The Online Library of Liberty
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Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and
Correspondence Vol. 2a An Inquiry Into the Nature
and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 1 [1776]
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Online Library of Liberty: Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 2a An Inquiry Into
the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 1
Edition Used:
An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. I ed. R. H.
Campbell and A. S. Skinner, vol. II of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and
Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1981).
Author: Adam Smith
Editor: Roy Harold Campbell
Editor: Andrew S. Skinner
About This Title:
Volume I of Smith’s great work on political economy. First published in 1776, the
year in which the American Revolution officially began, Smith’s Wealth of Nations
sparked a revolution of its own. In it Smith analyzes the major elements of political
economy, from market pricing and the division of labor to monetary, tax, trade, and
other government policies that affect economic behavior. Throughout he offers
seminal arguments for free trade, free markets, and limited government.
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Online Library of Liberty: Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 2a An Inquiry Into
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About Liberty Fund:
Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the
study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.
Copyright Information:
The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith and the
associated volumes are published in hardcover by Oxford University Press. The six
titles of the Glasgow Edition, but not the associated volumes, are being published in
softcover by Liberty Fund. The online edition is published by Liberty Fund under
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©Oxford University Press 1976. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be
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permission of Oxford University Press.
Fair Use Statement:
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Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may
be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way
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Table Of Contents
Preface
Key to Abbreviations and References
General Introduction
The Text and Apparatus
Advertisement a
Advertisement to the Fourth Edition
Introduction and Plan of the Work
[i] Book I: Of the Causes of Improvement In the Productive Powers of Labour,
and of the Order According to Which Its Produce Is Naturally Distributed
Among the Different Ranks of the People
[i.i] Chapter I: Of the Division of Labour
[i.ii] Chapter II: Of the Principle Which Gives Occasion to the Division of
Labour
[i.iii] Chapter III: That the Division of Labour Is Limited By the Extent of the
Market 1
[i.iv] Chapter IV: Of the Origin and Use of Money 1
[i.v] Chapter V: Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities, Or of Their
Price In Labour, and Their Price In Money
[i.vi] Chapter VI: Of the Component Parts of the Price of Commodities
[i.vii] Chapter VII: Of the Natural and Market Price of Commodities 1
[i.viii] Chapter VIII: Of the Wages of Labour
[i.ix] Chapter IX: Of the Profits of Stock
[i.x.a] Chapter X: Of Wages and Profit In the Different Employments of
Labour and Stock
[i.x.b] Part I: Inequalities Arising From the Nature of the Employments
Themselves
[i.x.c] Part II: Inequalities Occasioned By the Policy of Europe
[i.xi.a] Chapter XI: Of the Rent of Land
[i.xi.b] Part I: Of the Produce of Land Which Always Affords Rent
[i.xi.c] Part II: Of the Produce of Land Which Sometimes Does, and Sometimes
Does Not, Afford Rent
[i.xi.d] Part III: Of the Variations In the Proportion Between the Respective
Values of That Sort of Produce Which Always Affords Rent, and of That
Which Sometimes Does, and Sometimes Does Not, Afford Rent
Digression Concerning the Variations In the Value of Silver During the Course
of the Four Last Centuries
[i.xi.e] First Period
[i.xi.f] Second Period
[i.xi.g] Third Period
[i.xi.h] Variations In the Proportion Between the Respective Values of Gold
and Silver
[i.xi.i] Grounds of the Suspicion That the Value of Silver Still Continues to
Decrease
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[i.xi.j] Different Effects of the Progress of Improvement Upon the Real Price of
Three Different Sorts of Rude Produce
[i.xi.k] First Sort
[i.xi.l] Second Sort
[i.xi.m] Third Sort
[i.xi.n] Conclusion of the Digression Concerning the Variations In the Value of
Silver
[i.xi.o] Effects of the Progress of Improvement Upon the Real Price of
Manufactures
[i.xi.p] Conclusion of the Chapter
[ii] Book II: Of the Nature, Accumulation, and Employment of Stock
Introduction
[ii.i] Chapter I: Of the Division of Stock
[ii.ii] Chapter II: Of Money Considered As a Particular Branch of the General
Stock of the Society, Or of the Expence of Maintaining the National Capital
[ii.iii] Chapter III: Of the Accumulation of Capital, Or of Productive and
Unproductive Labour
[ii.iv] Chapter IV: Of Stock Lent At Interest
[ii.v] Chapter V: Of the Different Employment of Capitals
[iii] Book III: Of the Different Progress of Opulence In Different Nations
[iii.i] Chapter I: Of the Natural Progress of Opulence
[iii.ii] Chapter II: Of the Discouragement of Agriculture In the Antient State of
Europe After the Fall of the Roman Empire 1
[iii.iii] Chapter III: Of the Rise and Progress of Cities and Towns, After the Fall
of the Roman Empire
[iii.iv] Chapter IV: How the Commerce of the Towns Contributed to the
Improvement of the Country
[iv] Book IV: Of Systems of Political Oeconomy
Introduction
[iv.i] Chapter I: Of the Principle of the Commercial, Or Mercantile System 1
[iv.ii] Chapter II: Of Restraints Upon the Importation a From Foreign Countries
of Such Goods a As Can Be Produced At Home
[iv.iii] Chapter III: Of the Extraordinary Restraints Upon the Importation of
Goods of Almost All Kinds, From Those Countries With Which the Balance
Is Supposed to Be Disadvantageous
[iv.iii.a] Part I: Of the Unreasonableness of Those Restraints Even Upon the
Principles of the Commercial System a
[iv.iii.b] Digression Concerning Banks of Deposit, Particularly Concerning
That of Amsterdam 1
[iv.iii.c] Part II: Of the Unreasonableness of Those Extraordinary Restraints
Upon Other Principles a
[iv.iv] Chapter IV: Of Drawbacks
[iv.v.a] Chapter V: Of Bounties
[iv.v.b] Digression Concerning the Corn Trade and Corn Laws a – a
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[Back to Table of Contents]
Preface
While this volume as a whole was prepared by the General Editors, the actual text of
the Wealth of Nations was established by W. B. Todd following principles which are
explained in a separate note.
As far as the general or non–textual editorial work is concerned, we have sought to
provide a system of cross references within the WN, together with a comprehensive
list of references from the WN to Smith’s other works, including the Lecture Notes
and Correspondence. In addition, Smith’s own references have been traced and
parallels with other writers indicated where it seems reasonably certain that he had
actually used their works. Comment has been made on matters of historical fact where
this might be of benefit to the modern reader.
In the introduction, we have tried to give some idea of the links which exist between
Smith’s economics and other parts of a wider system of social science, together with
an account of the structure and scope of the WN itself. We have also sought to
indicate the extent to which the WN was the reflection of the times in which Smith
lived.
In executing a work of this kind we have incurred debts which are too numerous to
mention. We should, however, like to acknowledge the great benefit which we have
received from the work of Edwin Cannan, whose original index has been retained.
R.H.C.
A.S.S.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
Key To Abbreviations And References
Corr.
ED
EPS
Ancient Logics
Ancient Physics
Astronomy
English and
Italian Verses
External Senses
Imitative Arts
Correspondence
‘Early Draft’ of The Wealth of Nations
Essays on Philosophical Subjects (which include:)
‘History of the Ancient Logics and Metaphysics’
‘History of the Ancient Physics’
‘History of Astronomy’
‘Of the Affinity between certain English and Italian Verses’
‘Of the External Senses’
‘Of the Nature of that Imitation which takes place in what are
called the Imitative Arts’
Music, Dancing,
‘Of the Affinity between Music, Dancing and Poetry’
and Poetry
Dugald Stewart, ‘Account of the Life and Writings of Adam
Stewart
Smith, LL.D.’
Two fragments on the division of labour, Buchan Papers, Glasgow
FA, FB
University Library.
LJ(A)
Lectures on Jurisprudence: Report of 1762–63.
LJ(B)
Lectures on Jurisprudence: Report dated 1766.
LRBL
Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
TMS
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
WN
The Wealth of Nations
From John Anderson’s Commonplace Book, vol. i, Andersonian
Anderson Notes
Library, University of Strathclyde.
References to Smith’s published works are given according to the original divisions,
together with the paragraph numbers added in the margin of the Glasgow edition. For
example:
TMS I.iii.2.2 =
Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part I, section iii, chapter 2, paragraph
2.
Wealth of Nations, Book I, chapter x, section b, paragraph 1.
WN I.x.b.1 =
Astronomy, I.4
‘History of Astronomy’, Section I, paragraph 4.
=
The Table of Corresponding Passages appended to this volume identifies the sections
into which the WN is divided and provides for each paragraph the page references in
the Cannan editions of 1930 and 1937.
In the case of the lecture notes we have adopted the following practice: references to
the LRBL are given in the form ‘LRBL i.8’ (= volume i, page 8 of the original
manuscript), with references to the Lothian edition (London, 1963) in parenthesis. In
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the Lectures on Jurisprudence we have also cited the volume and page reference from
the original manuscript (all of which will be included in the Glasgow edition) while
retaining page references to the Cannan edition (Oxford, 1896) where appropriate.
References to the Correspondence give date of letter and letter number from the
Glasgow edition.
Postscript. The Anderson Notes are now published in R. L. Meek, Smith, Marx and
After (London, 1977).
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[Back to Table of Contents]
General Introduction
Scope And Method
Although it would be extravagant to claim that Adam Smith was the last of the great
polymaths, it is nonetheless true that he wrote on a remarkable range of subjects
including as it does economics and history; law and government; language and the
arts, not to mention essays on astronomy, ancient logics and metaphysics. Indeed, the
latter group of essays, apparently written in the 1750s, although not published until
1795, moved J. A. Schumpeter to remark that ‘Nobody, I venture to say, can have an
adequate idea of Smith’s intellectual stature who does not know these essays’ and to
describe that on astronomy as the ‘pearl of the collection’1 .
The Astronomy is especially valuable as an exercise in ‘philosophical history’; a form
of enquiry in which Smith was particularly interested, and which, in this case, led him
to examine the first formation and subsequent development of those astronomical
theories which had culminated in the work of Newton. But at the same time, the essay
was designed to illustrate the principles which lead and direct philosophical enquiries.
The essay was thus concerned with the question of motivation, and as such may tell us
a good deal about Smith’s own drives as a thinker, contributing in this way to our
understanding of the form which his other works in fact assumed.
Smith’s main purpose in the Astronomy was to consider the stimulus given to the
exercise of the understanding by the sentiments of surprise, wonder, and admiration;
sentiments which he did not necessarily consider to be the sole sources of stimuli to
philosophical work, but which represented forces whose influence was, he believed,
‘of far wider extent than we should be apt upon a careless view to imagine’ (Intro., 7).
In elaborating on this statement Smith made a number of simple assumptions: that
man is endowed with certain faculties and propensities such as reason, reflection, and
imagination, and that he is motivated by a desire to acquire the means of pleasure and
to avoid pain, where in this context pleasure relates to a state of the imagination
involving tranquility and composure; a state attained from the contemplation of
relation, similarity, or customary connection. He went on to argue that we feel
surprise when some object or relation does not fall into an expected pattern; a
sentiment which is quickly followed by wonder, which is in turn associated with the
perception of something like a gap or interval (i.e. a lack of known connection or
failure to conform to an established classification) between the object or objects of
examination. For Smith, the essence of wonder was that it gave rise to a feeling of
pain (i.e. disutility) to which the normal response is an act of attempted explanation,
designed to restore the mind to a state of equilibrium; a goal which can only be
attained where an explanation for the phenomena in question is found, and where that
explanation is coherent, capable of accounting for observed appearances, and stated in
terms of plausible (or familiar) principles.
Smith considered these feelings and responses to be typical of all men, while
suggesting that the philosopher or scientist was particularly subject to them, partly as
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a result of superior powers of observation and partly because of that degree of
curiosity which normally leads him to examine problems (such as the conversion of
flesh into bone) which are to the ordinary man so ‘familiar’ as not to require any
explanation at all (II.11).
Nature as a whole, Smith argued, ‘seems to abound with events which appear solitary
and incoherent’ (II.12) so that the purpose of philosophy emerges as being to find ‘the
connecting principles of nature’ (II.12) with, as its ultimate end, the ‘repose and
tranquility of the imagination’ (IV.13). It is here especially that the sentiment of
admiration becomes relevant in the sense that once an explanation has been offered
for some particular problem, the very existence of that explanation may heighten our
appreciation of the ‘appearances’ themselves. Thus, for example, we may learn to
understand and thus to admire a complex economic structure once its hidden ‘springs’
have been exposed, just as the theory of astronomy leads us to admire the heavens by
presenting ‘the theatre of nature’ as a coherent and therefore as a more ‘magnificent
spectacle’ (II.12). Scientific explanation is thus designed to restore the mind to a state
of balance and at the same time productive of a source of pleasure in this rather
indirect way. Smith also added, however, that men pursue the study of philosophy for
its own sake, ‘as an original pleasure or good in itself, without regarding its tendency
to procure them the means of many other pleasures’ (III.3).
There are perhaps three features of this argument which are worth emphasizing at this
point. First, Smith’s suggestion that the purpose of philosophy is to explain the
coherence of nature, allied to his recognition of the interdependence of phenomena,
leads directly to the idea of a system which is designed to explain a complex of
phenomena or ‘appearances’. It is interesting to recall in this connection that the
history of astronomy unfolded in terms of four systems of this kind, and that Smith
should have likened such productions of the intellect to machines whose function was
to connect together ‘in the fancy those different movements and effects which are
already in reality performed’ (IV.19). Secondly, it is noteworthy that Smith should
have associated intellectual effort, and the forms which the corresponding output may
assume, with certain sources of pleasure. He himself often spoke of the beauty of
‘systematical arrangement’ (WN V.i.f.25) and his ‘delight’ in such arrangement was
one of the qualities of his mind to which Dugald Stewart frequently drew attention. In
the Imitative Arts (II.30) Smith likened the pleasure to be derived from the
contemplation of a great system of thought to that felt when listening to ‘a well
composed concerto of instrumental Music’ ascribing to both an almost sensual
quality. Points such as these are relevant at least in the sense that a general preference
for order or system may lead the thinker to work in certain ways and even to choose a
particular method of organizing his arguments. Smith in fact considered the various
ways of organizing scientific (or didactic) discourse in the LRBL where it is stated
that the technique whereby we ‘lay down certain principles, [primary?] or proved, in
the beginning, from whence we account for the severall Phaenomena, connecting all
together by the same chain’ is ‘vastly more ingenious’ and for that reason ‘more
engaging’ than any other. He added: ‘It gives us a pleasure to see the phenomena
which we reckoned the most unaccountable, all deduced from some principle
(commonly, a wellknown one) and all united in one chain’. (LRBL ii.133–4, ed.
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Lothian, 140.) Elsewhere he referred to a propensity, common to all men, to account
for ‘all appearances from as few principles as possible’ (TMS VII.ii.2.14).
However, while there is little doubt that Smith’s major works (including of course the
Astronomy itself) are dominated by such a choice, it would be as wrong to imply that
such works are to be regarded as deductive exercises in practical aesthetics as it would
be to ignore the latter element altogether. The fact is that the dangers as well as the
delights of purely deductive reasoning were widely recognized at this time, and the
choice of Newton rather than Descartes (who was also a proponent of the ‘method’
described above) as the model to be followed is indicative of the point. The distinctive
feature of Newton’s work was not, after all, to be found in the use of ‘certain
principles’ in the explanation of complex phenomena, but rather in the fact that he
(following the lead of others) sought to establish those principles in a certain way.
Those interested in the scientific study of man at this time sought to apply the
Newtonian vision of a law governed universe to a new sphere, and to employ the
‘experimental method’ as an aid to the discovery of those laws of nature which
governed the behaviour of the machine and disclosed the intention of its Design.
Smith’s contribution to what would now be defined as the ‘social sciences’ is
contained in his work on ethics, jurisprudence, and economics, which correspond in
turn to the order in which he lectured on these subjects while Professor of Moral
Philosophy at Glasgow. All are characterized by certain common features which are
readily apparent on examination: in each case Smith sought to explain complex
problems in terms of a small number of basic principles, and each conforms to the
requirements of the Newtonian method in the broad sense of that term. All three make
use of the typical hypothesis that the principles of human nature can be taken as
constant, and all employ the doctrine of ‘unintended social outcomes’—the thesis that
man, in following the prompting of his nature, unconsciously gives substantial
expression to some parts of the [Divine?] Plan. Again, each area of Smith’s thought is
marked by a keen sense of the fact that manners and institutions may change through
time and that they may show striking variations in different communities at the same
point in time—a feature which was rapidly becoming quite common in an age
dominated by Montesquieu.
It is perhaps even more remarkable that not only were Smith’s ethics, jurisprudence,
and economics, marked by a degree of systematic thought of such a kind as to reveal a
great capacity for model–building, but also by an attempt to delineate the boundaries
of a single system of thought, of which these separate subjects were the component
parts. For example, the TMS may be seen to offer an explanation as to the way in
which so self–regarding a creature as man succeeds (by natural as distinct from
artificial means) in erecting barriers against his own passions; an argument which
culminates in the proposition that some system of magistracy is generally an essential
condition of social stability. On the other hand, the historical treatment of
jurisprudence complements this argument by showing the way in which government
originates, together with the sources of social and political change, the whole running
in terms of a four stage theory of economic development.2 The economic analysis as
such may be seen to be connected with the other areas of Smith’s thought in the sense
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that it begins from a specific stage of historical development and at the same time
makes use of the psychological assumptions established by the TMS.
Before proceeding to the economics it may therefore be useful to review the main
elements of the other branches of Smith’s work, and to elucidate some of their
interconnections. This may be an appropriate choice not only because Smith himself
taught the elements of economics against a philosophical and historical background,
but also because so much of that background was formally incorporated in the WN
itself—a book, after all, which is concerned with much more than economics as that
term is now commonly understood.
Social Theory
Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments is, of course, an important contribution to moral
philosophy in its own right, and one which attempted to answer the two main
questions which Smith considered to be the proper province of this kind of
philosopher:
First, wherein does virtue consist? Or what is the tone of temper, and tenour of
conduct, which constitutes the excellent and praise–worthy character, the character
which is the natural object of esteem, honour, and approbation? And, secondly, by
what power or faculty in the mind is it, that this character, whatever it be, is
recommended to us? Or in other words, how and by what means does it come to pass,
that the mind prefers one tenour of conduct to another?
(VII.i.2)
On Smith’s argument, the process by which we distinguish between objects of
approval or disapproval depends largely on our capacity for ‘other–regarding’
activities and involves a complex of abilities and propensities which include
sympathy, imagination, reason and reflection. To begin with, he stated a basic
principle in arguing that man is possessed of a certain fellow feeling which permits
him to feel joy or sorrow according as the circumstances facing others contribute to
their feelings of pleasure or pain. An expression of sympathy (broadly defined) for
another person thus involves an act of reflection and imagination on the part of the
observer in the sense that we can only form an opinion with regard to the mental state
of another person by ‘changing places in the fancy’ with him. Smith was also careful
to argue in this connection that our judgement with regard to others was always likely
to be imperfect, at least in the sense that we can have ‘no immediate experience of
what other men feel’ (I.i.1.2). Given these basic principles, Smith then proceeded to
apply them in considering the two different ‘aspects’ or ‘relations’ under which we
may judge an action taken by ourselves or others, ‘first, in relation to the cause or
object which excites it; and, secondly, in relation to the end which it proposes, or to
the effect which it tends to produce’ (II.i.2).
We may take these in turn:
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In dealing with the first question we go beyond the consideration of the circumstances
in which the subject of our judgement may find himself, and his state of mind (i.e.
whether he is happy or sad) to consider the extent to which his actions or ‘affections’
(i.e. expressions of feeling) are appropriate to the conditions under which they take
place or the objects which they seek to attain. In short, the purpose of judgement is to
form an opinion as to the propriety or impropriety of an action, or expression of
feeling, where these qualities are found to consist in ‘the suitableness or
unsuitableness, in the proportion or disproportion which the affection seems to bear to
the cause or object which excites it’ (I.i.3.6).
Given the principles so far established it will be evident that when the spectator of
another man’s conduct tries to form an opinion as to its propriety, he can only do so
by ‘bringing home to himself’ both the circumstances and feelings of the subject.
Smith went on to argue that exactly the same principles apply when we seek to form a
judgement as to our own actions, the only difference being that we must do so
indirectly rather than directly; by visualizing the manner in which the real or supposed
spectator might react to them. Or, as Smith put it:
We can never survey our own sentiments and motives, we can never form any
judgement concerning them; unless we remove ourselves, as it were, from our own
natural station, and endeavour to view them as at a certain distance from us. But we
can do this in no other way than by endeavouring to view them with the eyes of other
people, or as other people are likely to view them.
(III.1.2)
Given these points, we can now examine the second ‘relation’, that is, the propriety of
action ‘in relation to the end which it proposes, or the effect which it tends to
produce’. Here, as far as the agent is concerned, Smith argued that the spectator can
form a judgement as to whether or not an action is proper or improper in terms, for
example, of motive as well as by reference to the propriety of the choice of means to
attain a given end. In the same way, the spectator can form a judgement with regard to
the propriety of the reaction of the subject (or person affected) to the circumstances
created by the action of the agent.
Now while it is evident that the spectator can form these judgements when examining
the actions of the two parties taken separately, it is an essential part of Smith’s
argument that a view with regard to the merit or demerit of a given action can be
formed only by taking account of the activities of the two parties simultaneously. He
was careful to argue in this connection, for example, that we might sympathize with
the motives of the agent while recognizing that the action taken had had unintended
consequences which might have either harmed or benefited some third party.
Similarly, the spectator might sympathize with the reaction of the subject to a
particular situation, while finding that sympathy qualified by recognition of the fact
that the person acting had not intended another person either to gain or lose. It is only
given a knowledge of the motives of the agent and the consequences of an action that
we can form a judgement as to its merit or demerit, where that judgement is based on
some perception of the propriety or impropriety of the activities of the two parties.
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Given these conditions Smith concluded that as our perception of the propriety of
conduct ‘arises from what I shall call a direct sympathy with the affections and
motives of the person who acts, so our sense of its merit arises from what I shall call
an indirect sympathy with the gratitude of the person who is, if I may say so, acted
upon’ (II.i.5.1).
