Who is hoping here?

Question

They see that if ten women can produce only £110 a year each by their labour, it may be wiser for nine of them to be content with £50 apiece, and make the other one an educated lady, mistress and ruler by giving her £540 a year without any obligation to work at all, or any inducement to work except the hope of finding how to make their work more fruitful for her own benefit, rather than to insist on having £110 a year each.
~~The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism by Bernard Shaw~~

There are two parties here. One who ends up with £50 a year and the other with £540 a year.

I'd like to know whom 'the hope of finding' belong to.

Does one with £50 a year hope to find how to make their work more fruitful for the other with £540 a year or does one with £50 a year hope that the other with £540 a year finds how to make their work more fruitful?

Or am I missing a point here? If that's the case would you please explain the meaning of the bold part?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

gingeraleThey see that if ten women can produce only £110 a year each by their labour

Call this Plan 1.

10 women x £110 = £1100.

gingeraleit may be wiser for nine of them to be content with £50 apiece, and make the other one an educated lady, mistress and ruler by giving her £540 a year

Call this Plan 2.

(9 women x £50) + (1 woman x £540) = £450 + £540 = £990.

gingeraleThere are two parties here. One who ends up with £50 a year and the other with £540 a year.

No. There are ten parties. Nine of them form a group. The tenth stands alone. So nine end up with £50 a year, not just one.

Call the woman who stands alone A. Call the group of nine B.

The rest of the text is all about the implementation of Plan 2.

gingeralegiving her£540 a year without any obligation to work at all, or any inducement to work except the hope of finding how to make their work more fruitful for her own benefit

So the "ruler" A gets the £540. She doesn't have to work. However, she might be persuaded to work through her hope that she can find a way to make the nine women of B work more efficiently so that she (A) can profit by their labour.

gingeralerather than to insist on having £110 a year each.

And all the while doing all that, the "ruler" A has to persuade the women of B that they shouldn't insist on being paid so much as £110 each, but that £50 each is quite adequate.

This is a critique of capitalism, in case you missed that. A is the capitalist, and B represents the labourers who work for and receive their wages from A.

CJ

Who is hoping here?

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