ABSTRACT
When, both on the side of workpeople and on that of employers, competition works with perfect freedom, the result of a bargain about rate of wages is determinate at a single definite rate, which is settled by conditions of reciprocal demand. In considering their policy, the workpeople’s association will reflect that, if they elect to fight a battle about wages, the fight will cost them so much and the terms obtained at the end of fight are likely to be such and such. Weighing up these things, they will determine on a certain minimum wage which it is worth while, if necessary, to accept rather than fight. On the side of workpeople, negative cost is, in the early stages of industrial organisation, fairly common. For in that period what the men are really aiming at is, not concession of a higher wage, but respect for their Trade Union and consequent increased readiness to deal fairly with them in future.