Smith went on from this point to argue that where approval of motive is added to a
perception of the beneficent tendency of the action taken, then such actions deserve
reward; while those of the opposite kind ‘seem then to deserve, and, if I may say so,
to call aloud for, a proportionable punishment; and we entirely enter into, and thereby
approve of, that resentment which prompts to inflict it’ (II.i.4.4). As we shall see, this
principle was to assume considerable importance in terms of Smith’s discussion of
justice.
Before going further there are perhaps three points which should be emphasized and
which arise from Smith’s discussion of the two different ‘relations’ in terms of which
we can examine the actions of ourselves or other men.
First, Smith’s argument is designed to suggest that judgement of our actions is always
framed by the real or supposed spectator of our conduct. It is evident therefore that the
accuracy of the judgement thus formed will be a function of the information available
to the spectator with regard to action or motive, and the impartiality with which that
information is interpreted.
Secondly, it follows from the above that wherever an action taken or a feeling
expressed by one man is approved of by another, then an element of restraint (and
therefore control of our ‘affections’) must be present. For example, it is evident that
since we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, then we as spectators
can ‘enter into’ their situation only to a limited degree. The person judged can
therefore attain the agreement of the spectator only:
by lowering his passion to that pitch, in which the spectators are capable of going
along with him. He must flatten, if I may be allowed to say so, the sharpness of its
natural tone, in order to reduce it to harmony and concord with the emotions of those
who are about him.
(I.i.4.7)
Finally, it will be obvious that the individual judged will only make the effort to attain
a certain ‘mediocrity’ of expression where he regards the opinion of the spectator as
important. In fact Smith made this assumption explicit in remarking:
Nature when she formed man for society, endowed him with an original desire to
please, and an original aversion to offend his brethren. She taught him to feel pleasure
in their favourable, and pain in their unfavourable regard. She rendered their
approbation most flattering . . . for its own sake; and their disapprobation most
mortifying and most offensive.
(III.2.6)
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Given the desire to acquire the sources of pleasure and to avoid pain, this aspect of the
psychology of man would appear to ensure that he will generally act in ways which
will secure the approbation of his brethren, and that he is to this extent fitted for the
society of other men. At the same time, however, Smith makes it clear that this
general disposition may of itself be insufficient to ensure an adequate source of
control over our actions and passions, and this for reasons which are at least in part
connected with the spectator concept and the problem of self–interest.
We have already noted that the spectator can never be entirely informed with regard
to the feelings of another person, and it will be evident therefore that it will always be
particularly difficult to attain a knowledge of the motive which may prompt a given
action. Smith noted this point in remarking that in fact the world judges by the event,
and not by the design, classifying this tendency as one of a number of ‘irregularities’
in our moral sentiments. The difficulty is, of course, that such a situation must
constitute something of a discouragement to virtue; a problem which was solved in
Smith’s model by employing an additional (and explicit) assumption with regard to
the psychology of man. As Smith put it, a desire for approval and an aversion to the
disapproval of his fellows would not alone have rendered man fit:
for that society for which he was made. Nature, accordingly, has endowed him not
only with a desire of being approved of, but with a desire of being what ought to be
approved of; or of being what he approves of in other men. The first desire could only
have made him wish to appear to be fit for society. The second was necessary in order
to render him anxious to be really fit.
(III.2.7)
Hence the importance in Smith’s argument of the ideal or supposed spectator, of the
‘man within the breast’, the abstract, ideal, spectator of our sentiments and conduct
who is always well informed with respect to our own motives, and whose judgement
would be that of the actual spectator where the latter was possessed of all the
necessary information. It is this tribunal, the voice of principle and conscience, which,
in Smith’s argument, helps to ensure that we will in fact tread the path of virtue and
which supports us in this path even when our due rewards are denied us or our sins
unknown.
However, having made this point, Smith drew attention to another difficulty, namely
that even where we have access to the information necessary to judge our own
conduct, and even where we are generally disposed to judge ourselves as others might
see us, if they knew all, yet there are at least two occasions on which we may be
unlikely to regard our own actions with the required degree of impartiality: ‘first,
when we are about to act; and, secondly, after we have acted. Our views are apt to be
very partial in both cases; but they are apt to be most partial when it is of most
importance that they should be otherwise’ (III.4.2). In this connection he went on to
note that when ‘we are about to act, the eagerness of passion will very seldom allow
us to consider what we are doing with the candour of an indifferent person’, while in
addition a judgement formed in a cool hour may still be lacking in sufficient candour,
because ‘It is so disagreeable to think ill of ourselves, that we often purposely turn
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away our view from those circumstances which might render that judgement
unfavourable’ (III.4.4).
The solution to this particular logical problem is found in the idea of general rules of
morality or accepted conduct; rules which we are disposed to obey by virtue of the
claims of conscience, and of which we attain some knowledge by virtue of our ability
to form judgements in particular cases. As Smith argued:
It is thus that the general rules of morality are formed. They are ultimately founded
upon experience of what, in particular instances, our moral faculties, our natural sense
of merit and propriety, approve, or disapprove of. We do not originally approve or
condemn particular actions; because, upon examination, they appear to be agreeable
or inconsistent with a certain general rule. The general rule, on the contrary, is
formed, by finding from experience, that all actions of a certain kind, or
circumstanced in a certain manner, are approved or disapproved of.
(III.4.8)
It will be noted that such rules are based on our experience of what is fit and proper to
be done or to be avoided, and that they become standards or yardsticks against which
we can judge our conduct even in the heat of the moment, and which are therefore ‘of
great use in correcting the misrepresentations of self–love’ (III.4.12).
Yet even here Smith does not claim that a knowledge of general rules will of itself be
sufficient to ensure good conduct, and this for reasons which are not unconnected
with (although not wholly explained by) yet a further facet of man’s nature.
For Smith, man was an active being, disposed to pursue certain objectives which may
be motivated by a desire to be thought well of by his fellows but which at the same
time may lead him to take actions which have hurtful consequences as far as others
are concerned. It is indeed one of Smith’s more striking achievements to have
recognized the social objective of many economic goals in remarking:
it is chiefly from this regard to the sentiments of mankind, that we pursue riches and
avoid poverty. For to what purpose is all the toil and bustle of this world? what is the
end of avarice and ambition, of the pursuit of wealth, of power and pre–eminence? . . .
what are the advantages we propose by that great purpose of human life which we call
bettering our condition? To be observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with
sympathy, complacency, and approbation, are all the advantages which we can
propose to derive from it.
(I.iii.2.1)
However, Smith was well aware that the pursuit of status, the desire to be well
thought of in a public sense, could be associated with self–delusion, and with actions
which could inflict damage on others either by accident or design. In this connection,
he remarked that the individual:
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In the race for wealth, and honours, and preferments . . . may run as hard as he can,
and strain every nerve and every muscle, in order to outstrip all his competitors. But if
he should justle, or throw down any of them, the indulgence of the spectators is
entirely at an end. It is a violation of fair play, which they cannot admit of.
(II.ii.2.1)
Knowledge of the resentment of the spectators thus emerges as something of a
deterrent as far as the agent is concerned, although Smith placed more emphasis on
the fact that a feeling of resentment generated by some act of injustice produces a
natural approval of punishment, just as the perception of the good consequences of
some action leads, as we have seen, to a desire to see it rewarded. In this world at
least, it is our disposition to punish and approval of punishment which restrains acts
of injustice, and which thus helps to restrain the actions of individuals within due
bounds. Justice in this sense of the term is of critical importance, and Smith went on
to notice that while nature ‘exhorts mankind to acts of beneficence, by the pleasing
consciousness of deserved reward’, beneficence is still the ‘ornament which
embellishes, not the foundation which supports the building’. He continued:
Justice, on the contrary, is the main pillar that upholds the whole edifice. If it is
removed, the great, the immense fabric of human society . . . must in a moment
crumble into atoms.
(II.ii.3.4)
In Smith’s eyes, a fundamental pre–condition of social order was a system of positive
law, embodying our conception of those rules of conduct which relate to justice. He
added that these rules must be administered by some system of government or
‘magistracy’, on the ground that:
As the violation of justice is what men will never submit to from one another, the
public magistrate is under a necessity of employing the power of the commonwealth
to enforce the practice of this virtue. Without this precaution, civil society would
become a scene of bloodshed and disorder, every man revenging himself at his own
hand whenever he fancied he was injured.
(VII.iv.36)
It now remains to be seen just how ‘government’ originates, to explain the sources of
its authority, and the basis of obedience to that authority.
The Stages Of Society
It was in the lectures on justice rather than the TMS that Smith set out to consider the
grounds on which we were disposed to obey our ‘magistrates’, finding the basis of
obedience in the principles of utility and authority. In practice, Smith placed most
emphasis on the latter and identified four main sources: personal qualifications, age,
fortune, and birth. Taking these four sources in turn, he argued that personal qualities
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such as wisdom, strength, or beauty, while important as sources of individual
distinction, were yet of rather limited political value, since they are all qualities which
are open to dispute. As a result, he suggests that age, provided there is no ‘suspicion
of dotage’, represents a more important source of authority and of respect, since it is
‘a plain and palpable quality’ about which there can be no doubt’. Smith also
observed that as a matter of fact age regulates rank among those who are in every
other respect equal in both primitive and civilized societies, although its relative
importance in the two cases is likely to vary.
The third source of authority, wealth, of all the sources of power is perhaps the most
emphasized by Smith, and here again he cites two elements. First, he noted that
through an ‘irregularity’ of our moral sentiments, men tend to admire and respect the
rich (rather than the poor, who may be morally more worthy) as the possessors of all
the imagined conveniences of wealth. Secondly, he argued that the possession of
riches may also be associated with a degree of power which arises from the
dependence of the poor for their subsistence. Thus, for example, the great chief who
has no other way of spending his surpluses other than in the maintenance of men,
acquires retainers and dependents who:
depending entirely upon him for their subsistence, must both obey his orders in war,
and submit to his jurisdiction in peace. He is necessarily both their general and their
judge, and his chieftainship is the necessary effect of the superiority of his fortune.
(WN V.i.b.7)
Finally, Smith argues that the observed fact of our tendency to venerate antiquity of
family, rather than the upstart or newly rich, also constitutes an important source of
authority which may reinforce that of riches. He concluded that:
Birth and fortune are evidently the two circumstances which principally set one man
above another. They are the two great sources of personal distinction, and are
therefore the principal causes which naturally establish authority and subordination
among men.
(V.i.b.11)
Having made these points, Smith then went on to argue that just as wealth (and the
subsequent distinction of birth) represents an important source of authority, so in turn
it opens up an important source of dispute. In this connection we find him arguing that
where people are prompted by malice or resentment to hurt one another, and where
they can be harmed only in respect of person or reputation, then men may live
together with some degree of harmony; the point being that ‘the greater part of men
are not very frequently under the influence of those passions; and the very worst men
are so only occasionally.’ He went on to note:
As their gratification too, how agreeable soever it may be to certain characters, is not
attended with any real or permanent advantage, it is in the greater part of men
commonly restrained by prudential considerations. Men may live together in society
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with some tolerable degree of security, though there is no civil magistrate to protect
them from the injustice of those passions.
(V.i.b.2)
But in a situation where property can be acquired, Smith argued there could be an
advantage to be gained by committing acts of injustice, in that here we find a situation
which tends to give full rein to avarice and ambition.
The acquisition of valuable and extensive property, therefore, necessarily requires the
establishment of civil government. Where there is no property, or at least none that
exceeds the value of two or three days labour, civil government is not so necessary.
(ibid.)
Elsewhere he remarked that ‘Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security
of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of
those who have some property against those who have none at all’ (V.i.b.12). It is a
government, on Smith’s argument, which in some situations at least is supported by a
perception of its utility, at least on the side of the ‘rich’, but which must gradually
have evolved naturally and independently of any consideration of that necessity. In
Smith’s own words:
Civil government supposes a certain subordination. But as the necessity of civil
government gradually grows up with the acquisition of valuable property, so the
principal causes which naturally introduce subordination gradually grow up with the
growth of that valuable property.
(V.i.b.3)
In this way Smith stated the basic principles behind the origin of government and
illustrated the four main sources of authority. In the subsequent part of the argument
he then tried to show the way in which the outlines of society and government would
vary, by reference to four broad socio–economic types: the stages of hunting, pasture,
agriculture, and commerce.3 One of the more striking features of Smith’s argument is
in fact the link which he succeeded in establishing between the form of economy
prevailing (i.e. the mode of earning subsistence) and the source and distribution of
power or dependence among the classes of men which make up a single ‘society’.
The first stage of society was represented as the ‘lowest and rudest’ state, such ‘as we
find it among the native tribes of North America’ (WN V.i.a.2). In this case, life is
maintained through gathering the spontaneous fruits of the soil, and the dominant
activities are taken to be hunting and fishing—a mode of acquiring subsistence which
is antecedent to any social organization in production. As a result, Smith suggested
that such communities would be small in size and characterized by a high degree of
personal liberty—due of course to the absence of any form of economic dependence.
Smith also observed that in the absence of private property which was also capable of
accumulation, disputes between different members of the community would be minor
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‘so there is seldom any established magistrate or any regular administration of justice’
(V.i.b.2) in such states. He added:
Universal poverty establishes there universal equality, and the superiority, either of
age, or of personal qualities, are the feeble, but the sole foundations of authority and
subordination. There is therefore little or no authority or subordination in this period
of society.
(V.i.b.7)
The second social stage is that of pasture, which Smith represented as a ‘more
advanced state of society, such as we find it among the Tartars and Arabs’ (V.i.a.3).
Here the use of cattle is the dominant economic activity and this mode of subsistence
meant, as Smith duly noted, that life would tend to be nomadic and the communities
larger in size than had been possible in the preceding stage. More dramatically, Smith
observed that the appropriation of herds and flocks which introduced an inequality of
fortune, was that which first gave rise to regular government. We also find here a
form of property which can be accumulated and transmitted from one generation to
another, thus explaining a change in the main sources of authority as compared to the
previous period. As Smith put it:
The second period of society, that of shepherds, admits of very great inequalities of
fortune, and there is no period in which the superiority of fortune gives so great
authority to those who possess it. There is no period accordingly in which authority
and subordination are more perfectly established. The authority of an Arabian scherif
is very great; that of a Tartar khan altogether despotical.
(V.i.b.7)
At the same time it is evident that the mode of subsistence involved will ensure a high
degree of dependence on the part of those who must acquire the means of subsistence
through the exchange of personal service, and those who, owning the means of
subsistence, have no other means of expending it save on the maintenance of
dependents, who also contribute to their military power. Smith added that while the
distinction of birth, being subsequent to the inequality of fortune, can have no place in
a nation of hunters, this distinction ‘always does take place among nations of
shepherds’ (V.i.b.10). Since the great families lack, in this context, the means of
dissipating wealth, it follows that ‘there are no nations among whom wealth is likely
to continue longer in the same families’ (ibid.).
The third economic stage is perhaps the most complicated of Smith’s four–fold
classification at least in the sense that it seems to have a lower, middle and upper
phase. Thus for example the initial stage may be seen to correspond to that situation
which followed the overthrow of Rome by the barbarians; pastoral nations which had,
however, acquired some idea of agriculture and of property in land. Smith argued that
such peoples would naturally adapt existing institutions to their new situation and that
their first act would be to divide the available territories, introducing by this means a
settled abode and some form of rudimentary tillage; i.e. the beginnings of a new form
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of productive activity. Under the circumstances outlined, each estate or parcel of land
would assume the character of a separate principality, while presenting many of the
features of the second stage. As in the previous case, for example, the basis of power
is property, and, as before, those who lack the means of subsistence can acquire it
only through the exchange of personal service, thus becoming members of a group
who ‘having no equivalent to give in return for their maintenance’ must obey their
lord ‘for the same reason that soldiers must obey the prince who pays them’ (III.iv.5).
Each separate estate could thus be regarded as stable in a political sense in that it was
based on clear relations of power and dependence, although Smith did emphasize that
there would be an element of instability in terms of the relations between the
principalities; a degree of instability which remained even after the advent of the
feudal period with its complex of rights and obligations. In Smith’s words the
authority possessed by the government of a whole country ‘still continued to be, as
before, too weak in the head and too strong in the inferior members’ (III.iv.9), a
problem basically created by the fact that:
In those disorderly times, every great landlord was a sort of petty prince. His tenants
were his subjects. He was their judge, and in some respects their legislator in peace,
and their leader in war. He made war according to his own discretion, frequently
against his neighbours, and sometimes against his sovereign.
(III.ii.3)
It was a situation which effectively prevented economic development, and one where
the open country remained ‘a scene of violence, rapine, and disorder’ (III.iv.9).
The middle stage of this period may be represented as preserving the institutions of
the previous stage (save with the substitution of the feudal for the allodial system of
land–tenure), albeit with the significant addition of self–governing cities paying a
‘rent certain’ to the king. In this way, Smith suggested, the kings were able to acquire
a source of power capable of offsetting that of the great lords, by way of a tactical
alliance with the cities. Smith made exactly this point when remarking that mutual
interest would lead the burghers to ‘support the king, and the king to support them
against the lords. They were the enemies of his enemies, and it was his interest to
render them as secure and independent of those enemies as he could’ (III.iii.8). Two
significant developments were then traced from this situation, itself a response to the
political instability of the agrarian period. First, the cities, as self–governing
communities (a kind of independent republics Smith calls them) would create the
essential conditions for economic development (personal security), while, secondly,
their development would also generate an important shift in the balance of political
power.
The upper stage of the period differs from the previous phase most obviously in that
Smith here examines a situation where the trade and manufactures of the cities had
had a significant impact on the power of the nobles, by providing them for the first
time with a means of expending their surpluses. It was this trend, Smith suggested,
which led the great proprietors to improve the form of leases (with a view to
maximizing their exchangeable surpluses) and to the dismissal of the excess part of
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their tenants and retainers—all with consequent effects on the economic and thus the
political power of this class. As Smith put it:
For a pair of diamond buckles perhaps, or for something as frivolous and useless, they
exchanged the maintenance, or what is the same thing, the price of the maintenance of
a thousand men for a year, and with it the whole weight and authority which it could
give them.
(III.iv.10)
The fourth and apparently final economic stage (commerce) may be simply described
as one wherein all goods and services command a price, thus effectively eliminating
the direct dependence of the feudal period and to this extent diminishing the power to
be derived from the ownership of property. Thus for example Smith noted that in the
present stage of Europe a man of ten thousand a year might maintain only a limited
number of footmen, and that while tradesmen and artificers might be dependent on his
custom, none the less ‘they are all more or less independent of him, because generally
they can all be maintained without him’ (III.iv.11).
From the standpoint of the economics of the situation, the significant development
was that of a two sector economy at the domestic level where the constant drive to
better our condition could provide the maximum stimulus to economic growth within
an institutional framework which ensured that the pursuit of private interest was
compatible with public benefit. From the standpoint of the politics of the situation, the
significant development was a new source of wealth which was more widely
distributed than previously, and which ultimately had the effect of limiting the power
of kings by shifting the balance of consideration away from the old landed aristocracy
and towards a new mercantile class. In the words of John Millar, it was a general
trend which served to propagate sentiments of personal independence, as a result of a
change in the mode of earning subsistence; a trend which must lead us to expect that
‘the prerogatives of the monarch and of the ancient nobility will be gradually
undermined, that the privileges of the people will be extended in the same proportion,
and that power, the usual attendant of wealth, will be in some measure diffused over
all the members of the community.’4
Once again we face a situation where a change in the mode of earning subsistence has
altered the balance and distribution of political power, with consequent effects on the
nature of government. Once again, we find a situation where the basis of authority and
obedience are found in the principles of utility and authority, but where the
significance of the latter is diminished (and the former increased) by the change in the
pattern of dependence. It is also a situation where the ease with which fortunes may
be dissipated makes it increasingly unlikely that economic, and thus political, power,
will remain in the hands of particular families over long periods of time.
The two areas of argument just considered disclose a number of interesting features.
The TMS for example can be seen to accept the proposition that mankind are always
found in ‘troops and companies’ and to offer an explanation as to how it is that man is
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fitted for the society of his fellows. In developing this argument Smith, as we have
seen, makes much of the importance of the rules of morality (including justice), while
offering an explanation of their origin of a kind which places him in the
anti–rationalist tradition of Hutcheson and Hume. At the same time it is evident that
the form of argument used discloses Smith’s awareness of the fact that human
experience may vary; a point which is made explicitly in the TMS, and which is
reflected in the fact that he did not seek to define the content of general rules in any
but the most general terms.
The historical argument on the other hand, can be seen to offer an explanation for the
origin of government (whose necessity was merely postulated in the TMS), and at the
same time indirectly to throw some light on the causes of change in accepted patterns
of behaviour as a result of the emphasis given to the four socio–economic stages of
growth. This same argument may also throw into relief certain problems which the
TMS does not formally handle; by drawing attention to the fact that societies are not
homogeneous, and to the possibility of a conflict of values. Interestingly enough,
exactly this point is made in the WN in the course of a discussion of religion: ‘In
every civilized society, in every society where the distinction of ranks has once been
completely established, there have been always two different schemes or systems of
morality current at the same time’ (V.i.g.10).
But for the present purpose the most important connections are those which exist
between the ethics and jurisprudence on the one hand, and the economics on the other.
The historical analysis, for example, has the benefit of showing that the commercial
stage or exchange economy may be regarded as the product of certain historical
processes, and of demonstrating that where such a form of economy prevails, a
particular social structure or set of relations between classes is necessarily
presupposed. At the same time the argument (developed especially in Book III of the
WN) helps to demonstrate that a particular form of government will be associated
with the same socio–economic institutions; a form of government which in the
particular case of England had been perfected by the Revolution Settlement, and
which reflected the growing importance of the ‘middling’ ranks.
But perhaps the links between the economic analysis and the TMS are even more
readily apparent and possibly more important.
As we have seen, the whole point of the TMS is to show that society, like the
individual men who make it up, represents something of a balance between opposing
forces; a form of argument which gave due weight to our self–regarding propensities
(much as Hutcheson had done) but which departs from the teaching of Hutcheson in
denying that ‘Self–love was a principle which could never be virtuous in any degree
or in any direction’ (TMS VII.ii.3.12). In much the same way Smith denied
Mandeville’s suggestion that the pursuit of ‘whatever is agreeable in dress, furniture,
or equipage’ should be regarded as ‘vicious’ (VII.ii.4.12). To both he in effect replied
that the ‘condition of human nature were peculiarly hard, if those affections, which,
by the very nature of our being, ought frequently to influence our conduct, could upon
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no occasion appear virtuous, or deserve esteem and commendation from any body’
(VII.ii.3.18).
