condition of the better class of artisan and the lower middle class improves, it is subject to considerable fluctuation owing to times of unemployment and bad trade, and to increases in the cost of living. To-day, at the end of 1910, these middle social strata are not so well off as they were at the beginning of the century. There have been losses in wages and rises in prices in the interval, and rents continue to take more and more out of working-class pockets. Relatively to the modern combinations of capital, combinations of labour tend to weaken, and the upward pressure which the workman can exert on his status is less effective than it was.
Nor must we forget that the joint stock company means that every industrial improvement is capitalised, and that, in consequence, the amount of capital borne by industry tends to keep pace with profits so that labour finds it increasingly difficult to secure an improving share in national wealth. Any successful limited liability company supplies an illustration of this argument. Let us suppose that a company is floated with a capital of £20,000, and that it pays a dividend of 10 per cent. Under the old system of the employing capitalist, a portion of this 10 per cent. was available for increased wages. But under the public company system a shareholder sells his shares at perhaps double the price he paid for them. Thus, although the business has never absorbed more than a capital of £20,000, it is in reality carrying a burden of £40,000; nominally it
