Excerpt from The North British Review, Vol. 7 The avowed object of trades-unions and combinations, then, is to secure for the workman that share of the profit Of produc tion which is due to labour. That labour in past times has not Obtained its fair share is inferred by the advocates of these unions from the fact that many employers have made large for tunes, and that most of them live in a style of comfort that in dicates an abundant profit. It is not actually denied that the law Of supply and demand is that by which the remuneration of labour ought to be regulated. It is rather maintained that the different circumstances of capitalists and labourers prevent that law from Operating freely, and from determining equitably what the one ought to give, and the other to take, for his labour. If the law of supply and demand is to work fairly, the pressure, SO to speak, on buyer and seller ought to be equal. If one of the parties be subject to a pressure which the other does not feel, the fair action of the law will be interfered with. If the one requires to sell his commodity immediately, but the other does not require to buy immediately, the advantage Is on the Side of the purchaser. The owner Of an estate, or Of a house, or of a horse, may sometimes be so situated that he must sell at once. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.