In many respects Smith was at his most successful in showing that the desire to be
approved of by our fellows, which was so important in the discussion of moral
judgement, was also relevant in the economic sphere. As we have seen, he argued that
the whole object of bettering our condition was to find ourselves as objects of general
esteem, and noted elsewhere that ‘we cannot live long in the world without perceiving
that the respect of our equals, our credit and rank in the society we live in, depend
very much upon the degree in which we possess, or are supposed to possess’, the
advantages of external fortune (VI.i.3). While the pursuit of status and the imagined
conveniences of wealth were important sources of dispute, Smith also emphasized
their economic advantage even within the confines of the TMS. It is such drives, he
asserted, which serve to rouse and keep in ‘continual motion the industry of mankind’
(IV.i.1.10) and he went on to note that those who have attained fortune are, in
expending it,
led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life,
which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among
all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the
interest of the society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species.
(ibid.)
Equally interesting is the fact that Smith should also have discussed at such length the
means whereby the poor man may seek to attain the advantages of fortune, in
emphasizing the importance of prudence, a virtue which, being uncommon,
commands general admiration and explains that ‘eminent esteem with which all men
naturally regard a steady perseverance in the practice of frugality, industry, and
application, though directed to no other purpose than the acquisition of fortune’
(IV.i.2.8). It is indeed somewhat remarkable that it is the TMS, and in particular that
portion of it (Part VI) which Smith wrote just before his death, that provides the most
complete account of the psychology of Smith’s public benefactor: the frugal man.
Economic Theory And The Exchange Economy
In terms of Smith’s teaching, his work on economics was designed to follow on his
treatment of ethics and jurisprudence, and therefore to add something to the sum total
of our knowledge of the activities of man in society. To this extent, each of the three
subjects can be seen to be interconnected, although it is also true to say that each
component of the system contains material which distinguishes it from the others.
One part of Smith’s achievement was in fact to see all these different subjects as parts
of a single whole, while at the same time differentiating economics from them.
Looked at in this way, the economic analysis involves a high degree of abstraction
which can be seen in a number of ways. For example, in his economic work, Smith
was concerned only with some aspects of the psychology of man and in fact confined
his attention to the self–regarding propensities; a fact which is neatly expressed in his
famous statement that ‘It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or
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the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest’ (WN
I.ii.2). Moreover, Smith was not concerned, at least in his formal analysis, with a level
of moral or social experience other than that involved in a ‘mercenary exchange of
good offices according to an agreed valuation’ (TMS II.ii.3.2); in short, all that the
economic work requires is a situation where the minimum condition of justice
obtains. Given this basic premiss, together with the hypothesis of self–interest, Smith
then set out to explain the interdependence of economic phenomena. There are of
course two types of account as to the way in which Smith fulfilled these purposes; one
represented by the state of his knowledge when he left Glasgow in 1763, and the other
by the WN itself.
We now have two versions of Smith’s lecture course, together with the so called
‘early draft’ of the WN; sufficient at least to provide an adequate guide to the ground
covered. There are differences between these documents: LJ (A), for example, while
generally more elaborate, is less complete than LJ (B): it does not, for example,
consider such topics as Law’s Bank, interest, exchange, or the causes of the slow
progress of opulence. The ED, on the other hand, contains a much more elaborate
account of the division of labour than that provided in either of the lecture notes,
although it has nothing to say regarding the link between the division of labour and
the extent of the market. While the coverage of the ED is very similar to that found in
LJ (B) it is also true to say that topics other than the division of labour are dealt with
in note form. But these are basically differences in detail: the three documents are not
marked by any major shifts of emphasis or of analytical perspective, and it is this fact
which makes it quite appropriate to take LJ (B) as a reasonable guide to the state of
Smith’s thought on economics in the early 1760s.
Turning now to this version of the lectures, one cannot fail to be struck by the same
quality of system which we have already had occasion to note elsewhere. The lectures
begin with a discussion of the natural wants of man; a discussion already present in
the ethics. Smith links this thesis to the development of the arts and of productive
forces, before going on to remark on the material enjoyments available to the ordinary
man in the modern state as compared to the chief of some savage nation. In both the
lectures and the ED Smith continued to note that, while it cannot be difficult to
explain the superior advantages of the rich man as compared to the savage, it seems at
first sight more difficult to explain why the ‘peasant should likewise be better
provided’ (ED 2.2), especially given the fact that he who ‘bears, as it were, upon his
shoulders the whole fabric of human society, seems himself to be pressed down below
ground by the weight, and to be buried out of sight in the lowest foundations of the
building’ (ED 2.3).
The answer to this seeming paradox was found in the division of labour, which
explained the great improvement in the productive powers of modern man. Smith
continued to examine the sources of so great an increase in productivity, tracing the
origin of the institution to the famous propensity to ‘truck, barter and exchange’,
while observing that the scope of this development must be limited by the extent of
the market.
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Examination of the division of labour led directly to Smith’s point that unlike the
savage the modern man was largely dependent on the labour of others for the
satisfaction of his full range of wants, thus directing attention to the importance of
exchange. In the course of this discussion, Smith introduced the problem of price and
the distinction between natural and market price.
In the Lectures, natural price (or supply price) was largely defined in terms of labour
cost, the argument being that:
A man then has the natural price of his labour when it is sufficient to maintain him
during the time of labour, to defray the expence of education, and to compensate the
risk of not living long enough and of not succeeding in the business. When a man has
this, there is sufficient encouragement to the labourer and the commodity will be
cultivated in proportion to the demand.
(LJ (B) 227, ed. Cannan 176)
Market price, on the other hand, was stated to be regulated by ‘quite other
circumstances’, these being: the ‘demand or need for the commodity’, the ‘abundance
or scarcity of the commodity in proportion to the need of it’ and the ‘riches or poverty
of those who demand’ (LJ (B) 227–8, ed. Cannan 176–7). Smith then went on to
argue that while distinct, these prices were ‘necessarily connected’ and to show that
where the market exceeded the natural price, labour would crowd into this
employment, thus expanding the supply, and vice versa, leading to the conclusion that
in equilibrium the two prices would tend to coincide. Smith quite clearly understood
that resources would tend to move between employments where there were
differences in the available rates of return, thus showing a grasp of the
interdependence of economic phenomena which led him to speak of a ‘natural balance
of industry’ and of the ‘natural connection of all trades in the stock’ (LJ (B) 233–4,
ed. Cannan 180–81).
Progressing logically from this point, Smith proceeded to show that any policy which
prevented the market prices of goods from coinciding with their supply prices, such as
monopolies or bounties, would tend to diminish public opulence and derange the
distribution of stock between different employments.
The discussion of price led in turn to the treatment of money as the means of
exchange; to a review of the qualities of the metals which made them so suitable as a
means of exchange and to the discussion of coinage.5 Smith also included an account
of the problems of debasement at this stage of his analysis, making in the course of
his argument a point with which he is not always associated, namely, that where the
value of money is falling ‘People are disposed to keep their goods from the market, as
they know not what they will get for them’ (LJ (B) 242, ed. Cannan 188).
It was in the course of this analysis that Smith defined money as merely the
instrument of exchange, at least under normal circumstances, going on to suggest that
it was essentially a ‘dead stock in itself’; a point which helped to confirm ‘the
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beneficial effects of the erection of banks and paper credit’ (LJ (B) 246, ed. Cannan
191).
This argument led quite naturally to a critique of the prejudice that opulence consists
in money and to Smith’s argument that mercantile policy as currently understood was
essentially self–contradictory, and that it hindered the division of labour by artificially
restricting the extent of the market. It was a short step to the conclusion (stated with
characteristic caution) that:
From the above considerations it appears that Brittain should by all means be made a
free port, that there should be no interruptions of any kind made to forreign trade, that
if it were possible to defray the expences of government by any other method, all
duties, customs, and excise should be abolished, and that free commerce and liberty of
exchange should be allowed with all nations and for all things.
(LJ (B) 269, ed. Cannan 209)6
It will be obvious that that section of the lectures which deals with ‘cheapness and
plenty’ does in fact contain many of the subjects which were to figure in the WN. It
also appears that many of his central ideas were already present in a relatively
sophisticated form: ideas such as equilibrium price, the working of the allocative
mechanism, and the associated concept of the ‘natural balance’ of industry. Smith also
made allowance for the importance of ‘stock’ both in discussing the natural
connection of all stocks in trade and with reference to the division of labour, while the
distinction between employer and employed is surely implied in the discussion of the
individual whose sole function is to contribute the eighteenth part of a pin.
Yet at the same time there is also a good deal missing from the lectures; there is, for
example, no clear distinction between factors of production and categories of return,7
not to mention the macro–economic analysis of the second Book of the WN with its
model of the ‘circular flow’ and discussion of capital accumulation. While the
distinction between rent, wages, and profits, may have come from James Oswald, or
emerged as the natural consequence of Smith’s own reflection on his lectures (which
seems very probable), the macro–economic model which finally appeared in the WN
may well have owed something, either directly or indirectly, to Smith’s contact with
the Physiocrats, and especially those who revised the system, such as Mercier de la
Rivière, Baudeau and Turgot.8
It is obviously difficult to the point of impossibility to establish the extent of Smith’s
debts to his predecessors, and Dugald Stewart probably had the right of it when he
remarked that ‘After all, perhaps the merit of such a work as Mr Smith’s is to be
estimated less from the novelty of the principles it contains, than from the reasonings
employed to support these principles, and from the scientific manner in which they
are unfolded in their proper order and connexion’ (Stewart, IV.26). While Stewart
duly noted that Smith had made an original contribution to the subject it need not
surprise us to discover that the WN (like the TMS) may also represent a great
synthetic performance whose real distinction was to exhibit a ‘systematical view of
the most important articles of Political Economy’ (Stewart, IV.27); a systematical
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view whose content shows a clear development both from Smith’s state of knowledge
as it existed in the 1760s, and from that represented by the Physiocrats as a School.9
While it would be inappropriate to review here the pattern of this development in
detail (a task which we have attempted to fulfill in the notes to the text) it may be
useful to delineate at least some of the elements of the reformulated system albeit in
the broadest terms.
The first three chapters of the WN begin with an examination of the division of labour
which closely follows the elaborate account provided in the ED.10 The most obvious
changes, as regards the latter document, relate to the provision of a separate chapter
linking the division of labour to the extent of the market using an account which often
parallels that found in the two ‘fragments’, which W. R. Scott had thought to be part
of the Edinburgh Lectures.11 It is also interesting to note that the discussion of
inequality is omitted from the WN and that the argument as a whole is no longer
prefaced by a statement of the thesis of ‘natural wants’. The following chapter is also
recognizably a development of the earlier work, and deals with the inconveniences of
barter, the advantages of the metals as a medium of exchange, and the necessity for
coinage; the only major difference relates to arrangement in that the discussion of
money now precedes that of price. Chapter v, which leads on from the previous
discussion, does however break new ground in discussing the distinction between real
and nominal price. In this place Smith was anxious to establish the point that while
the individual very naturally measures the value of his receipts in money terms, the
real measure of welfare is to be established by the money’s worth, where the latter is
determined by the quantity of products (i.e. labour commanded) which can be
acquired. In this chapter Smith was not so directly concerned with the problem of
exchange value as normally understood, so much as with finding an invariable
measure of value which would permit him to compare levels of economic welfare at
different periods of time. It was probably this particular perspective which led him to
state but not to ‘solve’ the so–called ‘paradox of value’—a paradox which he had
already explained in the Lectures.12
Chapter vi leads on to a discussion of the component parts of the price of
commodities and once more breaks new ground in formally isolating the three main
factors of production and the three associated forms of monetary revenue: rent, wages
and profit. These distinctions are, of course, of critical importance, and perhaps
Smith’s acute awareness of the fact is reflected in his anxiety to show how easily they
may be confused. Chapter vii then proceeds to discuss the determinants of price,
developing ideas already present in the Lectures but in the more sophisticated form
appropriate to the three–fold factor division. This section of Smith’s work is perhaps
among the best from a purely analytical point of view, and is quite remarkable for the
formality with which the argument unfolds. For example, the analysis is explicitly
static in that Smith takes as given certain rates of factor payment (the ‘natural’ rates),
treating the factors as stocks rather than flows. Smith’s old concept of ‘natural price’
is then redefined as obtaining when a commodity can be sold at a price which covers
the natural rates of rent, wages, and profits, i.e. its cost of production. Market price,
on the other hand, (the ‘actual’ price) is shown to be determined by specific relations
of demand and supply while both prices are interconnected in that any divergence of
the market from the natural price must raise or lower the rates of factor payment in
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relation to their natural rates, thus generating a flow of factors which has the effect of
bringing the market and natural prices to equality.13
The argument then proceeds to the discussion of those forces which determine the
‘natural’ rates of return to factors. Chapter viii takes up the problem of wages, and
argues that this form of return is payable for the use of a productive resource and
normally arises where ‘the labourer is one person, and the owner of the stock which
employs him another’ (I.viii.10). While making allowance for the relative importance
of the bargaining position of the two parties, Smith concluded that the wage rate
would normally be determined by the size of the wages fund and the supply of labour,
where both are affected by the price of wage goods.
Now this argument means that the wage rate actually payable in a given (annual)
period may vary considerably (i.e. the prevailing or natural rate of the theory of price)
as compared to other such time periods, and that it may be above, below, or equal to,
the subsistence wage (where the latter must be sufficient to maintain the labourer and
his family, including an allowance for customary expense). Smith illustrates these
possibilities in terms of the examples of advancing, stationary, and declining
economies, using this argument to suggest that whenever the prevailing wage rate
sinks below, or rises above, the subsistence wage, then in the long run there will be a
population adjustment.
Chapter ix shows the same basic features: that is, Smith sets out to show why profit
accrues and in so doing differentiates it from interest as a category of return, while
arguing that it is not a return for the work of ‘inspection and direction’ but rather for
the risks involved in combining the factors of production. Again, there is a ‘static’
element in that Smith, while admitting the difficulty of finding an average rate of
profit, argues that some indication will be given by the rate of interest, and that the
rate of profit will be determined by the level of stock in relation to the business to be
transacted together with the prevailing wage rate. Once more there is also a concern
with the dynamics of the case, i.e. with the trend of profits over time, the conclusion
being that profits, like wages, would tend to fall, as the number of capitals increases.
The following chapter is a direct development from the two which preceded it and is
chiefly concerned with the ‘static’ aspects of the theory of allocation and returns. In
dealing with the theory of ‘net advantage’, Smith provides a more elaborate account
of the doctrine already found in the Lectures, and there confined to the discussion of
labour. In the present context Smith dropped the assumption of given rates of factor
payment (as made at the beginning of I.vii) in explaining that rates of monetary return
may be expected to vary with the agreeableness or disagreeableness of the work, the
cost of learning a trade, the constancy or inconstancy of employment, the great or
small trust which may be involved, and the probability or improbability of success. Of
these it is argued that only the first and the last affect profits, thus explaining the
greater uniformity of rates of return (as compared to wages) in different employments.
The whole purpose of the first section of this chapter is to elaborate on the above
‘circumstances’ and to show, at least where there is perfect liberty, that different rates
of monetary return need occasion no difference in the ‘whole of the advantages and
disadvantages, real or imaginary’ which affect different employments (I.x.b.39).
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In terms of the discussion of the price mechanism, we now have a complex of rates of
return in different employments and an equilibrium situation where the rate of return
in each type of employment stands in such a relation to the others as to ensure that
there is no tendency to enter or leave any one of them. The same argument adds a
further dimension of difficulty to Smith’s account of the allocative mechanism, by
drawing attention to the problem of moving between employments which require
different skills or levels of training.14
Mobility is in fact the theme of the second part of the chapter where (again
elaborating on ideas present in the Lectures) Smith shows the various ways in which
the policy of Europe prevented the equality of ‘advantages and disadvantages’ which
would otherwise arise; citing such examples as the privileges of corporations, the
statute of apprenticeship, public endowments and especially the poor law.
The closing chapter of Book I is concerned with the third and final form of
return—rent—and is among the longest and most complex of the whole work. But
perhaps the following points can be made when looking at the chapter from the
standpoint of Smith’s analytical system. First, and most obviously, the general
structure of the chapter is similar to those which deal with wages and profit. That is,
Smith initially tries to explain what rent is in suggesting that it is the price which must
be paid for a scarce resource which is a part of the property of individuals, and in
arguing that it must vary with the fertility and situation of the land. Unlike the other
forms of revenue, Smith emphasized that rent was unique in that it accrued without
necessarily requiring any effort from those to whom it was due, and that what was a
cost to the individual farmer was really a surplus as far as society was concerned; a
point which led Smith to the famous statement that rent ‘enters into the composition
of the price of commodities in a different way from wages and profit. High or low
wages and profit, are the causes of high or low price; high or low rent is the effect of
it.’ (I.xi.a.8.)
Secondly, it is noteworthy that the analysis continues the ‘static’ theme already found
in the theory of price, wages, and profits, by concentrating attention on the forces
which determine the allocation of land between alternative uses (such as the
production of corn and cattle) and in suggesting, at least in the general case, that rent
payments would tend to equality in these different uses.
Thirdly, it is noteworthy that Smith should have included a dynamic perspective in the
discussion of allocation, of such a kind as to make his historical sketch of the
changing pattern of land use an important, if rather neglected, aspect of his general
theory of economic development.
Finally, Smith continues the dynamic theme in the form in which it appears in the
previous chapters by considering the long term trends as far as this form of return is
concerned; the conclusion being that rent payments must increase as more land is
brought into use under the pressure of a growing population, and that the real value of
such payments must rise given that the real price of manufactures tends to fall in the
long run.
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If we look back over this Book from the (rather narrow) perspective of Smith’s
system, it will be evident that the argument is built up quite logically by dealing with
a number of separate but inter–related subjects such as costs, price, and returns. At the
same time two themes appear to run through the treatment of the different subjects: a
static theme in that Smith is often concerned to explain the forces which determine the
prevailing rates of return at particular points in time, together with the working of the
allocative mechanisms, with factors treated as stocks rather than as flows; and,
secondly, a dynamic aspect where Smith considers the general trends of factor
payments over long periods, together with the pattern of land use and the probable
changes in the real value of wage goods and manufactures. Both of these major
themes were to find a place in the analysis of the following Books.
The Introduction to Book II sets the theme of the following chapters by taking the
reader back to the division of labour and by re–iterating a point which had already
been made in the Lectures, namely that the division of labour depends on the prior
accumulation of stock. An important difference here, however, as compared to the
Lectures, is to be found in the fact that the task of accumulation is now seen to face
the employer of labour rather than the labourer himself. Chapter i then proceeds to
elaborate on the nature of stock and its applications in suggesting that the individual
may devote a part of his ‘stock’ to consumption purposes, and therefore earn no
revenue or income from it, while a part may be devoted to the acquisition of income.
In the latter case stock is divided, in the manner of the physiocrats, into circulating
and fixed capital; it is also shown that different trades will require different
combinations of the two types of stock and that no fixed capital can produce an
income except when used in combination with a circulating capital.
Reasoning by analogy, Smith proceeded to argue that the stock of society taken as a
whole could be divided into the same basic parts. In this connection he suggested that
in any given period (such as a year) there would be a certain stock of goods, both
perishable and durable reserved for immediate consumption, one characteristic being
that such goods were used up at different rates. Secondly, he argued that society as a
whole would possess a certain fixed capital, where the latter included such items as
machines and useful instruments of trade, stocks of buildings which were used for
productive purposes, improved lands, and the ‘acquired and useful abilities’ of the
inhabitants (i.e. human capital). Finally, he identified the circulating capital of society
as including the supply of money necessary to carry out circulation, the stocks of
materials and goods in process held by the manufacturers or farmers, and the stocks of
completed goods available for sale but still in the hands of producers or merchants as
distinct from their ‘proper’ consumers.
Such an argument is interesting in that it provides an example of the ease with which
Smith moved from the discussion of micro– to the discussion of macro–economic
issues. At the same time it serves to introduce Smith’s account of the ‘circular flow’,
whereby he shows how, within a particular time period, goods available for sale are
used up by the parties to exchange. In Smith’s terminology, the pattern of events is
such that the necessary purchases of goods by consumers and producers features a
‘withdrawal’ from the circulating capital of society, with the resulting purchases being
used up during the current period or added to either the fixed capital or the stock of
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goods reserved for immediate consumption. As he pointed out, the constant
withdrawal of goods requires replacement, and this can be done only through the
production of additional raw materials and finished goods in both main sectors
(agriculture and manufactures) thus exposing the ‘real exchange which is annually
made between those two orders of people’ (II.i.28). The basic division into types of
capital, and this particular way of visualizing the working of the process, may well
owe a great deal to the Physiocrats, even if the basic sectoral division had already
been suggested by Hume.
The remaining chapters of the Book are basically concerned to elaborate on the
relations established in the first. For example, chapter ii makes the division into
classes (proprietors, undertakers, wage–labour) explicit and establishes another
connection with the analysis of Book I by reminding the reader that if the price of
each commodity taken singly comprehends payments for rent, wages, and profits,
then this must be true of all commodities taken ‘complexly’, so that in any given
(annual) period aggregate income must be divided between the three factors of
production in such a way as to reflect the prevailing levels of demand for, and supply
of, them. Once again we find an implicit return to the ‘static’ analysis of Book I, save
at a macro–economic level. The relationship between output and income adds
something to Smith’s general picture of the ‘circular flow’ and at the same time
enabled him to expand on his account by drawing a distinction between gross and net
aggregate output where the latter is established by deducting the cost of maintaining
the fixed capital (together with the costs of maintaining the money supply) from the
gross product. In this way Smith was able to indicate the desirability of reducing the
maintenance costs of the fixed capital, and of the money supply (a part of society’s
circulating capital), introducing by this means the discussion of paper money (a
cheaper instrument than coin) and of banks. The chapter goes on to provide a very
long account of Scottish affairs in the 1760s and 1770s, together with a history of the
Bank of England. Law’s Bank is accorded a single paragraph, in contrast to the
treatment in the Lectures, on the ground that its activities had already been adequately
exposed by Messrs. DuVerney and DuTot. The Bank of Amsterdam, also mentioned
in the conclusion of this chapter and in the Lectures, was accorded a separate
digression in WN IV.iv.
