whereasThorntonholdsthattheywillultimatelycombineandthenbecertainofvictory。129*
This，Ithink，indicatesthetrueunderlyingdifficulty。The’natural’rateofwages，saidtheeconomists，isfixedby’supplyanddemand。’’Supplyanddemand’suggeststheordinaryprocesseswhichlevelpricesinthemarket。Thorntondeclaresthat’labour’
isboughtandsoldlikecornorcotton。Theanalogymightbedenied。MrFredericHarrisonobservedthat’labour’isnot’athing’whichcanbeboughtandsold。Thorntontreatsthisasapurelyverbaldistinction，andexpectsevenhisantagonisttoadmitthat’hiring’issimplyacaseof’buying，’andthereforegovernedbythesamelaws。130*Ifso，wemayapplyformuladerivedfromthecaseofthemarket。Thenwetacitlyintroducetheordinaryeconomicassumptions。Thepropositionthatwagesarefixedby’supplyanddemand’istakentomeanthattheratecanbededucedfromthesimpleprocessofbargaining。Thewholetheoryofdistributioncanbeworkedoutbyconsideringthefluctuationsofthelabourmarket：thevalueoflabourbeingfixedbythenumberoflabourers，andthedemandforcapitalbeingrepresentedbytherateofprofit。Thedoctrine，itmaybeadmitted，isapproximatelytrueatagiventimeandplace。Itsimplygeneralisestheargumentsusedineverystrike。Capitalmaybedrivenfromatradeifwagesbeexcessive；theinfluxoreffluxofcapitalwillraiseorlowerwagesinagivendistrict，andsoforth。Thefactsmayoftenbeinaccuratelystatedbyinterestedparties，buttheirrelevanceisundeniable。TheforcesofwhichCairnesspeaks，thecompetitionofcapitalistsforprofits，oflabourersforgages，andtheireffectuponaccumulationandpopulationareundoubtedlytheimportantfactors。Itwaspreciselybecausetheeconomistsrecognisedtheseobviousphenomenathattheyconvincedthemselvesandpersuadedothers。Theytalkedagreatdealofundeniablecommon-sense。Theycould，again，fairlydemandthatsomeallowanceshouldbemadefor’friction’——forthefact，thatis，thatcompetitionandthevariouschangeswhichitimpliesdonottakeplacesorapidlyandautomaticallyastheyassumed。Theytook，itistrue，considerableliberties；theyspokeasifcapitalcouldbechangedbymagic，andathousandquartersofcorntransformedintoasteam-engine；orasifthepopulationcouldinstantaneouslyexpandorcontractinproportiontoitsmeansofsupport。Theycouldforgetattimesthatsuchphrasesinvolveakindoflogicalshorthand，andsupposea’fluidity’ofcapital，arapidityintheprocessesbywhichadaptationsarecarriedout，whichisunreal，andmaycoverimportanterrors。
Still，withwhateverallowances，wemayaccepttheapproximatetruthoftheassumptions，asdescribingtheprocessbywhichimmediatevariationsinwagesareactuallydetermined。
Therealdifficultycomesatthenextstage。Grantingtheapproximatetruthoftheformulaeatanygiventimeandplace，cantheygiveusageneraltheoryof’distribution’——formulaewhichcanbeappliedtodeterminegenerallywhatshareofthetotalproducewillgotolabourersandwhattocapitalists？Thatis，inotherwords，canthepurelyeconomicformulabecomealsoa’sociological’formula？Willitnotonlyassigntheconditionswhichgoverntheparticularbargains，butenableustodeterminethewholeprocessbywhichtheindustrialmechanismisbuiltup？