CHAPTER I.

for example the canoes and implements of the fisherman were of the value of 100l. and were calculated to last for ten years, and he employed ten men, whose annual labour cost 100l. and who in one day obtained by their labour twenty salmon: If the weapons employed by the hunter were also of 100l. value and calculated to last ten years, and if he also employed ten men, whose annual labour cost 100l. and who in one day procured him ten deer; then the natural price of a deer would be two salmon, whether the proportion of the whole produce bestowed on the men who obtained it, were large or small. The proportion which might be paid for wages, is of the utmost importance in the question of profits; for it must at once be seen, that profits would be high or low, exactly in proportion as wages were low or high; but it could not in the least affect the relative value of fish and game, as wages would be high or low at the same time in both occupations. If the hunter urged the plea of his paying a large proportion, or the value of a large proportion of his game for wages, as an inducement to the fisherman to give him