The third chapter of the Book elaborates still further on the basic model by
introducing a distinction between income in the aggregate and the proportion of that
income devoted to consumption (revenue) or to savings. Smith also introduced the
famous distinction between productive and unproductive labour at this point, where
the former is involved in the creation of commodities and therefore of income while
the latter is involved in the provision of services. Smith does not, of course, deny that
services (such as defence or justice) are useful or even necessary, he merely wished to
point out that the labour which is involved in the provision of a service is always
maintained by the industry of other people and that it does not directly contribute to
aggregate output. Smith’s argument was of course that funds intended to function as a
capital would always be devoted to the employment of productive labour, while those
intended to act as a revenue might maintain either productive or unproductive labour.
Two points arise from this argument: first, that the productive capacity of any society
would depend on the proportion in which total income was distributed between
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revenue and capital; and, secondly, that capitals could only be increased through
parsimony, i.e. through a willingness to forego present advantages with a view to
attaining some greater future benefit. It was in fact Smith’s view that net savings
would always be possible during any given annual period, and that the effort would
always be made through man’s natural desire to better his condition. Moreover, he
evidently believed that wherever savings were made they would be converted into
investment virtually sur le champ (thus providing another parallel with Turgot) and
that the rapid progress which had been made by England confirmed this general trend.
In Book II economic dynamics begins to overshadow the static branch of the subject:
an important reminder that Smith’s version of the ‘circular flow’ is to be seen as a
spiral of constantly expanding dimensions, rather than as a circle of constant size. It is
also worth emphasizing in this connection that Smith’s concern with economic
growth takes us back in a sense to the oldest part of the edifice, namely his treatment
of the division of labour, the point being that the increasing size of the market gives
greater scope to this institution, thus enhancing the possibilities for expansion, which
are further stimulated by technical change in the shape of the flow of invention (I.i.8).
The fourth and fifth chapters of this book offer further insights into the working of the
‘flow’ on the one hand, and the theory of economic growth on the other. II.iv, for
example, contains not only an account of the determinants of interest, but confirms
that interest is distinct from profit as a form of return, while introducing the monied
interest as something separate from the manufacturing and agricultural interests.
The following chapter adds four additional uses for capitals (again providing a close
parallel with Turgot) in stating that they may be used in the wholesale or retail trades
in addition to all those above mentioned. Thus as far as our understanding of the
circular flow is concerned, Smith argues that the retailer in purchasing from the
wholesale merchant in effect replaces the capital which the latter had laid out in
purchasing commodities for sale; purchases which had themselves contributed to
replace the capitals advanced by the farmers or manufacturers in creating them. In the
same way, the manufacturer, for example, in making purchases of the instruments of
trade replaces the outlay of some fellow ‘undertaker’ while his purchases of raw
materials contribute to restore the capitals laid out by the farmers on their
production.15 Smith’s enumeration of the different employments of capital is also
relevant as far as his theory of growth is concerned, because each one can be shown to
give employment to different quantities of productive labour. While he had already
observed in the Lectures that agriculture was the most productive form of investment,
the argument was here expanded to suggest that manufacture was the next most
productive, followed by the wholesale and retail trades. He also argued with regard to
the wholesale trade, that its contribution to the maintenance of productive labour
varied, in declining order of importance, according as it was concerned with the home
trade, the foreign trade of consumption, or the carrying trade, where the critical factor
was the frequency of returns. A further dimension was added to this discussion in the
opening chapter of Book III where it is suggested that, when left to their own devices,
men would naturally choose to invest in agriculture, manufactures, and trade (in that
order) thus contributing to maximize the rate of growth by choosing those forms of
investment which generated the greatest level of output for a given injection of
capital.
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Smith’s thesis concerning the different productivities of capital and the associated
(although logically distinct) argument concerning the natural progress of opulence are
sometimes regarded as being among the less successful parts of the edifice; a fact
which makes it all the more important to observe the great burden which they are
made to bear in the subsequent argument. In Book III, for example, Smith uses the
history of Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire to confirm that the pattern of
development had inverted the ‘natural’ order, in the sense that the stimulus to
economic advance had initially come through the cities with their trade in surpluses.
As we shall see in another context, (below, p. 55) the development of trade had given
a stimulus to domestic manufactures based on the refinement of local goods or on
imitation of the foreigner; a pattern of events which eventually impinged on the
agrarian sector, and which is made to explain the transition to the final economic
stage. Smith thus suggests that a process of development regarded as ‘natural’ from
the standpoint of the theory of history, was essentially ‘unnatural’ from the standpoint
of the analysis of the progress of opulence. However, the argument does explain the
position of the third Book and the use there made of historical material which had
been included in the Lectures, where it had been mainly intended to serve a very
different purpose to that found in the WN.
The second main application of the thesis is in Book IV where Smith returns to a
theme which had already figured prominently in the Lectures; the critique of
mercantilism. Many of the points which had been made in the earlier work
undoubtedly re–appear in this section of the WN. In the WN, the mercantile system,
with its associated patterns of control over the import, export, and production of
commodities, is again shown to be based on an erroneous notion of wealth. Smith also
argues, as he had before, that the chief engines of mercantilism, such as monopoly
powers, adversely affect the allocative mechanism and to this extent affect economic
welfare. But the main burden of his argument concerning distortion in the use of
resources runs in terms not of the static allocative mechanism, so much as the
essentially dynamic theory of the natural progress of opulence, the argument being
that mercantile policy had diverted stock to less productive uses, with slower returns,
than would otherwise have been the case. This argument is particularly marked in
Smith’s treatment of the colonial relationship with America; a relationship which was
central to the mercantile system as presented by Smith, and which sought to create a
self–sufficient economic unit.16 In this connection Smith argued that the mercantile
system was essentially self–contradictory: that by encouraging the output of rude
products in America, Great Britain had helped (unwittingly) only to accelerate an
already rapid rate of growth to an extent which would inevitably make the restrictions
imposed on American manufactures unduly burdensome. As far as Great Britain was
concerned, Smith believed that her concentration on the American market had in
effect drawn capital from trades carried on with European outlets and diverted it to the
more distant one of America, while at the same time forcing a certain amount of
capital from a direct to an indirect trade. Obviously, all of this must have had an
adverse effect on the rate of economic growth in Great Britain; a matter of some
moment, in that, as Smith represents the case, a country with a suboptimal rate of
growth happened to face an increasing burden of costs from the colonies themselves.
It is a plausible, powerful, thesis which may be defended on a variety of grounds other
than those on which Smith relied. But, as one shrewd contemporary critic noted,
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Smith’s view on the different productivities of investment was central to his case, and
he begged leave to arrest his steps ‘for a moment, while we examine the ground
whereon we tread: and the more so, as I find these propositions used in the second
part of your work as data; whence you endeavour to prove, that the monopoly of the
colony trade is a disadvantageous . . . institution.’17
The Role Of The State
While the immediately preceding sections have concentrated to a large extent on the
structure and organization of Smith’s thought, perhaps enough has also been said
regarding its content to illustrate the existence of another kind of ‘system’; an
analytical system which treats the economy as a type of model analogous to some
kind of machine whose parts are unconscious of their mutual connection, or of the end
which their interaction serves to promote, but where that interaction is governed by
the laws of the machine. In economic terms, these law–governed processes refer, for
example, to the working of the allocative mechanism, the theory of distribution, or of
economic growth. The components of the ‘model’ are of course the sectors, the
classes, and the individuals whose pursuit of gain contributes to the effective working
of the whole. Thus, for example, the undertaker in pursuit of gain contributes to
economic efficiency by endeavouring to make ‘such a proper division and distribution
of stock’ amongst his workmen as to enable them to ‘produce the greatest quantity of
work possible’. The individual workman or undertaker offers his services in the most
lucrative employments and helps to ensure, by this means, that goods are sold at their
cost of production, and all factors are paid at their ‘natural’ rates. Similarly, the
constant desire to better one’s condition contributes to the flow of savings and thus to
the process of economic growth. In all these cases social benefit and economic order
are the result of the self–interested actions of individuals rather than the consequences
of some formal plan; indeed, Smith went further in insisting that public benefit would
not and need not form any part of the normal motivation of the main actors in the
drama. The famous doctrine of the invisible hand, already prefigured in the TMS in
precisely this connection, was designed to show that the individual, in pursuing his
own objectives, contributed to the public benefit, thereby promoting an end ‘which
was no part of his intention’ (WN IV.ii.9).18
Now this general view of the working of economic processes is important in that it
helps to explain the functions which any government ought ideally to undertake, and
the way in which these functions should be performed; broadly speaking, a subject
which provides the focal point of Book V. In terms of the model itself, for example,
governments have no strictly economic functions, at least in the sense that the
sovereign should be discharged from ‘the duty of superintending the industry of
private people, and of directing it towards the employments most suitable to the
interest of the society’ (IV.ix.51). And yet, the functions of the state, if minimal, are
quite indispensable in the sense that it must provide for such (unproductive) services
as defence, justice, and those public works which are unlikely to be provided by the
market because ‘the profit could never repay the expence to any individual or small
number of individuals’ (IV.ix.51).
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Smith’s list of public services is a short one, but the discussion of the principles on
which their provision should be organized is developed at some length and is
interesting for two main reasons. First, Smith argued that public services should be
provided only where the market has failed to do so; secondly, he suggested that the
main problems with regard to such services were those of equity and efficiency. With
regard to equity, Smith suggested, for example, that public services should always be
paid for by those who use them (including roads and bridges). He also defended the
principle of direct payment on the ground of efficiency in arguing that it is only in this
way that we can avoid the building of roads through deserts for the sake of some
private interest, or a situation where a great bridge is ‘thrown over a river at a place
where nobody passes, or merely to embellish the view from the windows of a
neighbouring palace: things which sometimes happen, in countries where works of
this kind are carried on by any other revenue than that which they themselves are
capable of affording’ (V.i.d.6). At the same time Smith insisted that all public services
should be provided by such bodies as found it in their interest to do so effectively, and
that they should be organized in such a way as to take account of the self–interested
nature of man. Smith stated his basic belief in remarking that ‘Publick services are
never better performed than when their reward comes only in consequence of their
being performed, and is proportioned to the diligence employed in performing them’
(V.i.b.20). He tirelessly emphasized this point, especially in reference to university
teaching, while reminding his readers that the principle held good in all situations and
in all trades.
Of course, Smith did recognise the limitations of this principle and the fact that it
would not always be possible to fund or to maintain public services without recourse
to general taxation. But here again the main features of the analytical system are
relevant in that they affect the way in which taxation should, where possible, be
handled. Thus Smith pointed out on welfare grounds that taxation should be imposed
according to the famous canons of equality, certainty, convenience, and economy, and
insisted that they should not be levied in ways which infringed the liberty of the
subject—for example, through the ‘odious visits’ and examinations of the
tax–gatherer (V.ii.b.3–7). Similarly he argued that ideally taxes ought not to interfere
with the allocative mechanism (as for example, taxes on necessities) or constitute
important disincentives to the individual effort on which the working of the whole
system has been seen to depend (such as taxes on profits). In short, Smith’s
recommendations with regard to the functions of government are designed to ensure
the freedom of the individual to pursue his own (socially beneficial) ends and merely
require that the state should provide such services as facilitate the working of the
system, while conforming to the constraints of human nature and the market
mechanism. Looked at from this point of view, Smith’s discussion of the role of the
state is very much a part of his general model and confirms his view that the task of
political economy, considered as a part of the science of the statesman or legislator, is
‘to provide a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people, or more properly to
enable them to provide such a revenue or subsistence for themselves’ (IV.Intro.1).
But Smith went much further than this in discussing the role of the state, and in ways
which remind us of his essentially practical concerns, and of the importance of other
branches of his general system such as the theory of history and the TMS.
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To begin with, it will already be evident that one thread which runs through the WN
involves criticism of those contemporary institutions which impeded the realization in
its entirety of the system of natural liberty. Broadly speaking, these impediments can
be reduced to four main categories each one of which Smith wished to see removed.
First, there is the problem (already raised in terms of the historical analysis) that
‘Laws frequently continue in force long after the circumstances, which first gave
occasion to them, and which could alone render them reasonable, are no more’
(III.ii.4). Secondly, Smith drew attention to certain institutions which had their origins
in the past but which still commanded active support; institutions such as guilds and
corporations, which could still regulate the government of trades. All such
arrangements were, in Smith’s view impolitic because they impeded the working of
the allocative mechanism and unjust because they were a ‘violation of this most
sacred property’ which ‘every man has in his own labour’ (I.x.c.12). In a very similar
way Smith commented on the problems presented by the poor law and the laws of
settlement and summarized his appeal to government in these terms: ‘break down the
exclusive privileges of corporations, and repeal the statute of apprenticeship, both
which are real encroachments upon natural liberty, and add to these the repeal of the
law of settlements . . .’ (IV.ii.42). Thirdly, Smith criticised the continuing use of
positions of privilege, such as monopoly powers, which did not necessarily have any
particular link with the past. Here again the basic theme remains, that such institutions
are impolitic and unjust: unjust because they are positions of privilege and impolitic
because they again affect the working of the allocative mechanism, being besides, ‘a
great enemy to good management’ (I.xi.b.5).
Finally, we have the main theme of Book IV which we have already had occasion to
mention; that is Smith’s call for a reform of national policy in so far as that was
represented by the mercantile system.
All this amounts to a very considerable programme of reform, although, quite
characteristically, Smith recognized that reality would fall a long way short of
perfection, and that it could do so without damage to that fundamental drive to better
our condition or to the capacity of that drive to overcome ‘a hundred impertinent
obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations’
(IV.v.b.43). Smith recognized the existence of many practical difficulties; that people
are attached to old forms and institutions for example, quite as much as to old families
and kings, and also that sectional economic pressures would always find some means
of influencing the legislature in their favour, precisely because of those same
economic forces which helped to explain the historical dominance of the House of
Commons in England.19 For such reasons he concluded that ‘To expect, indeed, that
the freedom of trade should ever be entirely restored in Great Britain, is as absurd as
to expect that an Oceana or Utopia should ever be established in it’ (IV.ii.43).
If points such as these contribute to qualify the rather ‘optimistic’ thesis with which
Smith is generally associated, the impression is further confirmed by those passages
in the WN (occurring mainly in Book V) which bear more directly on the analysis of
the TMS. In the former work, it will be remembered that welfare is typically defined
in material terms; in terms of the level of real income, i.e. the extent to which the
individual can command the produce (or labour) of others. On the other hand, in the
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philosophical work welfare was defined more in terms of the quality of life attainable,
where ‘quality’ refers to a level of moral experience greater than that involved in the
‘mercenary exchange of good offices according to an agreed valuation’. There is of
course no inconsistency between these two positions, since the two major books,
while analytically linked, in fact refer to different areas of human experience. But at
the same time Smith made a number of points in the WN which establish an important
link between the philosophical and economic aspects of his study of man in society,
while constituting a reminder that welfare should not be considered solely in
economic terms. In this connection Smith drew attention to the fact that the worker in
a ‘large manufactory’ was liable to the temptations of bad company with consequent
effects on moral standards (I.viii.48). In the same vein he also mentioned the
problems presented by large cities where, unlike the rich man who is noticed by the
public and who therefore has an incentive to attend to his own conduct, the poor man
is ‘sunk in obscurity and darkness. His conduct is observed and attended to by
nobody, and he is therefore very likely to neglect it himself, and to abandon himself to
every sort of low profligacy and vice.’ (V.i.g.12.)
To this extent, the importance of the spectator is undermined, and so too may be those
faculties and propensities on which moral experience has been seen to depend (a
separate point). For Smith drew attention to the ‘fact’ that the division of labour
which had contributed to economic growth through the subdivision and simplification
of productive processes, had at the same time confined the activities of the worker to a
few simple operations which gave no stimulus to the exercise of his mind, thus
widening the gulf between the philosopher and the ordinary man or his employer.
Smith believed that the worker could lose the habit of mental exertion, thus gradually
becoming as ‘stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become’
and he went on, in a famous passage, to remark:
The torpor of his mind renders him, not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part
in any rational conversation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender
sentiment, and consequently of forming any just judgment concerning many even of
the ordinary duties of private life.
(V.i.f.50)
As Smith duly noted, this general trend could produce the apparently paradoxical
result that while the inhabitants of the fourth economic stage enjoyed far greater
material benefits than those available to the hunter or savage, yet the latter would be
more likely to exercise his mental faculties and to this extent be ‘better off’ (V.i.f.51).
Smith recognized that the occupations of the savage were unlikely to produce an
‘improved and refined understanding’, but his main point was that in the modern state
this refinement can only be attained by the few who are able to reflect at large on a
wide range of problems, including the social. As Smith put it, in a passage which once
again reminds us of the importance of the Astronomy and of the problems of
stratification in society:
The contemplation of so great a variety of objects necessarily exercises their minds in
endless comparisons and combinations, and renders their understandings, in an
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extraordinary degree, both acute and comprehensive. Unless those few, however,
happen to be placed in some very particular situations, their great abilities, though
honourable to themselves, may contribute very little to the good government or
happiness of their society. Notwithstanding the great abilities of those few, all the
nobler parts of the human character may be, in a great measure, obliterated and
extinguished in the great body of the people.
(V.i.f.51)
Smith’s belief that the ‘labouring poor, that is, the great body of the people’ (V.i.f.50)
might suffer a kind of ‘mental mutilation’ led him directly to the discussion of
education. To some extent he argued that market forces had proved themselves
capable of the effective provision of this service, especially with regard to the
education of women (V.i.f.47), and he also noted that it was the absence of such
pressures which had enabled the ancient universities to become ‘the sanctuaries in
which exploded systems and obsolete prejudices’ had found support and protection
(V.i.f.34). Yet at the same time, he did not believe that the public could rely on the
market, not least because the lower orders could scarce afford to maintain their
children even in infancy, and he went on to note, with regard to the children of the
relatively poor, that ‘As soon as they are able to work, they must apply to some trade
by which they can earn their subsistence’ (V.i.f.53). Smith therefore advocated the
provision of parish schools on the Scottish model wherein the young could be taught
to read and to acquire the rudiments of geometry and mechanics—provided of course
that their masters were ‘partly, but not wholly paid by the publick’ (V.i.f.55). Smith
even went so far as to suggest that the public should impose ‘upon almost the whole
body of the people the necessity of acquiring those most essential parts of education,
by obliging every man to undergo an examination or probation in them before he can
obtain the freedom in any corporation, or be allowed to set up any trade’ (V.i.f.57).
Smith also advocated that the better off, despite their superior (economic) advantages
in acquiring education, should be required to attain a rather higher standard of
knowledge ‘by instituting some sort of probation, even in the higher and more
difficult sciences, to be undergone by every person before he was permitted to
exercise any liberal profession, or before he could be received as a candidate for any
honourable office of trust or profit’ (V.i.g.14).
Such policies were defended on the ground of benefit to the individual, but also for
more practical reasons. The labourer armed with a knowledge of the rudiments of
geometry and mechanics was likely to be better placed to perform his tasks effectively
and to continue to see how they could be improved. Similarly, Smith suggested that
an educated people would be better placed to see through the interested claims of
faction and sedition, while in addition an ‘instructed and intelligent people . . . are
always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupid one’. Such a people, he
continued (in a strain which reminds us of the importance of the earlier discussion of
political obligation) are also more likely to obtain the respect of their ‘lawful
superiors’ and to reciprocate that respect. He concluded:
In free countries, where the safety of government depends very much upon the
favourable judgment which the people may form of its conduct, it must surely be of
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the highest importance that they should not be disposed to judge rashly or
capriciously concerning it.
(V.i.f.61)
In this way Smith granted the state an important cultural purpose and at the same time
introduced a significant qualification to the optimistic thesis with which he is often
associated—both with regard to the efficacy of market forces and the benefits of
economic growth.
The Institutional Relevance Of The WN
The attractions of Smith’s system, and of an analysis which stretched even beyond the
WN to encompass his other works, was quickly recognized by contemporaries. A
stream of tributes found their way to Smith. Hugh Blair, the erstwhile Minister of the
High Kirk of Edinburgh and later Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the
University wrote:
I am Convinced that since Montesquieu’s Esprit des Lois, Europe has not received
any Publication which tends so much to Enlarge & Rectify the ideas of mankind.
Your Arrangement is excellent. One chapter paves the way for another; and your
System gradually erects itself. Nothing was ever better suited than your Style is to the
Subject; clear & distinct to the last degree, full without being too much so, and as
tercly as the Subject could admit. Dry as some of the Subjects are, It carried me
along.20
William Robertson was more to the point: ‘You have formed into a regular and
consistent system one of the most intricate and important parts of political science.’21
In similar vein Joseph Black commended Smith for providing ‘. . . a comprehensive
System composed with such just & liberal Sentiments’.22 Lastly, some eighteen
months later Edward Gibbon described the WN as ‘the most profound and systematic
treatise on the great objects of trade and revenue which had ever been published in
any age or in any Country.’23
Unstinted admiration of Smith’s system was accompanied by a fear, not always
clearly expressed, that the work might not prove to have an immediate appeal, a fear
based on an appreciation that the WN is not a simple but a difficult and involved
book. With some feeling Hugh Blair pled for an index and a ‘Syllabus of the whole’,
because, ‘You travel thro’ a great Variety of Subjects. One has frequently occasion to
reflect & look back.’ (Letter 151.) David Hume looked forward to a day which he,
within months of his death, was not to see, when the book would be popular, but he
was less sanguine about its immediate prospects:
. . . the Reading of it necessarily requires so much Attention, and the Public is
disposed to give so little, that I shall still doubt for some time of its being at first very
popular: But it has Depth and Solidity and Acuteness, and it is so much illustrated by
curious Facts, that it must at last take the public Attention.24
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A week later Hume offered a comparison with Gibbon’s Decline and Fall to William
Strahan, the publisher of both, a comparison not altogether in favour of the WN: ‘Dr
Smith’s Performance is another excellent Work that has come from your Press this
Winter; but I have ventured to tell him, that it requires too much thought to be as
popular as Mr Gibbon’s.’25 Even on publication, there were signs that Hume was
unduly pessimistic. In his reply Strahan, while concurring with Hume’s comparison,
admitted that the sales of the WN ‘though not near so rapid, has been more than I
could have expected from a work that requires much thought and reflection’.26 Adam
Ferguson’s more optimistic predictions were nearer the mark: ‘You are not to expect
the run of a novel, nor even of a true history; but you may venture to assure your
booksellers of a steady and continual sale, as long as people wish for information on
these subjects.’27
In the event the fears of lack of immediate success were ill–founded. The first edition
of the WN, published on 9 March 1776, was sold out in six months. On 13 November
1776 Smith wrote to William Strahan acknowledging payment of a sum of £300, the
balance of money due to him for the first edition, and proposed that the second edition
‘be printed at your [Strahan’s] expense, and that we should divide the profits’.28
Strahan agreed and the second edition appeared early in 1778. Only minor
amendments, though many of them, distinguished it from the first; but the third
edition, published late in 1784, had such substantial additions that they were also
published separately for the benefit of those who had purchased the earlier editions,
under the title Additions and Corrections to the First and Second Editions of Dr Adam
Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The most
notable changes were the introduction of Book IV, chapter viii (Conclusion of the
Mercentile System); Book V, chapter i.e. (Of the Public Works and Institutions which
are necessary for facilitating particular Branches of Commerce); passages on
drawbacks (IV.iv.3–11), on the corn bounty (IV.v.8–9), on the herring bounty
(IV.v.28–37) and the Appendix; and, particularly significant in view of Hugh Blair’s
early plea, the first index. The fourth edition of 1786 and the fifth of 1789, the last in
Smith’s lifetime, had only minor alterations. The English editions were not the only
ones to appear in Smith’s lifetime; by 1790 the book had been, or was being published
in French, German, Danish and Italian.
