has lost by his bargain. If
be receives al amount an amcur,
whose production has cost more he
has gained. And he reckons the rise
and fall of his profit by the number
OF degrees at which 1t stands with
result of this flight of capital Will
be that the production of this com
modify, and therefore It's suDplv
Will continually drOube until il
correspoudes to the demand. and
thus It's price rises again to the 10.
vel OF the cos Of its production.
or rather, until the supply has fallen
below the demand; that is. until its |
prlce has again above its cost of
productions, for the price Of anv
commodity IS always either above |,
Or below lts cost of Production.
We see, then how it is that can.
tai always immigrating and emf
from the province of one in
ius ny into that of another. 1t is
ugh prices that bring about an ex
'essjve immigration.
We might show from another
'olnt of view how, not only the
upply, but also the demand, is de.
by the cost of production:
ut this would lead us too far from
nr present subject.
We have just seen how the fine
atoms of supply and demand al
avs reduce the price of a commo-
lty to It's cost of production. II
true that the precise price of a
is always either above
below lis cost of production: bnt
e Use and fall balance each other Y
within certain peroid, if the
ID and flow of the business are .
ckoned up together, commodities : !,
e exchanged with one another in =
with their cost of pro :. :.
elton; and thus their cost Of pro. y
ct determines their price. =
~
The determination of prices by -