The WN did not suffer the fate which befell the previous great treatise on economics,
Sir James Steuart’s Principles of Political Oeconomy, published only nine years
earlier in 1767. Its success, judged even merely by its level of sales and the five
editions in Smith’s lifetime, hardly accorded with some of the fears for the book’s
popularity which tinged the otherwise unbounded admiration of Smith’s friends. In
welcoming the WN the members of Smith’s intellectual circle faced a dilemma. They
were attracted by the WN as the crown of Smith’s system, but they feared that great
achievement would not, perhaps even could not, be generally and immediately
appreciated. There was, however, another side to the WN, a more pragmatic, down to
earth side, which gave the work a practical relevance in the eyes of many to whom the
intellectual system was perhaps a mystery or merely irrelevant. Smith’s friends did
not always recognize that his ‘proper attention to facts’, even to Hume’s ‘curious
facts’, was to prove an immediate source of attraction. Having gained attention in this
way, Smith then commanded respect because the practical conclusions which
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followed from the chief elements of his system were evidently related to the economic
problems of the middle of the eighteenth century. These practical conclusions may be
demonstrated by casting leading elements in Smith’s system in the form of a series of
practical prescriptions for economic growth. When the prescriptions are compared
with the historical situation in Britain in the mid–eighteenth century, their immediate
relevance is apparent. The various categories of Smith’s system had thus an
institutional content or background derived from the experience of his day, which
many admired and followed even when the system and its categories remained
difficult for them to understand.
The division of labour remained central to this institutional analysis. Even when
Smith recognized the theoretical possibility of the operation of other factors—an
increased labour force or mechanization—the division of labour remained in practice
the fundamental cause of economic growth. The emphasis is clear in Book II where,
as has already been pointed out (p. 30), economic dynamics begins to overshadow
economic statics, specifically in II.iii.32:
The annual produce of the land and labour of any nation can be increased in its value
by no other means, but by increasing either the number of its productive labourers, or
the productive powers of those labourers who had before been employed. The number
of its productive labourers, it is evident, can never be much increased, but in
consequence of an increase of capital, or of the funds destined for maintaining them.
The productive powers of the same number of labourers cannot be increased, but in
consequence either of some addition and improvement to those machines and
instruments which facilitate and abridge labour; or of a more proper division and
distribution of employment. In either case an additional capital is almost always
required. It is by means of an additional capital only that the undertaker of any work
can either provide his workmen with better machinery, or make a more proper
distribution of employment among them.
Given that the division of labour remained the key to economic growth its full
effectiveness was limited by an inadequate expansion of the market and by an
inadequate supply of capital. An inadequate supply of capital also limited the
effectiveness of those other influences—increased quantity of labour and
mechanization—which Smith recognized as theoretical, if not practical causes of
economic expansion. The distinction between productive and unproductive labour had
led to the conclusion that growth of capital depended on the most extensive use of
funds in the employment of productive labour. Smith then developed his system to
determine those fields where productive labour was most effectively employed and
the conclusions, derived in this way from his analytical framework, had highly
institutional implications, for they indicated the areas where growth was to be
welcomed and encouraged. That was guidance for the practical man.29 Three
propositions from II.v make the order of preference clear:
No equal capital puts into motion a greater quantity of productive labour than that of
the farmer.
(12)
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After agriculture, the capital employed in manufactures puts into motion the greatest
quantity of productive labour, and adds the greatest value to the annual produce. That
which is employed in the trade of exportation, has the least effect of any of the three.
(19)
The capital, therefore, employed in the home–trade of any country will generally give
encouragement and support to a greater quantity of productive labour in that country,
and increase the value of its annual produce more than an equal capital employed in
the foreign trade of consumption: and the capital employed in this latter trade has in
both these respects a still greater advantage over an equal capital employed in the
carrying trade.
(31)
Such were the practical conclusions to which the theory led and, since the desirable
allocation was to be achieved through ‘the uniform, constant, and uninterrupted effort
of every man to better his condition’, the implication was obvious: government
intervention had to be restrained, especially when it was possible to demonstrate, as in
Book IV, that intervention was usually exercised on behalf of those vested interests
which perverted the natural course of opulence. Well might Hugh Blair exclaim:
You have done great Service to the World by overturning all that interested Sophistry
of Merchants, with which they had Confounded the whole Subject of Commerce.
Your work ought to be, and I am persuaded will in some degree become, the
Commercial Code of Nations.
(Letter 151)
Even a cursory survey of the major economic characteristics of Britain in the
eighteenth century confirms the contemporary relevance of Smith’s emphases. He
advocated for example the desirability of encouraging agriculture because of the
superior productivity of capital invested in it. To the practical man, whether he
appreciated the full logic of Smith’s analysis or not, the advocacy struck a responsive
chord, since the main source of economic advance in Britain in the mid–eighteenth
century lay in agriculture. Of that no one was unaware. Poor harvests and high prices
benefited no one, obviously not industrial workers, and not the majority of farmers.
Only a few specialist grain growers expected to reap the profits of scarcity and any
potential gain was frequently eroded by the prohibitions on the use of grain for
purposes other than the making of bread in times of scarcity and, more dramatically,
by the activities of bread rioters. Hence a modern historian has described the period as
one when ‘the coming of dearth was sufficient in itself to halt, or reverse, an upward
movement of activity’.30 This restraint on increasing wealth was at last being tackled
in the eighteenth century. Contemporaries, as well as later historians, disputed the
significance and effectiveness of the specific agricultural improvements which
brought the change to fruition, but, even when the method was disputed, the end was
plain. The age–old spectre of famine was removed for the first time, and secure
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economic advance was possible. That was a dramatic change from the experience of
many other countries.
A similar sympathetic response followed Smith’s evaluation of the form and function
of trade. Agriculture and commerce were the twin props of the economy in the eyes of
many contemporaries and Smith’s extensive treatment of the latter reflected its
domination of economic thought and practice. More strikingly still, the pattern of
foreign trade in the eighteenth century was changing and so drew attention to the
relevance of Smith’s attempt to assess the comparative contributions to economic
growth of the different forms of trade. The relevance of the analysis is evident in the
changes in the pattern of both commodities and markets.
Woollen exports had long been the traditional staple, particularly to European
markets, which at the beginning of the eighteenth century took over 90 per cent of the
woollen goods exported. Thereafter, though Spain and Portugal were taking more,
other European countries were taking less; the future lay less with Europe than in the
past. Later in the eighteenth century cotton assumed the role of leading export which
wool had once held, but it was dependent on non–European markets. Between the two
phases of domination by two different textile industries the buoyant trading sector lay
in re–exports, which had not been of great significance until the second half of the
seventeenth century, but by the beginning of the eighteenth century re–exports were
equal to half the level of domestic exports. Sugar, tobacco, Indian calicos were the
leading commodities, and their buoyancy reflected an economy which gained from a
commerce based more on Britain’s trading links than on the sale of domestic
production overseas, an economy in which it was impossible to deny the paramount
position, for good or ill, of overseas trade, and especially of the carrying trade.
Nowhere in Britain was that situation more evident than in the economic structure of
Glasgow in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. The foreign trade of Scotland
had been turning from the continent of Europe to the New World even before the
parliamentary union of 1707 confirmed the move, and the protection afforded by the
Navigation Acts provided a firm and unfettered basis for Glasgow’s success as an
entrepot in the tobacco trade. Hence to read the practical discussion in Book IV of the
WN, whether to accept or to reject its conclusions, was to read an account highly
relevant to the contemporary economic scene. The Book discusses the stuff of which
contemporary economic policy was made.
Though the problems of agriculture and of commerce were the economic issues which
dominated the mind of the practical man of the eighteenth century, industrial
production was increasing, and, when Smith wrote, its increase was bringing to an end
a period of stability in the relative contributions to the national product of agriculture,
manufacturing and commerce. Smith’s emphasis on the growth, but not on the
existing domination, of manufacturing industry, and particularly his exposition of the
division of labour as the prime agent of change, accorded with contemporary
experience. The increased industrial output was associated with a decline in the
relative importance of the woollen industry and a marked growth in the relative
contribution of metal manufactures, reflecting increased division of labour in small
units and not the emergence of the larger and more modern units of industrial
organisation which are associated with substantial capital formation and with
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joint–stock enterprise. The day of large–scale capital formation and extensive
joint–stock enterprise came years after Smith. Though the problems of the industrial
sector did not loom large in the minds of many contemporaries, when they did, they
assumed the forms which Smith enunciated. The increasing capital intensity of
production, and of its concentration, which was to begin with the appearance of the
cotton industry, were yet to be, and the absence of any significant analysis of that
sector in the WN should be cited less as a matter of regret and criticism and more as
an indication of Smith’s awareness of those aspects of the contemporary industrial
scene which were of concern at the time he wrote.
The WN succeeded not only because its institutional emphasis made it thus so
evidently, as Blair wrote, ‘a publication for the present time’ but also because it
contained a stirring message. Its plea for liberty accorded with the intellectual
presuppositions of the eighteenth century. The plea for liberty in the WN is a vital
factor explaining the different reception accorded to Steuart and Smith within a
decade of each other. Steuart may have suffered from additional handicaps. Apart
from his personal handicap of Jacobitism, his work appealed less powerfully to the
intellects of the eighteenth century, and above all Steuart’s support for government
intervention placed him in a different camp from Smith, and in one which was not
popular among the increasingly influential elements in contemporary society.31
Smith provided a system with categories and elements which remain valid as parts of
his analytical framework, but their institutional content, so pertinent to economic
conditions in Britain in the eighteenth century, that it helped ensure the success of the
WN, limits the acceptability and applicability of the system in other places and at
other times. Whatever the intellectual attractiveness of Smith’s writing on the
continent of Europe, it was frequently institutionally irrelevant there when it was first
published. For example, in contrast with Britain, ancient mercantilist and agrarian
restrictions were acceptable on the continent. In Germany local monopolistic guilds
still dominated economic life, and the advocacy of the new degree of economic
freedom requisite for new forms of economic enterprise was not acceptable. Palyi
suggests that the surprising aspect of the WN’s reception in Germany was not that it
was not readily received, but ‘that the resistance against the WN did not last longer
than some twenty years and did not take a more active form’.32 In France, again as
Palyi points out, the situation was confused because of the influence of the
physiocrats. Smith gave sufficient recognition to the physiocratic point of view to
lend some support to its claims, and that support was especially helpful since the
acceptability of their doctrines was waning, partly because of the antagonism the
physiocrats had engendered from the new and rising industrial groups, whose dislike
of physiocracy grew from the support it provided to the large landowners. That
confusion influenced the reception accorded to the WN.
Attempts to apply the WN to societies more advanced than Britain on the eve of the
industrial revolution encounter similar, or even greater problems. The difficulty of
doing so is demonstrated by contrasting Smith’s emphasis on the division of labour as
the central cause of economic growth and his neglect of other factors, such as
increases in the supply of labour, particularly through the growth of population, and
improvements in the productivity of labour through mechanization. Smith recognized
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that an increase in the labour force led to an increase in output, but he did not
envisage unemployed labour resources being brought into use, and any increase in the
supply of labour was likely to be a long–run consequence of an expansion of the
national product.
The demand for those who live by wages, therefore, necessarily increases with the
increase of the revenue and stock of every country, and cannot possibly increase
without it. The increase of revenue and stock is the increase of national wealth. The
demand for those who live by wages, therefore, naturally increases with the increase
of national wealth, and cannot possibly increase without it.
(I.viii.21)
Increasing population, whether a cause of economic growth, or as something to fear,
was not highlighted. That may seem surprising. Others, among them Sir James
Steuart, feared over–population, but it was possible to be as optimistic about the
future in the mid–eighteenth century as at any time. The spectre of famine and of
some diseases had been removed; the sharp rise in population and the problems of its
concentration were yet to be. Hence it was easy to conceive the problem of economic
growth as one of utilizing the labour force in ways which would most effectively meet
the opportunities offered by the expansion of the market, either by improvements in
the division of labour or by mechanization. Of the two possibilities Smith, with his
analysis firmly rooted in the institutional structure of his day, stressed the former.
Mechanization was recognized—as in his discussion of the steam engine—but it was
conceived as a process accompanying the division of labour.
The owner of the stock which employs a great number of labourers, necessarily
endeavours, for his own advantage, to make such a proper division and distribution of
employment, that they may be enabled to produce the greatest quantity of work
possible. For the same reason, he endeavours to supply them with the best machinery
which either he or they can think of.
(I.viii.57)
In consequence of better machinery, of greater dexterity, and of a more proper
division and distribution of work, all of which are the natural effects of improvement,
a much smaller quantity of labour becomes requisite for executing any particular
piece of work. . .
(I.xi.o.1)
Not only are the division of labour and mechanization closely interwoven, but
invention itself was in Smith’s opinion ‘originally owing to the division of labour’
(I.i.8).33 Innovation is no more central to the analysis. Projectors pass through the
pages of the WN, frequently to be dismissed as detrimental rather than helpful to
economic growth. In spite of his stress on psychological propensities in other parts of
his work, Smith did not extend his analysis in a serious way to evaluate the qualities
which determined the ability to innovate successfully.
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The dominance of the division of labour, and the comparative neglect of other
categories in the analysis, notably mechanization, is, of course, a reflection of the
institutional relevance of the WN to the British economy in the mid–eighteenth
century. The penalty paid was the opening of a penetrating line of criticism for those
who wished to stress Smith’s comparative neglect of the other and ultimately more
powerful agent of economic growth. Into that context can be placed the criticism of
Lauderdale, who, though not distinguishing between capital and entrepreneurship,
was anxious to remedy Smith’s alleged failure to make adequate allowance for
differences in knowledge and ability in different countries. Rae suggested even more
forcefully that invention held the key to explaining the greater productivity of capital
in some societies than in others. Smith’s admirer, J. B. Say, developed the idea of
entrepreneurship as a very special form of labour. Later Schumpeter placed the
entrepreneur and his innovating ability at the heart of an explanation of economic
growth. Lauderdale, Rae, Say, Schumpeter belong to later generations, which, unlike
Smith’s, had witnessed the effect of mechanization on industrial output. Smith was
writing even before the large–scale application of mechanization to cotton–spinning.
Hence, just as the WN did not seem so relevant to societies other than Britain in the
later eighteenth century, so the institutional content of the WN was not applicable to
the industrial state which Britain was beginning to be.
Nevertheless, discussion of Smith’s institutional relevance can become almost
pointless if it tries to prove either that Smith anticipated modern industrialization, or if
it spends much time proving that he did not. Any evaluation must start from the
obvious fact that Smith’s thought was formulated in the third quarter of the eighteenth
century, and that many of his ideas had been formulated as early as the 1760s. To
search the WN for examples of the institutional structure which was to emerge later in
a more advanced industrial economy is to search for qualities which it cannot possess
except fortuitously. The attraction of the WN was not that it was a tourist’s guide to
the subsequent course of industrialization, but that it had a command of the
institutional structure of the time, sufficiently convincing to demonstrate its
contemporary relevance.
The institutional features of the WN which date it also helped towards its immediate
success. The modern reader may recognize the systematic analysis as the great
intellectual achievement of the treatise and qualify the validity of Smith’s views on
public policy, or even adopt the extreme interpretation of dismissing them as totally
irrelevant. No contemporary could have entertained such a view; obviously
misleading or erroneous comments on the public policy of the age, or, worse still,
irrelevant comments, would have detracted from the intellectual achievement in their
eyes. The acceptance of the WN by contemporaries rested on its apparent relevance to
the affairs of everyday life as much as on its systematic analysis. It became the
authority to quote as much in public discussion as in parliamentary debate. But that
was not all. Smith’s relevance to his day and age insured such immediate acceptance
for the WN that, even when its popularity as a guide to policy was waning, and was
ultimately rejected, the work was so well established, and so generally established,
that it was never neglected, and the systematic analysis was then recognized for the
massive intellectual achievement which it is.
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Smith’S Use Of History
If Smith achieved the unusual distinction of being a prophet with honour in his own
country, he did so partly because his work was firmly rooted in a historical situation.
The WN may, therefore, be used as a historical source, in at least two distinctive
senses. Since Smith frequently wrote as a historian—sometimes deliberately,
sometimes otherwise—he may be judged accordingly by the common criteria of
historical scholarship. In addition, Smith’s account of events in the later eighteenth
century may be assessed for its reliability as the report of a contemporary observer. In
neither case is an account of Smith’s writing a straightforward and uncomplicated
matter. Just as anyone using Smith to illuminate later economic thought must make
full allowance for the limitations of his institutional background on the general
applicability of his theories, so those who use the WN as a historical source in
whatever sense must make even greater allowances. In the former case the
deficiencies are inevitable, as Smith could not have envisaged changes which were
yet to be; in the latter case the omissions may even be deliberate and so misleading,
especially if they are not obvious. As always, Smith’s desire to devise a major
intellectual system determined the use he made of historical and factual material. No
one of his intellectual eminence would distort the facts, even if only because
refutation would thus have been infinitely easier, but, even when facts were not
distorted, they may still have been used in such a subordinate and supporting role to
the dominating systematic model that their use for any other purpose needs
qualification.
If parts of the WN are to be judged as straightforward pieces of historical writing, it is
necessary to distinguish the different ways in which Smith wrote as a historian. When
he wrote as an orthodox historian, he tried to assemble the best documentary and
factual evidence for his case; when he wrote as a philosopher of history, he tried to
distil an ideal interpretation of an historical process ostensibly from the facts he had
accumulated.
Smith, as any orthodox historian, may be assessed by a review of his sources and his
use of them. Their variety is striking, whether the impression be derived from those
quoted in the WN itself, from the resources in Smith’s personal library, or from the
accounts of the Library at Glasgow when he controlled its expenditure. The break
with the tradition of Christian authority is obvious; even historical parts of the Bible
and its apparent relevance to the discussion of a nomadic life are virtually ignored,
with only the most incidental of references to the Old Testament. By contrast, the
classical tradition dominates and supplies many illustrations of early times. Given the
inevitable paucity of source material for an account of an earlier age, and yet given
the necessity of formulating such an account as part of an essential background to the
dynamic historical evolution which he was seeking, Smith—in common with others
who adopted his approach—was forced to use another group of source materials: the
travellers’ tales and accounts of contemporary societies which were at a much earlier
and much more primitive stage of social evolution. Travellers’ tales bulk large in what
is generally regarded as Smith’s historical writing, taking pride of place even over the
classical references. To a more orthodox historian the extensive use of travellers’ tales
is even more suspect than the use of classical writers, whose work can at least be
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subjected to a more critical appraisal of their reliability. Travellers’ tales, especially in
an age when they were frequently rare, even unique, accounts of far off places, could
not easily be confirmed or refuted, and so the travellers tended to highlight the
unusual and the bizarre. A warning of Francis Hutcheson could well be taken to heart:
The Entertainment therefore in these ingenious Studys consists chiefly in exciting
Horror, and making Men stare . . . What is most surprizing in these Studys, is the
wondrous Credulity of some Gentlemen of great Pretentions in other Matters to
Caution of Assent, for these marvellous Memoirs of Monks, Friars, Sea–Captains,
Pirates; and for the Historys, Annals, Chronologys, received by oral Tradition, or
Hieroglyphicks.34
Smith was not more culpable than many of his contemporaries in his use of such
material. He was certainly less guilty than some others of falling into the trap against
which Hutcheson warned, for he did not accept all his sources uncritically. Trade
statistics were held perceptively and authoritatively to be unreliable:
Heavy duties being imposed upon almost all goods imported, our merchant importers
smuggle as much, and make entry of as little as they can. Our merchant exporters, on
the contrary, make entry of more than they export; sometimes out of vanity, and to
pass for great dealers in goods which pay no duty; and sometimes to gain a bounty or
a drawback. Our exports, in consequence of these different frauds, appear upon the
customhouse books greatly to overbalance our imports; to the unspeakable comfort of
those politicians who measure the national prosperity by what they call the balance of
trade.
(V.ii.k.29)
Hence it is not surprising that Smith, though ready to endorse Gregory King’s skill in
political arithmetic (I.viii.34), and willing to quote the calculations of Charles Smith
on the corn trade (I.xi.g.18), had to admit that he himself had ‘no great faith in
political arithmetick’ (IV.v.b.30). Quantitative sources were not the only ones treated
with some reserve.
After all the wonderful tales which have been published concerning the splendid state
of those countries [Mexico and Peru] in antient times, whoever reads, with any degree
of sober judgment, the history of their first discovery and conquest, will evidently
discern that, in arts, agriculture, and commerce, their inhabitants were much more
ignorant than the Tartars of the Ukraine are at present.
(I.xi.g.26)
Yet sometimes Smith’s use of a source is less critical than it should be, especially
when the source confirms an argument he is developing from other and more general,
often speculative sources, so that the orthodox historian thus becomes the supporter of
the philosophic historian. Instances range from the trivial to the substantial. At the
most trivial level Smith’s faults represent merely different standards of transcription
between the eighteenth century and the present day. At times he seems to quote from
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memory, as when his quotations are not quite verbatim, or when he attributes a view
to a source which it does not quite support, as for example, in his use of the works of
Juan and Ulloa and of Frézier to support his condemnation of the mining of precious
metals in the New World (I.xi.c.26–8). More serious still, in his use of statutes Smith
falls into the error, not unique among historians, of failing to distinguish between the
intention of the statute and the manner and extent of its implementation. The error is
surprising in Smith’s case, because his experience at least after his appointment as
Commissioner of Customs in 1778, enabled him to observe the gulf which could be
fixed between intention and implementation in the case of some statutes, as in various
attempts to suppress smuggling, and even more important because he himself
sometimes provided the material for drawing such a distinction, as in his discussion of
the laws relating to apprenticeship. A more serious example is his discussion of the
settlement provisions of the poor law. In both cases Smith objected because of
interference with the liberty he considered essential for the effective allocation of
resources (above, 37).
After castigating the generally restrictive effect of the Statute of Apprentices Smith
proceeded to recognize the limitations on its application: to market towns and not in
the country (I.x.c.8); to those trades which were established when the Act was passed
and not to those which appeared subsequently, excluding—on Smith’s own
admission—‘the manufactures of Manchester, Birmingham and Wolverhampton’, or
at least ‘many of them’ (I.x.c.9); and finally, not to soldiers and sea–men who, ‘when
discharged from the king’s service, are at liberty to exercise any trade, within any
town or place of Great Britain or Ireland’ (IV.ii.42).
Smith’s failure to make adequate allowance for the qualifications to the law of
settlement is more serious. Smith objected to the legal restraints imposed on the right
to obtain a settlement in a parish, with its entitlement to poor relief, as part of his
general objection to artificial restraints on the free mobility of labour. He made his
objection forcefully:
There is scarce a poor man in England of forty years of age . . . who has not in some
part of his life felt himself most cruelly oppressed by this ill–contrived law of
settlements.
(I.x.c.59)
The reasons had been as sweepingly advanced in the previous paragraph:
. . . in England, where it is often more difficult for a poor man to pass the artificial
boundary of a parish, than an arm of the sea or a ridge of high mountains, natural
boundaries which sometimes separate very distinctly different rates of wages in other
countries.
(I.x.c.58)
In addition Smith contrasted conditions in Scotland with those in England, alleging
that in England the law of settlement ensured that ‘The scarcity of hands in one parish
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. . . cannot always be relieved by their super–abundance in another, as it is constantly
in Scotland’ (I.x.c.58). Once again Smith himself provided qualifications which
should have led to the enunciation of his proposition in more moderate terms. He
recognized the major mitigation of the restraints on the mobility of labour which
followed the introduction of certificates, whereby a parish accepted liability for a
potential pauper, though he promptly cast doubt on the effectiveness of the measure
by commenting rather cynically, after quoting from a passage in Richard Burn’s
Justice of the Peace, that ‘certificates ought always to be required by the parish where
any poor man comes to reside, and that they ought very seldom to be granted by that
which he proposes to leave’ (I.x.c.56). Smith also provided a general explanation of
differences of wage rates between Scotland and England; one dependent not on their
different laws of settlement but on differences between their rates of development and
between the levels of subsistence in the two countries (I.viii.33–4).
Other evidence reinforces the doubts Smith raises himself. Removals of potential
paupers in England were probably less frequent than he implies, otherwise it is
difficult to understand how the new developing areas ever obtained the labour force
they required; in Scotland paupers were sometimes forcefully removed, though less
frequently than in England. The issue was one of contemporary importance, and could
have been investigated by a detailed examination of parochial administration, but of
such investigation there is no evidence in the WN, so that in these matters Smith did
not have knowledge comparable to that which he had about customs procedure, even
before his appointment as a commissioner, and which enabled him to be more critical
of evidence in that field. In his discussion of both the laws of apprenticeship and
settlement Smith provides evidence which damages his own case against the
restrictive legislation, and provides indications that investigations which might have
been undertaken to confirm his case or otherwise were not carried out. The general
principles, the opposition to restrictions damaging to the free allocation of resources,
were held so strongly that there seemed no case to answer.
Criticism of Smith’s use of sources becomes truly damaging only if he read into a
source more serious evidence in support of a proposition than he was entitled to do.
Even that criticism must not be pushed too far. All historians must choose the facts
they judge relevant to their argument, and so their discussion is forced in one
direction or another. Hence a significant distinction between the approaches of Smith
and of orthodox historians can be drawn only if Smith’s choice of evidence strayed
beyond the limits set by human frailty in determining degrees of relevance towards a
demonstrable distortion of historical evidence, whether deliberate or not. Then, even
if Smith’s use of his sources meets the requirements of the most refined critical
apparatus of textual criticism, he would stand condemned by orthodox historians for
his unacceptable choice of evidence.
Any such distinction, or even gulf, between the approaches of Smith and of orthodox
historians appears only when Smith writes as a speculative or philosophical as well as
an orthodox historian, and so a fundamental issue in any appreciation of the WN lies
in determining how Smith deals with any tensions which emerge between the two
approaches. Each strand of his historical reasoning, the orthodox and the speculative,
is a logical entity, and each, if examined and judged by its own standards, is internally
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consistent. Problems emerge only when attempts are made to integrate the two in
order to eliminate the tensions which seem to emerge between them. Smith does not
recognize the tensions, he was probably unaware of them, because his grand design of
a comprehensive system dominates every other approach. Yet tension between the
two approaches appears at central parts of his analysis, most significantly in Book III,
where the historical evidence is, of course, embedded at the centre of the exposition,
not merely providing a peripheral part of the reasoning. The philosophical historian
states unequivocally the course of the ‘natural progress of opulence’:
According to the natural course of things, therefore, the greater part of the capital of
every growing society is, first, directed to agriculture, afterwards to manufactures, and
last of all to foreign commerce. This order of things is so very natural, that in every
society that had any territory, it has always, I believe, been in some degree observed.
(III.i.8)
In the next paragraph the orthodox historian upsets ‘the natural progress’:
though this natural order of things must have taken place in some degree in every
such society, it has, in all the modern states of Europe, been, in many respects,
entirely inverted. The foreign commerce of some of their cities has introduced all their
finer manufactures, or such as were fit for distant sale; and manufactures and foreign
commerce together, have given birth to the principal improvements of agriculture.
(III.i.9)
The last sentence of the chapter provides both an explanation and an accusation:
The manners and customs which the nature of their original government introduced,
and which remained after that government was greatly altered, necessarily forced
them into this unnatural and retrograde order.
(III.i.9)
The three chapters which follow, to make up the shortest Book in the WN, then
proceed to expound an orthodox historical progress of opulence in a way which
differs from that outlined in ‘the natural progress’, of how, for example in III.iv, the
commerce of the towns contributed to the improvement of the country.
This distinction between the speculative historical progress of opulence and the
orthodox historical progress is the prime example of the tensions involved in the use
of the WN as a historical source. Yet allegations of tension, of an uneasy relationship
and even of contradictions between the two strands of thought, are evident only when
Smith is judged by standards, and by a methodology, which he would not have
accepted. Smith’s objective was to delineate an ideal account of historical evolution,
which did not need to conform to any actual historical situation, so historical
evidence, while playing a central part in his thought, was supplementary evidence of
secondary importance. If historical facts indicated a divergence from the ideal
explanation, then Smith felt obliged to offer explanations of the divergence. He
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worked from the system to the facts not from the facts to the system, and in that
context his protestation that he had ‘no great faith in political arithmetic’ is
significant. If the historian or the political arithmetician demonstrated the divergence
from the ideal that, for instance, the progress of opulence was from the town to the
country and not the reverse, the interesting problem then lay in determining the
reasons for the divergence—in the present example it lay in unwise and undesirable
intervention from the government. H. T. Buckle, though given to overstating his case,
made a vital point, and in a lively style:
Adam Smith . . .very properly rejected [statistical facts] as the basis of his science,
and merely used them by way of illustration, when he could select what he liked. The
same remark applies to other facts which he drew from the history of trade, and,
indeed, from the general history of society. All of these are essentially subsequent to
the argument. They make the argument more clear, but not more certain. For, it is no
exaggeration to say, that, if all the commercial and historical facts in the Wealth of
Nations were false, the book would still remain, and its conclusions would hold
equally good, though they would be less attractive.35
Any tension between the speculative, or systematic, and the orthodox strands of
Smith’s thought is potentially even more misleading when the systematic thought is
contrasted with, or used to illuminate aspects of contemporary policy. Then Smith’s
comments on the happenings of his time in the eighteenth century may be so coloured
by his speculative approach that his accounts and views may have to be treated with
some reserve and not used as reliable source material for historical studies of the
period.
It was suggested earlier that the conclusion of greatest practical significance in
Smith’s analysis for the eighteenth century lay in his ordering of the productive use of
capital, as in II.v.19: first, in agriculture; then in manufactures; last in ‘the trade of
exportation’. In the subsequent evaluation of the wholesale trade, the very practical
conclusion was stated unequivocally:
. . . the great object of the political oeconomy of every country, is to encrease the
riches and power of that country. It ought, therefore, to give no preference nor
superior encouragement to the foreign trade of consumption above the home–trade,
nor to the carrying trade above either of the other two.
(II.v.31)
Just as Smith’s orthodox historical work sometimes qualified the use that may be
made of his speculative history, so his orthodox empirical studies cast doubt on some
of the recommendations on contemporary policy derived directly from his analytical
system. Examples can be given at both ends of his proposition concerning the
desirable deployment of resources, from his comment on agriculture and on the
colonial trade.
‘In proportion as a greater share of [capital] is employed in agriculture, the greater
will be the quantity of productive labour which it puts into motion within the
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country’. (II.v.19.) It was suggested above (p. 45) that the prospects for economic
growth in Britain in the eighteenth century were greatest in agriculture, and Smith
provides empirical evidence of the progress already made in that field in his own day
and of further possible lines of progress, as, for example, in an accurate and
perceptive account of the expansion of the Scottish cattle trade (I.xi.l.2–3). But
another part of Smith’s system, and the empirical content he gave to its operation in
agriculture, casts doubt on the pre–eminence given to agriculture in economic
progress. He asserts from empirical evidence that the division of labour, the great
agent of change, is least applicable in agriculture (I.i.4). Once again the different
strands of the argument are logically valid, but the relationship between the two is
uneasy and unclear, and so too is the use which may be made of the evidence as
reflecting economic conditions in the eighteenth century.
Smith’s treatment of the colonial trade is even more significant, because it looms
large in the WN and in contemporary discussion. Given his general analysis it is not
surprising that Smith condemns the tobacco trade as an example of how undesirable
government intervention had turned trade ‘from a direction in which it would have
maintained a greater quantity of productive labour, into one, in which it can maintain
a much smaller quantity’ and had ‘rendered the whole state of that industry and
commerce more precarious and less secure, than if their produce had been
accommodated to a greater variety of markets’. (IV.vii.c.46 and 40.) It has already
been suggested (p. 46) that Smith’s account of the carrying trade, both of its
dependence on current commercial policy and of its effect on the domestic economy,
would have been recognized by his contemporaries as a realistic survey of the
conditions of the time. The growth of re–exports, and the tobacco trade’s domination,
especially in Glasgow, owed much to the Navigation Acts, and the effect on the
domestic economy was so limited that it is even possible to suggest that there existed
two separate economies, each with its rate and extent of growth determined by
different factors. But, once again, the WN itself provides the qualifications to the
practical conclusion derived from the systematic analysis.
To begin with, it is not clear that commercial legislation was the critical cause of the
growth of the colonial trade in general, and the tobacco trade in particular. ‘There are
no colonies of which the progress has been more rapid than that of the English in
North America’ (IV.vii.b.15), because ‘Plenty of good land, and liberty to manage
their own affairs their own way, seem to be the two great causes of the prosperity of
all new colonies’ (IV.vii.b.16). Even the exact influence of the monopoly is unclear: it
‘raises the rate of mercantile profit, and therefore augments somewhat the gains of our
merchants’, but it also ‘hinders the sum of profit from rising so high as it otherwise
would do’ (IV.vii.c.59). To determine the overall effect of the monopolistic
restrictions, Smith is admitting in effect the necessity of a nice calculation of gain and
loss. In the long–run even more necessary for that purpose is an evaluation of the use
to which any profit is put: a smaller profit in the hands of those who use it in ways
deemed appropriate may promote economic growth more rapidly than a larger profit
in the hands of those who use it differently. Of that problem Smith was aware:
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If the prodigality of some was not compensated by the frugality of others, the conduct
of every prodigal, by feeding the idle with the bread of the industrious, tends not only
to beggar himself, but to impoverish his country.
(II.iii.20)
Smith’s distinction between the prodigal and the frugal man raises immense
difficulties for any attempt to use his systematic analysis as a final commentary on the
effect of the colonial trade. The distinction can be highlighted in Smith’s own words
in II.iii:
The proportion between capital and revenue . . . seems every where to regulate the
proportion between industry and idleness. Wherever capital predominates, industry
prevails: wherever revenue, idleness.
(13)
Capitals are increased by parsimony, and diminished by prodigality and misconduct.
(14)
Parsimony, and not industry, is the immediate cause of the increase of capital.
Industry, indeed, provides the subject which parsimony accumulates. But whatever
industry might acquire, if parsimony did not save and store up, the capital would
never be the greater.
(16)
Hence, whatever the limitations, derived from Smith’s systematic analysis, on the
beneficial effects of the carrying trade, the colonial trade might still have made a
major contribution to economic growth if the merchants were parsimonious and not
prodigal, particularly if they then diverted their capital into agricultural enterprises at
home. Smith recognized in general terms what was happening. ‘Merchants are
commonly ambitious of becoming country gentlemen, and when they do, they are
generally the best of all improvers’ (III.iv.3), certainly better than the great proprietors
(III.ii.7). The experience of the eighteenth century confirms this aspect of Smith’s
discussion. Parsimony among the merchants, including colonial merchants, and their
desire to become landed gentlemen, provided the capital which Smith recognized as
essential for the exploitation of the agricultural resources of Scotland itself. The
undesirability of concentration on the carrying trade which Smith’s intellectual
analysis demonstrated, was evidently much less in practice when a full study is made,
and, once again as in the discussion of agriculture, for reasons which are embedded in
the WN. The reasons are not stressed, because to do so would have required some
qualification to conclusions derived from the central analysis of the desirable
distribution of capital and to some of the allegedly harmful effects of the Navigation
Acts.
Smith’s historical writing has practical implications in the use of the WN. The
historical writing is meaningful only if interpreted as part of the intellectual system
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which the historical material was used to illustrate and support. Similarly, Smith’s
discussion of contemporary problems and events, which can easily be assumed to be
an example of unbiased reporting, must also be integrated into his entire system. The
belief in the natural progress of opulence, almost in its inevitability, is so strong
throughout the WN that, when dealing with a contemporary problem, Smith’s main
objective is to isolate those barriers which lay in the path of natural progress as he saw
it, and to advocate their speedy removal. Hence on contemporary issues his writing
verges on propaganda, he uses evidence in ways which are not wholly convincing to
those not committed to his system, and he presses interpretations of contemporary
events to more extreme conclusions than may well be warranted.
The defects of Smith’s emphasis must not be stressed unduly, though they may seem
to justify the suggestion that he was never noted for his consistency. Paradoxically the
inconsistency was often consistent, because it rarely damaged the central analysis and
was indeed usually introduced as a means of support for it. Nor can Smith easily be
accused of inconsistency in the transfer of his analysis to policy, so long as his
practical recommendations were confined to a general advocacy of the desirability of
eliminating government intervention from many, if not from all aspects of economic
life. The inconsistencies appear only in the detail. These are defects of greater
consequence to those who read the WN today than to those who read the WN when it
was first published. Then the analysis, both systematic and institutional, was largely
applicable in Britain, and was a major cause of the work’s popularity; it was excellent
political propaganda and such stretching of empirical evidence as it contained was not
such as could discredit the whole. The problem is for those readers of later
generations who seek to use the WN as a source book of contemporary comment.
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The Text And Apparatus
Since WN is a work of some magnitude and complexity, yet one inadequately
described in the standard bibliographical references, it may be appropriate to define
the various editions examined,1 to indicate the circumstances of printing and issue,2
and then to specify the relation of each edition to the present text.
1] 4° 1st edition. Published 9 March 1776 at £1.16.0 in blue–grey or marbled boards.
Vol. i: A4 a2 B–L4 M4(± M3) N–P4 Q4(± Q1) R–T4 U4(± U3) X–2Y4 2Z4(± 2Z3)
3A4(± 3A4) 3B–3N4 3O4(± 3O4) 3P–3T4. Pp. i title, ii advt for TMS 4th edn., iii–xi
contents, xii blank. 12–510 text, 511–512 blank. Vol. ii: A2 B–C4 D4(± D1) E–3Y4
3Z4 (± 3Z4) 4A4 4B4 (– 4B1.2 + 4B1.2) 4C4(± 4C2.3) 4D–4E4 4F2. Pp. i half–title, iii
title, iv errata, 12–587 text, 588 advts. The substitute leaves, six in the first volume
and six in the second, have been noted only in their cancelled state.3
The original edition, the first title of which serves as a frontispiece to this volume,
properly serves as copy–text: the printing closest to original manuscript and thus
ordinarily preserving in its ‘accidentals’, or spelling and punctuation, the author’s
several idiosyncracies. Nonetheless, since the edition was printed not directly from
the author’s original script but, apparently like all his work, from a copy prepared by
an amanuensis,4 some of its peculiarities may be attributed to another hand and
therefore discounted whenever the third edition, closely attended by the author, offers
a less ambiguous reading.
2] 4° 2d edition. Published 28 February 1778 at £1.16.0 in boards.
Vol. i: A–G4 H4(± H4) I–2D4 2E4(± 2E2.3) 2F–2L4 2M4(± 2M2.3) 2N–3S4 3T4(–
3T4). Pp. i title, iii–vii contents, viii advt for TMS 4th edn. and errata, 12–510 text.
Vol. ii: A4 B–4E4 4F4(– F4). Pp. i half–title, iii title, v–viii contents, 12–589 text, 590
blank. In Volume i the Texas copy still contains original leaf H4, first of the five
cancelled in other specimens, but this is invariant from the cancellans.5
Strahan printing ledger: (Nov. 1777) 141½ sheets, 500 copies, @ 16s. = £113.4.0.
Extra Corrections £4. This printing was done, it will be observed, three months before
issue.
The second edition exhibits a number of alterations large and small, some providing
new information, some correcting matters of fact, some perfecting the idiom, and a
large number now documenting references in footnotes. All these substantive changes
are incorporated in the text excepting only those further amended in the third edition.
2A] 4° ‘Additions and Corrections.’ Published 20 November 1784 at 2s. in blue–grey
boards, ‘to accommodate the purchasers of the former editions’.
Issue: B–L4. Pp. 12–79 text, 80 blank.
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Strahan ledger: (Oct. 1784) 10 sheets, 500 copies, @ 16s. = £8.
As the collation would indicate, this is a very considerable supplement, representing
in thirteen sections some 24,000 words. The ‘Additions’ were undertaken several
years before when Smith first proposed a separate printing and his publisher, Thomas
Cadell, agreed subject to a proviso—which could hardly be enforced—that the issue
be sold only to those who had purchased the earlier editions.6 Though many
‘Corrections’ doubtless were then and thereafter also entered in Smith’s copy of the
Second Edition, and from the caption title would appear to be conveyed as well in this
separate issue, a goodly number of lesser consequence could be accommodated
expediently only in the edition next described.
3] 8° 3d edition. Published simultaneously with 2A 20 November 1784 at 18s. in
boards or one guinea bound.
Vol. i: A4 B–2I8 2K2. Pp. i title, iii Advertisement, iv errata, v vi–viii contents,
12–499 text, 500 blank. Vol. ii: π2 a2 B–2K8 2L6. Pp. 1–2 blank, i title, iii iv–vi
contents, 12–518 text, 519–523 Appendix, 524 blank. Vol. iii: π2 a2 B–2K8 2L2. Pp.
1–2 blank, i title, iii iv–v contents, vi blank, 12–465 text, 466 blank, 467–515 index,
516 advt for TMS, 4th edn.7
Strahan ledger: (Oct. 1784) 97½ sheets, 1000 copies, @ £1.7.0 = £131.12.6. Extra for
Index £3.5.0. Tables and Corrections £4.19.0.
In view of the author’s later statement (see section 4 below) this issue must be
accepted as representing his final version, one which incorporates with some further
amendments all the additions issued in 2A, further revises the text and, most
significantly, supplies a lengthy index.8 Moreover, as there is clear evidence that it
was read several times in proof, with close attention to the pointing,9 the third edition
can be regarded as supervening even the first in many of its formal aspects, and thus
now serves as printers’ copy.
4] 8° 4th edition. Published 6 November 1786 at 18s. in boards.
Vol. i: A4 B–2I8 2K2. Pp. i title, iii Advt to 3d Ed., iv Advt to 4th Ed., v vi–viii
contents, 12–499 text, 500 errata. Vol. ii: π2 a2 B–2K8 2L6. Pp. 1–2 blank, i title, iii
iv–vi contents, 12–518 text, 519–523 Appendix, 524 errata. Vol. iii: A4 B–2K8 2L2.
Pp. 1–2 blank, i title, iii iv–v contents, vi errata, 12–465 text, 466 blank, 467–515
index, 516 advt for TMS, 4th edn.10
Strahan ledger: (Oct. 1786) 98 sheets, 1250 copies, @ £1.11.0 = £151.18.0. Extra for
Tables and Index £4.2.0.
If we accept Smith’s own assurance, in the new ‘Advertisement’, that there are indeed
‘no alterations of any kind’ in this edition, then the ‘few trifling alterations’ which
Cannan here observed, and accepted in his own text, may be dismissed along with the
others which he rightly perceived to be ‘misreadings or unauthorized corrections of
the printers’.11 That there are no fewer than fourteen errata noted, some in each of the
three volumes, attests however to the printer’s continuing concern, a concern
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evidenced as late as the posthumous seventh edition of 1793, where F2 in the first
volume is a cancel.
5] 8° 5th edition. Published 1789, possibly also, as for 4, at 18s. in boards.
Vol. i: A6 B–2I8 2K2. Pp. 1–2 blank, i title, iii–iv advt to 3d Edn., v–vi Advt to 4th
Ed., vii viii–x contents, 12–499 text, 500 blank. Vol. ii: π2 a2 B–2K8 2L6. Pp. 1–2
blank, i title, iii iv–vi contents, 12–518 text, 519–523 Appendix, 524 blank. Vol. iii:
A4 B–2K8 2L2. Pp. 1–2 blank, i title, iii iv–v contents, vi blank, 12–465 text, 466
blank, 467–515 index, 516 advt for TMS 4th edn.12
Strahan ledger: (Feb. 1789) 98 sheets, 1500 copies, @ £1.14.0 = £166.12.0. Extra for
Tables and Index £4.6.0.
From this edition the present text adopts one obvious correction only, the reading
‘Hope’ in the ‘Advertisement to the Fourth Edition’, but ordinarily, as with the
Fourth, refuses any admittance to numerous adjustments (as well as many misprints)
now again representing, apparently, only the work of the printer. It is certainly
illogical to follow this text, as does Cannan, simply because it is ‘the last published in
Smith’s Lifetime’.13
6] 8° 6th edition. Published 1791, possibly also, as for 4, at 18s. in boards.
Description as for 5, except that final advt. is now for TMS 6th edn.14 Strahan ledger:
(Dec. 1791) 98 sheets, 2000 copies, @ £2 = £196. Extra for Tables and Index £4.6.0.
Like the two preceding, this the first posthumous edition has been collated, and its
variants also recorded below the text, as a matter of historical record. The account
extends thus far to meet, and in this case to dismiss, any possibility that the author left
some final revisions incorporated in the work only after his death.15
Once the order and validity of readings was assessed, according to the rationale set
out above, the preparation of this text then followed a set procedure. First at Texas the
two available specimens of 1 (the copy–text) were read against all the later editions,
including a photocopy of British Library 2A, and every variant entered in a photocopy
of Texas 3 (printer’s copy), the substantive readings in one column, the accidentals in
a second, and end–line hyphenations in a third. This record was then verified against
the copies at Glasgow and printer’s copy marked for the press. Thereafter the proofs
were read independently by all three editors against 3, any discrepancies again
resolved at Glasgow, and revised proofs thereafter checked against the final record.
As now prepared this edition contains a number of features all described below.
For the text proper the paragraphs within each section or part have been numbered
both to facilitate cross reference in the annotations and to simplify later citation from
this edition.16 Within the text stars and daggers are the author’s own devices for
pointing a note, superscript figures the numbers entered by the present editors to
signal their further commentary. Superscript letters, denoting substantive textual
variants, are of two orders, e.g.:
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shall a single indicator centered between two words, signifying, as noted below text,
only an additional reading once inserted at this point
b
his
double indicators abutting the word or words in question, both delimiting, as
b
capital noted below text, a passage elsewhere in variant form or omitted.
Differences in spelling (ancient/antient, public/publick, &c) remain unaltered as
representative of the variable orthography Smith himself continually allowed on the
several occasions he revised his work. In general all accidentals, if necessarily
introduced from some edition other than 3, or in a few instances by the present
editors, are listed in Schedule A; accidentals not admitted, along with misprinted
substantives, are recorded in B; line–end hyphenation is registered in C. At the
beginning of each original page in 3 the number of that page is entered in brackets.
Below the text page, as now printed, three kinds of data may appear. First are Smith’s
own references (together with appropriate indicators if these originally occur in some
edition after the first or if they are later amended) followed immediately, within
square brackets, by any extension of the reference the present editors consider
necessary. Second are the substantive textual variants, all entered in a manner
indicating the kind or extent of variation:
a
not 2A
b–b
om. 4 <corrected
4e–6>
c–c
om. 1
d–d
in this 1–2
e–e
2–6 [includes the
whole of this
paragraph]
‘not’ inserted in 2A ‘Additions and Corrections’ but not
present in 1–2, deleted in 3–6, and therefore excluded from
this text.
passage first omitted in 4 but immediately corrected in 4 errata
list and retained thereafter
passage entered in all editions except 1
words in 1–2 differing from phrase adopted in 3–6
cautionary note for an extensive addition, where insertions
f
andg or other amendmentsh–h andi–i may intrude
Thirdly, below text page, as signalled by superscript numerals in the text, come the
editors’ own commentary. These number references are sequential only through each
part.
Following the work, and the several editorial schedules, there are three indexes, each
of which bears its own heading as to purpose and utility.
As an essential part of their own editorial work, the text and its variants have also
been checked and scrutinized by the General Editors.
W.B.T.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
ADVERTISEMENTA
The first Edition of the following Work was printed in the end of the year 1775, and
in the beginning of the year 1776. Through the greater part of the Book, therefore,
whenever the present state of things is mentioned, it is to be understood of the state
they were in, either about that time, or at some earlier period, during the time I was
employed in writing the Book. To bthisb third Edition, however, I have made several
additions, particularly to the chapter upon Drawbacks, and to that upon Bounties;
likewise a new chapter entitled, The Conclusion of the Mercantile System; and a new
article to the chapter upon the expences of the sovereign. In all these additions, the
present state of things means always the state in which they were during the year
1783 and the beginning of the cpresentc year 1784.1
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ADVERTISEMENT To The FOURTH EDITION
In this fourth Edition I have made no alterations of any kind. I now, however, find
myself at liberty to acknowledge my very great obligations to Mr. Henry aHopea of
Amsterdam. To that Gentleman I owe the most distinct, as well as liberal information,
concerning a very interesting and important subject, the Bank of Amsterdam; of
which no printed account had ever appeared to me satisfactory, or even intelligible.1
The name of that Gentleman is so well known in Europe, the information which
comes from him must do so much honour to whoever has been favoured with it, and
my vanity is so much interested in making this acknowledgement, that I can no longer
refuse myself the pleasure of prefixing this Advertisement to this new Edition of my
Book.
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INTRODUCTION AND PLAN OF THE WORK
1The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the
necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes, and which consist
always, either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with
that produce from other nations.
2According therefore, as this produce, or what is purchased with it, bears a greater or
smaller proportion to the number of those who are to consume it, the nation will be
better or worse supplied with all the necessaries and conveniences for which it has
occasion.
3But this proportion must in every nation be regulated by two different circumstances;
first, by the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which aitsa labour is generally appliedb
; and, secondly, by the proportion between the number of those who are employed in
useful labour, and that of those who are not so employed. Whatever be the soil,
climate, or extent of territory of any particular nation, the abundance or scantiness of
its annual supply must, in that particular situation, depend upon those two
circumstances.
4The abundance or scantiness of this supply too seems to depend more upon the
former of those two circumstances than upon the latter. Among the savage nations of
hunters and fishers, every individual who is able to work, is more or less employed in
useful labour, and endeavours to provide, as well as he can, the necessaries and
conveniencies of life, for himself, corc such of his family or tribe as are either too old,
or too young, or too infirm to go a hunting and fishing. Such nations, however, are so
miserably poor, that, from mere want, they are frequently reduced, or, at least, think
themselves reduced, to the necessity sometimes of directly destroying, and sometimes
of abandoning their infants, their old people, and those afflicted with lingering
diseases, to perish with hunger, or to be devoured by wild beasts. Among civilized
and thriving nations, on the contrary, though a great number of people do not labour
at all, many of whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently of a hundred times
more labour than the greater part of those who work; yet the produce of the whole
labour of the society is so great, that all are often abundantly supplied, and a
workman, even of the lowest and poorest order, if he is frugal and industrious, may
enjoy a greater share of the necessaries and conveniences of life than it is possible for
any savage to acquire.
5The causes of this improvement, in the productive powers of labour, and the order,
according to which its produce is naturally distributed among the different ranks and
conditions of men in the society, make the subject of the First Book of this Inquiry.
6Whatever be the actual state of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which labour
is applied in any nation, the abundance or scantiness of its annual supply must
depend, during the continuance of that state, upon the proportion between the number
of those who are annually employed in useful labour, and that of those who are not so
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employed. The number of useful and productive labourers, it will hereafter appear, is
every where in proportion to the quantity of capital stock which is employed in setting
them to work, and to the particular way in which it is so employed. The Second Book,
therefore, treats of the nature of capital stock, of the manner in which it is gradually
accumulated, and of the different quantities of labour which it puts into motion,
according to the different ways in which it is employed.
7Nations tolerably well advanced as to skill, dexterity, and judgment, in the
application of labour, have followed very different plans in the general conduct or
direction of it; and those plans have not all been equally favourable to the greatness of
its produce. The policy of some nations has given extraordinary encouragement to the
industry of the country; that of others to the industry of towns. Scarce any nation has
dealt equally and impartially with every sort of industry. Since the downfal of the
Roman empire, the policy of Europe has been more favourable to arts, manufactures,
and commerce, the industry of towns; than to agriculture, the industry of the country.
The circumstances which seem to have introduced and established this policy are
explained in the Third Book.
8Though those different plans were, perhaps, first introduced by the private interests
and prejudices of particular orders of men, without any regard to, or foresight of, their
consequences upon the general welfare of the society; yet they have given occasion to
very different theories of political œconomy; of which some magnify the importance
of that industry which is carried on in towns, others of that which is carried on in the
country. Those theories have had a considerable influence, not only upon the opinions
of men of learning, but upon the public conduct of princes and sovereign states. I have
endeavoured, in the Fourth Book, to explain, as fully and distinctly as I can, those
different theories, and the principal effects which they have produced in different ages
and nations.
9dTo explaind in what has consisted the revenue of the great body of the people, or
what ehas beene the nature of those funds which, in different ages and nations, have
supplied their annual consumption, is fthe object off these Four first Books. The Fifth
and last Book treats of the revenue of the sovereign, or commonwealth. In this Book I
have endeavoured to show; first, what are the necessary expences of the sovereign, or
commonwealth; which of those expences ought to be defrayed by the general
contribution of the whole society; and which of them, by that of some particular part
only, or of some particular members of gitg ; secondly, what are the different methods
in which the whole society may be made to contribute towards defraying the expences
incumbent on the whole society, and what are the principal advantages and
inconveniencies of each of those methods: and, thirdly and lastly, what are the reasons
and causes which have induced almost all modern governments to mortgage some
part of this revenue, or to contract debts, and what have been the effects of those debts
upon the real wealth, the annual produce of the land and labour of the society.
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BOOK I
Of The Causes Of Improvement In The Productive Powers Of
Labour, And Of The Order According To Which Its Produce Is
Naturally Distributed Among The Different Ranks Of The
People
CHAPTER I
Of The Division Of Labour
1The greatest aimprovementa in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part
of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied,
seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.1
2The effects of the division of labour, in the general business of society, will be more
easily understood, by considering in what manner it operates in some particular
manufactures. It is commonly supposed to be carried furthest in some very trifling
ones; not perhaps that it really is carried further in them than in others of more
importance: but in those trifling manufactures which are destined to supply the small
wants of but a small number of people, the whole number of workmen must
necessarily be small; and those employed in every different branch of the work can
often be collected into the same workhouse, and placed at once under the view of the
spectator. In those great manufactures, on the contrary, which are destined to supply
the great wants of the great body of the people, every different branch of the work
employs so great a number of workmen, that it is impossible to collect them all into
the same workhouse. We can seldom see more, at one time, than those employed in
one single branch. Though bin such manufactures,b therefore, the work may really be
divided into a much greater number of parts, than in those of a more trifling nature,
the division is not near so obvious, and has accordingly been much less observed.
3To take an example, therefore, from a very trifling manufacture; but one in which the
division of labour has been very often taken notice of, the trade of the pin–maker; a
workman not educated to this business (which the division of labour has rendered a
distinct trade), nor acquainted with the use of the machinery employed in it (to the
invention of which the same division of labour has probably given occasion), could
scarce, perhaps, with his utmost industry, make one pin in a day, and certainly could
not make twenty.2 But in the way in which this business is now carried on, not only
the whole work is a peculiar trade, but it is divided into a number of branches, of
which the greater part are likewise peculiar trades. One man draws out the wire,
another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for
receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it
on, is a peculiar business, to whiten the pins is another; it is even a trade by itself to
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put them into the paper; and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner,
divided into about eighteen distinct operations,3 which, in some manufactories, are all
performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man will sometimes perform
two or three of them. I have seen a small manufactory of this kind where ten men only
were employed, and where some of them consequently performed two or three
distinct operations. But though they were very poor, and therefore but indifferently
accommodated with the necessary machinery, they could, when they exerted
themselves, make among them about twelve pounds of pins in a day.4 There are in a
pound upwards of four thousand pins of a middling size. Those ten persons, therefore,
could make among them upwards of forty–eight thousand pins in a day. Each person,
therefore, making a tenth part of forty–eight thousand pins, might be considered as
making four thousand eight hundred pins in a day. But if they had all wrought
separately and independently, and without any of them having been educated to this
peculiar business, they certainly could not each of them have made twenty, perhaps
not one pin in a day; that is, certainly, not the two hundred and fortieth, perhaps not
the four thousand eight hundredth part of what they are at present capable of
performing, in consequence of a proper division and combination of their different
operations.
4In every other art and manufacture, the effects of the division of labour are similar to
what they are in this very trifling one; though, in many of them, the labour can neither
be so much subdivided, nor reduced to so great a simplicity of operation. The division
of labour, however, so far as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a
proportionable increase of the productive powers of labour. The separation of
different trades and employments from one another, seems to have taken place, in
consequence of this advantage. This separation too is generally carried furthest in
those countries which enjoy the highest degree of industry and improvement; what is
the work of one man, in a rude state of society, being generally that of several in an
improved one. In every improved society, the farmer is generally nothing but a
farmer; the manufacturer, nothing but a manufacturer.5 The labour too which is
necessary to produce any one complete manufacture, is almost always divided among
a great number of hands. How many different trades are employed in each branch of
the linen and woollen manufactures, from the growers of the flax and the wool, to the
bleachers and smoothers of the linen, or to the dyers and dressers of the cloth! The
nature of agriculture, indeed, does not admit of so many subdivisions of labour, nor of
so complete a separation of one business from another, as manufactures.6 It is
impossible to separate so entirely, the business of the grazier from that of the
corn–farmer, as the trade of the carpenter is commonly separated from that of the
smith. The spinner is almost always a distinct person from the weaver; but the
ploughman, the harrower, the sower of the seed, and the reaper of the corn, are often
the same.7 The occasions for those different sorts of labour returning with the
different seasons of the year, it is impossible that one man should be constantly
employed in any one of them. This impossibility of making so complete and entire a
separation of all the different branches of labour employed in agriculture, is perhaps
the reason why the improvement of the productive powers of labour in this art, does
not always keep pace with their improvement in manufactures. The most opulent
nations, indeed, generally excel all their neighbours in agriculture as well as in
manufactures; but they are commonly more distinguished by their superiority in the
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latter than in the former.8 Their lands are in general better cultivated, and having
more labour and expence bestowed upon them, produce more, in proportion to the
extent and natural fertility of the ground. But cthisc superiority of produce is seldom
much more than in proportion to the superiority of labour and expence. In agriculture,
the labour of the rich country is not always much more productive than that of the
poor; or, at least, it is never so much more productive, as it commonly is in
manufactures. The corn of the rich country, therefore, will not always, in the same
degree of goodness, come cheaper to market than that of the poor. The corn of Poland,
in the same degree of goodness, is as cheap as that of France, notwithstanding the
superior opulence and improvement of the latter country. The corn of France is, in the
corn provinces, fully as good, and in most years nearly about the same price with the
corn of England, though, in opulence and improvement, France is perhaps inferior to
England. The dcorn–landsd of England, however, are better cultivated than those of
France, and the ecorn–landse of France are said to be much better cultivated than
those of Poland. But though the poor country, notwithstanding the inferiority of its
cultivation, can, in some measure, rival the rich in the cheapness and goodness of its
corn, it can pretend to no such competition in its manufactures; at least if those
manufactures suit the soil, climate, and situation of the rich country. The silks of
France are better and cheaper than those of England, because the silk manufacture, fat
least under the present high duties upon the importation of raw silk,f does not gso
wellg suit the climate of England has that of France.h But the hard–ware and the
coarse woollens of England are beyond all comparison superior to those of France,
and much cheaper too in the same degree of goodness.9 In Poland there are said to be
scarce any manufactures of any kind, a few of those coarser household manufactures
excepted, without which no country can well subsist.
5This great increase iofi the quantity of work, which, jin consequence of the division
of labour,j the same number of people are capable of performing, k is owing to three
different circumstances; first, to the increase of dexterity in every particular workman;
secondly, to the saving of the time which is commonly lost in passing from one
species of work to another; and lastly, to the invention of a great number of machines
which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many.10
6First, the improvement of the dexterity of the workman necessarily increases the
quantity of the work he can perform, and the division of labour, by reducing every
man’s business to some one simple operation, and by making this operation the sole
employment of his life, necessarily increases very much the dexterity of the workman.
A common smith, who, though accustomed to handle the hammer, has never been
used to make nails, if upon some particular occasion he is obliged to attempt it, will
scarce, I am assured, be able to make above two or three hundred nails in a day, and
those too very bad ones. A smith who has been accustomed to make nails, but whose
sole or principal business has not been that of a nailer, can seldom with his utmost
diligence make more than eight hundred or a thousand nails in a day. I have seen
several boys under twenty years of age who had never exercised any other trade but
that of making nails, and who, when they exerted themselves, could make, each of
them, upwards of two thousand three hundred nails in a day. The making of a nail,
however, is by no means one of the simplest operations. The same person blows the
bellows, stirs or mends the fire as there is occasion, heats the iron, and forges every
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part of the nail: In forging the head too he is obliged to change his tools. The different
operations into which the making of a pin, or of a metal button, is subdivided, are all
of them much more simple, and the dexterity of the person, of whose life it has been
the sole business to perform them, is usually much greater. The rapidity with which
some of the operations of those manufactures are performed, exceeds what the human
hand could, by those who had never seen them, be supposed capable of acquiring.11
7Secondly, the advantage which is gained by saving the time commonly lost in
passing from one sort of work to another, is much greater than we should at first view
be apt to imagine it. It is impossible to pass very quickly from one kind of work to
another, that is carried on in a different place, and with quite different tools. A country
weaver, who cultivates a small farm, must lose a good deal of time in passing from his
loom to the field, and from the field to his loom. When the two trades can be carried
on in the same workhouse, the loss of time is no doubt much less. It is even in this
case, however, very considerable. A man commonly saunters a little in turning his
hand from one sort of employment to another. When he first begins the new work he
is seldom very keen and hearty; his mind, as they say, does not go to it, and for some
time he rather trifles than applies to good purpose.12 The habit of sauntering and of
indolent careless application, which is naturally, or rather necessarily13 acquired by
every country workman who is obliged to change his work and his tools every half
hour, and to apply his hand in twenty different ways almost every day of his life;
renders him almost always slothful and lazy, and incapable of any vigorous
application even on the most pressing occasions. Independent, therefore, of his
deficiency in point of dexterity, this cause alone must always reduce considerably the
quantity of work which he is capable of performing.14
8Thirdly, and lastly, every body must be sensible how much labour is facilitated and
abridged by the application of proper machinery. It is unnecessary to give any
example.15 I shall l only observe, mtherefore,m that the invention of all those
machines by which labour is so much facilitated and abridged, seems to have been
originally owing to the division of labour. Men are much more likely to discover
easier and readier methods of attaining any object, when the whole attention of their
minds is directed towards that single object, than when it is dissipated among a great
variety of things. But in consequence of the division of labour, the whole of every
man’s attention comes naturally to be directed towards some one very simple object.
It is naturally to be expected, therefore, that some one or other of those who are
employed in each particular branch of labour should soon find out easier and readier
methods of performing their own particular work, wherever the nature of it admits of
such improvement.16 A great part of the machines nmade use ofn in those
manufactures in which labour is most subdivided, were originally the inventions of
common workmen, who, being each of them employed in some very simple
operation, naturally turned their thoughts towards finding out easier and readier
methods of performing it.17 Whoever has been much accustomed to visit such
manufactures, must frequently have been shewn very pretty machines, which were the
inventions of osucho workmen, in order to facilitate and quicken their own particular
part of the work.18 In the first fire–engines,19 a boy was constantly employed to open
and shut alternately the communication between the boiler and the cylinder, according
as the piston either ascended or descended. One of those boys, who loved to play with
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his companions, observed that, by tying a string from the handle of the valve, which
opened this communication, to another part of the machine, the valve would open and
shut without his assistance, and leave him at liberty to divert himself with his
play–fellows. One of the greatest improvements that has been made upon this
machine, since it was first invented, was in this manner the discovery of a boy who
wanted to save his own labour.20
9All the improvements in machinery, however, have by no means been the inventions
of those who had occasion to use the machines. Many improvements have been made
by the ingenuity of the makers of the machines, when to make them became the
business of a peculiar trade;21 and some by that of those who are called philosophers
or men of speculation, whose trade it is, not to do any thing, but to observe every
thing; and who, upon that account, are often capable of combining together the
powers of the most distant and dissimilar objects.22 In the progress of society,
philosophy or speculation becomes, like every other employment, the principal or sole
trade and occupation of a particular class of citizens. Like every other employment
too, it is subdivided into a great number of different branches, each of which affords
occupation to a peculiar tribe or class of philosophers; and this subdivision of
employment in philosophy, as well as in every other business, improves dexterity, and
saves time. Each individual becomes more expert in his own peculiar branch, more
work is done upon the whole, and the quantity of science is considerably increased by
it.23
10It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in
consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well–governed society,
that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.24
Every workman has a great quantity of his own work to dispose of beyond what he
himself has occasion for; and every other workman being exactly in the same
situation, he is enabled to exchange a great quantity of his own goods for a great
quantity, or, what comes to the same thing, for the price of a great quantity of theirs.
He supplies them abundantly with what they have occasion for, and they
accommodate him as amply with what he has occasion for, and a general plenty
diffuses itself through all the different ranks of the society.
11Observe the accommodation of the most common artificer or daylabourer in a
civilized and thriving country, and you will perceive that the number of people of
whose industry a part, though but a small part, has been employed in procuring him
this accommodation, exceeds all computation. The woollen coat, for example, which
covers the daylabourer, as coarse and rough as it may appear, is the produce of the
joint labour of a great multitude of workmen.25 The shepherd, the sorter of the wool,
the wool–comber or carder, the dyer, the scribbler, the spinner, the weaver, the fuller,
the dresser, with many others, must all join their different arts in order to complete
even this homely production. How many merchants and carriers, besides, must have
been employed in transporting the materials from some of those workmen to others
who often live in a very distant part of the country! How much commerce and
navigation in particular, how many ship–builders, sailors, sail–makers, rope–makers,
must have been employed in order to bring together the different drugs made use of
by the dyer, which often come from the remotest corners of the world! What a variety
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of labour too is necessary in order to produce the tools of the meanest of those
workmen! To say nothing of such complicated machines as the ship of the sailor, the
mill of the fuller, or even the loom of the weaver, let us consider only what a variety
of labour is requisite in order to form that very simple machine, the shears with which
the shepherd clips the wool.26 The miner, the builder of the furnace for smelting the
ore, the feller of the timber, the burner of the charcoal to be made use of in the
smelting–house, the brick–maker, the brick–layer, the workmen who attend the
furnace, the mill–wright, the forger, the smith, must all of them join their different arts
in order to produce them. Were we to examine, in the same manner, all the different
parts of his dress and household furniture, the coarse linen shirt which he wears next
his skin, the shoes which cover his feet, the bed which he lies on, and all the different
parts which compose it, the kitchen–grate at which he prepares his victuals, the coals
which he makes use of for that purpose, dug from the bowels of the earth, and brought
to him perhaps by a long sea and a long land carriage, all the other utensils of his
kitchen, all the furniture of his table, the knives and forks, the earthen or pewter plates
upon which he serves up and divides his victuals, the different hands employed in
preparing his bread and his beer, the glass window which lets in the heat and the light,
and keeps out the wind and the rain, with all the knowledge and art requisite for
preparing that beautiful and happy invention, without which these northern parts of
the world could scarce have afforded a very comfortable habitation, together with the
tools of all the different workmen employed in producing those different
conveniencies; if we examine, I say, all these things, and consider what a variety of
labour is employed about each of them, we shall be sensible that without the
assistance and cooperation of many thousands, the very meanest person in a civilized
country could not be provided, even according to, what we very falsely imagine, the
easy and simple manner in which he is commonly accommodated.27 Compared,
indeed, with the more extravagant luxury of the great, his accommodation must no
doubt appear extremely simple and easy; and yet it may be true, perhaps, that the
accommodation of an European prince does not always so much exceed that of an
industrious and frugal peasant,28 as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of
many an African king, the absolute master of the lives and liberties of ten thousand
naked savages.29
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CHAPTER II
Of The Principle Which Gives Occasion To The Division Of
Labour
1This division of labour, from which so many advantages are derived, is not
originally the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees and intends that general
opulence to which it gives occasion.1 It is the necessary, though very slow and
gradual consequence of a certain propensity in human nature which has in view no
such extensive utility; the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for
another.2
2Whether this propensity be one of those original principles in human nature, of
which no further account can be given; or whether, as seems more probable, it be the
necessary consequence of the faculties of reason and speech, it belongs not to our
present subject to enquire.3 It is common to all men, and to be found in no other race
of animals, which seem to know neither this nor any other species of contracts. Two
greyhounds, in running down the same hare, have sometimes the appearance of acting
in some sort of concert. Each turns her towards his companion, or endeavours to
intercept her when his companion turns her towards himself. This, however, is not the
effect of any contract, but of the accidental concurrence of their passions in the same
object at that particular time.4 Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate
exchange of one bone for another with another dog. Nobody ever saw one animal by
its gestures and natural cries signify to another, this is mine, that yours; I am willing
to give this for that. When an animal wants to obtain something either of a man or of
another animal, it has no other means of persuasion but to gain the favour of those
whose service it requires. A puppy fawns upon its dam, and a spaniel endeavours by a
thousand attractions to engage the attention of its master who is at dinner, when it
wants to be fed by him. Man sometimes uses the same arts with his brethren, and
when he has no other means of engaging them to act according to his inclinations,
endeavours by every servile and fawning attention to obtain their good will. He has
not time, however, to do this upon every occasion. In civilized society he stands at all
times in need of the co–operation and assistance of great multitudes, while his whole
life is scarce sufficient to gain the friendship of a few persons. In almost every other
race of animals each individual, when it is grown up to maturity, is intirely
independent, and in its natural state has occasion for the assistance of no other living
creature.5 But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is
in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only.6 He will be more likely to
prevail if he can interest their self–love in his favour, and shew them that it is for their
own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a
bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall
have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner
that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we
stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the
baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We
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address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self–love, and never talk to them
of our own necessities but of their advantages.7 Nobody but a beggar chuses to
depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow–citizens. Even a beggar does not
depend upon it entirely. The charity of well–disposed people, indeed, supplies him
with the whole fund of his subsistence. But though this principle ultimately provides
him with all the necessaries of life which he has occasion for, it neither does nor can
provide him with them as he has occasion for them. The greater part of his occasional
wants are supplied in the same manner as those of other people, by treaty, by barter,
and by purchase. With the money which one man gives him he purchases food. The
old cloaths which another bestows upon him he exchanges for other old cloaths which
suit him better, or for lodging, or for food, or for money, with which he can buy either
food, cloaths, or lodging, as he has occasion.
3As it is by treaty, by barter, and by purchase, that we obtain from one another the
greater part of those mutual good offices which we stand in need of, so it is this same
trucking disposition which originally gives occasion to the division of labour. In a
tribe of hunters or shepherds a particular person makes bows and arrows, for example,
with more readiness and dexterity than any other. He frequently exchanges them for
cattle or for venison with his companions; and he finds at last that he can in this
manner get more cattle and venison, than if he himself went to the field to catch them.
From a regard to his own interest, therefore, the making of bows and arrows grows to
be his chief business, and he becomes a sort of armourer.8 Another excels in making
the frames and covers of their little huts or moveable houses. He is accustomed to be
of use in this way to his neighbours, who reward him in the same manner with cattle
and with venison, till at last he finds it his interest to dedicate himself entirely to this
employment, and to become a sort of house–carpenter. In the same manner a third
becomes a smith or a brazier, a fourth a tanner or dresser of hides or skins, the
principal part of the clothing of savages.9 And thus the certainty of being able to
exchange all that surplus part of the produce of his own labour, which is over and
above his own consumption, for such parts of the produce of other men’s labour as he
may have occasion for, encourages every man to apply himself to a particular
occupation, and to cultivate and bring to perfection whatever talent or genius he may
possess for that particular species of business.10
4The difference of natural talents in different men is, in reality, much less than we are
aware of; and the very different genius which appears to distinguish men of different
professions, when grown up to maturity, is not upon many occasions so much the
cause, as the effect of the division of labour.11 The difference between the most
dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street porter, for example,
seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education.12
When they came into the world, and for the first six or eight years of their existence,
they werea, perhaps,a very much alike, and neither their parents nor play–fellows
could perceive any remarkable difference. About that age, or soon after, they come to
be employed in very different occupations. The difference of talents comes then to be
taken notice of, and widens by degrees, till at last the vanity of the philosopher is
willing to acknowledge scarce any resemblance. But without the disposition to truck,
barter, and exchange, every man must have procured to himself every necessary and
conveniency of life which he wanted. All must have had the same duties to perform,
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and the same work to do, and there could have been no such difference of
employment as could alone give occasion to any great difference of talents.13
5As it is this disposition which forms that difference of talents, so remarkable among
men of different professions, so it is this same disposition which renders that
difference useful. Many tribes of animals acknowledged to be all of the same species,
derive from nature a much more remarkable distinction of genius, than what,
antecedent to custom and education, appears to take place among men. By nature a
philosopher is not in genius and disposition half so different from a street porter, as a
mastiff is from a greyhound, or a greyhound from a spaniel, or this last from a
shepherd’s dog. Those different tribes of animals, however, though all of the same
species, are of scarce any use to one another. The strength of the mastiff is not, in the
least, supported either by the swiftness of the greyhound, or by the sagacity of the
spaniel, or by the docility of the shepherd’s dog. The effects of those different
geniuses and talents, for want of the power or disposition to barter and exchange,
cannot be brought into a common stock, and do not in the least contribute to the better
accommodation and conveniency of the species. Each animal is still obliged to
support and defend itself, separately and independently, and derives no sort of
advantage from that variety of talents with which nature has distinguished its fellows.
Among men, on the contrary, the most dissimilar geniuses are of use to one another;
the different produces of their respective talents, by the general disposition to truck,
barter, and exchange, being brought, as it were, into a common stock, where every
man may purchase whatever part of the produce of other men’s talents he has
occasion for.14
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CHAPTER III
That The Division Of Labour Is Limited By The Extent Of The
Market1
1As it is the power of exchanging that gives occasion to the division of labour, so the
extent of this division must always be limited by the extent of that power, or, in other
words, by the extent of the market.2 When the market is very small, no person can
have any encouragement to dedicate himself entirely to one employment, for want of
the power to exchange all that surplus part of the produce of his own labour, which is
over and above his own consumption, for such parts of the produce of other men’s
labour as he has occasion for.
2There are some sorts of industry, even of the lowest kind, which can be carried on no
where but in a great town. A porter, for example, can find employment and
subsistence in no other place. A village is by much too narrow a sphere for him; even
an ordinary market town is scarce large enough to afford him constant occupation. In
the lone houses and very small villages which are scattered about in so desert a
country as the Highlands of Scotland, every farmer must be butcher, baker and brewer
for his own family.3 In such situations we can scarce expect to find even a smith, a
carpenter, or a mason, within less than twenty miles of another of the same trade. The
scattered families that live at eight or ten miles distance from the nearest of them,
must learn to perform themselves a great number of little pieces of work, for which, in
more populous countries, they would call in the assistance of those workmen.4
Country workmen are almost every where obliged to apply themselves to all the
different branches of industry that have so much affinity to one another as to be
employed about the same sort of materials.5 A country carpenter deals in every sort of
work that is made of wood: a country smith in every sort of work that is made of iron.
The former is not only a carpenter, but a joiner, a cabinet–maker, and even a carver in
wood, as well as a wheel–wright, a plough–wright, a cart and waggon maker. The
employments of the latter are still more various.6 It is impossible there should be such
a trade as even that of a nailer in the remote and inland parts of the Highlands of
Scotland. Such a workman at the rate of a thousand nails a day, and three hundred
working days in the year, will make three hundred thousand nails in the year. But in
such a situation it would be impossible to dispose of one thousand, that is, of one
day’s work in the year.7
3As by means of water–carriage a more extensive market is opened to every sort of
industry than what land–carriage alone can afford it, so it is upon the sea–coast, and
along the banks of navigable rivers, that industry of every kind naturally begins to
subdivide and improve itself, and it is frequently not till a long time after that those
improvements extend themselves to the inland parts of the country.8 A
broad–wheeled waggon, attended by two men, and drawn by eight horses, in about six
weeks time carries and brings back between London and Edinburgh near four ton
weight of goods. In about the same time a ship navigated by six or eight men, and
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sailing between the ports of London and Leith, frequently carries and brings back two
hundred ton weight of goods. Six or eight men, therefore, by the help of
water–carriage, can carry and bring back in the same time the same quantity of goods
between London and Edinburgh, as fifty broad–wheeled waggons, attended by a
hundred men, and drawn by four hundred horses.9 Upon two hundred tons of goods,
therefore, carried by the cheapest land–carriage from London to Edinburgh, there
must be charged the maintenance of a hundred men for three weeks, and both the
maintenance, and, what is nearly equal to the maintenance, the wear and tear of four
hundred horses as well as of fifty great waggons. Whereas, upon the same quantity of
goods carried by water, there is to be charged only the maintenance of six or eight
men, and the wear and tear of a ship of two hundred tons burden, together with the
value of the superior risk, or the difference of the insurance between land and
water–carriage. Were there no other communication between those two places,
therefore, but by land–carriage, as no goods could be transported from the one to the
other, except such whose price was very considerable in proportion to their weight,
they could carry on but a small part of that commerce whicha at present bsubsistsb
between them, and consequently could give but a small part of that encouragement
which they at present mutually afford to each other’s industry.10 There could be little
or no commerce of any kind between the distant parts of the world. What goods could
bear the expence of land–carriage between London and Calcutta? Or if there cwerec
any so precious as to be able to support this expence, with what safety could they be
transported through the territories of so many barbarous nations? Those two cities,
however, at present carry ond a very considerable commerce ewith each othere , and
by mutually affording a market, give a good deal of encouragement to each other’s
industry.
4Since such, therefore, are the advantages of water–carriage, it is natural that the first
improvements of art and industry should be made where this conveniency opens the
whole world for a market to the produce of every sort of labour, and that they should
always be much later in extending themselves into the inland parts of the country. The
inland parts of the country can for a long time have no other market for the greater
part of their goods, but the country which lies round about them, and separates them
from the sea–coast, and the great navigable rivers. The extent of their market,
therefore, must for a long time be in proportion to the riches and populousness of that
country, and consequently their improvement must always be posterior to the
improvement of that country. In our North American colonies the plantations have
constantly followed either the sea–coast or the banks of the navigable rivers, and have
scarce any where extended themselves to any considerable distance from both.11
5The nations that, according to the best authenticated history, appear to have been
first civilized, were those that dwelt round the coast of the Mediterranean sea. That
sea, by far the greatest inlet that is known in the world, having no tides, nor
consequently any waves except such as are caused by the wind only, was, by the
smoothness of its surface, as well as by the multitude of its islands, and the proximity
of its neighbouring shores, extremely favourable to the infant navigation of the world;
when, from their ignorance of the compass, men were afraid to quit the view of the
coast, and from the imperfection of the art of ship–building, to abandon themselves to
the boisterous waves of the ocean.12 To pass beyond the pillars of Hercules, that is, to
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sail out of the Streights of Gibraltar, was, in the antient world, long considered as a
most wonderful and dangerous exploit of navigation. It was late before even the
Phenicians and Carthaginians, the most skilful navigators and shipbuilders of those
old times, attempted it, and they were for a long time the only nations that did attempt
it.
6Of all the countries on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, Egypt seems to have been
the first in which either agriculture or manufactures were cultivated and improved to
any considerable degree.13 Upper Egypt extends itself nowhere above a few miles
from the Nile, and in Lower Egypt that great river breaks itself into many different
canals, which, with the assistance of a little art, seem to have afforded a
communication by water–carriage, not only between all the great towns, but between
all the considerable villages, and even to many farm–houses in the country; nearly in
the same manner as the Rhine and the Maese do in Holland at present. The extent and
easiness of this inland navigation was probably one of the principal causes of the early
improvement of Egypt.14
7The improvements in agriculture and manufactures seem likewise to have been of
very great antiquity in the provinces of Bengal in the East Indies, and in some of the
eastern provinces of China; though the great extent of this antiquity is not
authenticated by any histories of whose authority we, in this part of the world, are
well assured. In Bengal the Ganges and several other great rivers fform a great
number of navigablef canals in the same manner as the Nile does in Egypt. In the
Eastern provinces of China too, several great rivers form, by their different branches,
a multitude of canals, and by communicating with one another afford an inland
navigation much more extensive than that either of the Nile or the Ganges, or perhaps
than both of them put together.15 It is remarkable that neither the antient Egyptians,
nor the Indians, nor the Chinese, encouraged foreign commerce, but seem all to have
derived their great opulence from this inland navigation.
8All the inland parts of Africa, and all that part of Asia which lies any considerable
way north of the Euxine and Caspian seas, the antient Scythia, the modern Tartary and
Siberia, seem in all ages of the world to have been in the same barbarous and
uncivilized state in which we find them at present.16 The sea of Tartary is the frozen
ocean which admits of no navigation, and though some of the greatest rivers in the
world run through that country, they are at too great a distance from one another to
carry commerce and communication through the greater part of it. There are in Africa
none of those great inlets, such as the Baltic and Adriatic seas in Europe, the
Mediterranean and Euxine seas in both Europe and Asia, and the gulphs of Arabia,
Persia, India, Bengal, and Siam, in Asia, to carry maritime commerce into the interior
parts of that great continent: and the great rivers of Africa are at too great a distance
from one another to give occasion to any considerable inland navigation. The
commerce besides which any nation can carry on by means of a river which does not
break itself into any great number of branches or canals, and which runs into another
territory before it reaches the sea, can never be very considerable; because it is always
in the power of the nations who possess that other territory to obstruct the
communication between the upper country and the sea. The navigation of the Danube
is of very little use to the different states of Bavaria, Austria and Hungary, in
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comparison of what it would be if anyg of them possessed the whole of its course till
it falls into the Black Sea.
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CHAPTER IV
Of The Origin And Use Of Money1
1When the division of labour has been once thoroughly established, it is but a very
small part of a man’s wants which the produce of his own labour can supply. He
supplies the far greater part of them by exchanging that surplus part of the produce of
his own labour, which is over and above his own consumption, for such parts of the
produce of other men’s labour as he has occasion for. Every man thus lives by
exchanging, or becomes in some measure a merchant, and the society itself grows to
be what is properly a commercial society.
2But when the division of labour first began to take place, this power of exchanging
must frequently have been very much clogged and embarrassed in its operations.2
One man, we shall suppose, has more of a certain commodity than he himself has
occasion for, while another has less. The former consequently would be glad to
dispose of, and the latter to purchase, a part of this superfluity. But if this latter should
chance to have nothing that the former stands in need of, no exchange can be made
between them. The butcher has more meat in his shop than he himself can consume,
and the brewer and the baker would each of them be willing to purchase a part of it.
But they have nothing to offer in exchange, except the different productions of their
respective trades, and the butcher is already provided with all the bread and beer
which he has immediate occasion for. No exchange can, in this case, be made
between them. He cannot be their merchant, nor they his customers; and they are all
of them thus mutually less serviceable to one another. In order to avoid the
inconveniency of such situations, every prudent man in every period of society, after
the first establishment of the division of labour, must naturally have endeavoured to
manage his affairs in such a manner, as to have at all times by him, besides the
peculiar produce of his own industry, a certain quantity of some one commodity or
other, such as he imagined few people would be likely to refuse in exchange for the
produce of their industry.3
3Many different commodities, it is probable, were successively both thought of and
employed for this purpose. In the rude ages of society, cattle are said to have been the
common instrument of commerce; and, though they must have been a most
inconvenient one, yet in old times we find things were frequently valued according to
the number of cattle which had been given in exchange for them.4 The armour of
Diomede, says Homer, cost only nine oxen; but that of Glaucus cost aana hundred
oxen.5 Salt is said to be the common instrument of commerce and exchanges in
Abyssinia;6 a species of shells in some parts of the coast of India; dried cod at
Newfoundland; tobacco in Virginia; sugar in some of our West India colonies; hides
or dressed leather in some other countries; and there is at this day a village in Scotland
where it is not uncommon, I am told, for a workman to carry nails instead of money to
the baker’s shop or the ale–house.7
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4In all countries, however, men seem at last to have been determined by irresistible
reasons to give the preference, for this employment, to metals above every other
commodity.8 Metals can not only be kept with as little loss as any other commodity,
scarce any thing being less perishable that they are, but they can likewise, without any
loss, be divided into any number of parts, as by fusion those parts can easily be
re–united again; a quality which no other equally durable commodities possess, and
which more than any other quality renders them fit to be the instruments of commerce
and circulation. The man who wanted to buy salt, for example, and had nothing but
cattle to give in exchange for it, must have been obliged to buy salt to the value of a
whole ox, or a whole sheep at a time. He could seldom buy less than this, because
what he was to give for it could seldom be divided without loss; and if he had a mind
to buy more, he must, for the same reasons, have been obliged to buy double or triple
the quantity, the value, to wit, of two or three oxen, or of two or three sheep. If, on the
contrary, instead of sheep or oxen, he had metals to give in exchange for it, he could
easily proportion the quantity of the metal to the precise quantity of the commodity
which he had immediate occasion for.
5Different metals have been made use of by different nations for this purpose. Iron
was the common instrument of commerce among the antient Spartans; copper among
the antient Romans9 ; and gold and silver among all rich and commercial nations.10
6Those metals seem originally to have been made use of for this purpose in rude bars,
without any stamp or coinage. Thus we are told by Pliny* , upon the authority of
c
Timaeusc , an antient dhistoriand , that, till the time of Servius Tullius, the Romans
had no coined money, but made use of unstamped bars of copper to purchase
whatever they had occasion for. These rude bars, therefore, performed at this time the
function of money.
7The use of metals in this rude state was attended with two very considerable
inconveniencies; first, with the trouble of weighing e ; and, secondly, with fthatf of
assaying them. In the precious metals, where a small difference in the quantity makes
a great difference in the value, even the business of weighing, with proper exactness,
requires at least very accurate weights and scales. The weighing of gold in particular
is an operation of some nicety. In the coarser metals, indeed, where a small error
would be of little consequence, less accuracy would, no doubt, be necessary. Yet we
should find it excessively troublesome, if every time a poor man had occasion either
to buy or sell a farthing’s worth of goods, he was obliged to weigh the farthing. The
operation of assaying is still more difficult, still more tedious, and, unless a part of the
metal is fairly melted in the crucible, with proper dissolvents, any conclusion that can
be drawn from it, is extremely uncertain. Before the institution of coined money,
however, unless they went through this tedious and difficult operation, people must
always have been liable to the grossest frauds and impositions, and instead of a pound
weight of pure silver, or pure copper, might receive in exchange for their goods, an
adulterated composition of the coarsest and cheapest materials, which had, however,
in their outward appearance, been made to resemble those metals. To prevent such
abuses, to facilitate exchanges, and thereby to encourage all sorts of industry and
commerce, it has been found necessary, in all countries that have made any
considerable advances towards improvement, to affix a publick stamp upon certain
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quantities of such particular metals, as were in those countries commonly made use of
to purchase goods. Hence the origin of coined money, and of those publick offices
called mints;11 institutions exactly of the same nature with those of the aulnagers and
stampmasters of woollen and linen cloth.12 All of them are equally meant to
ascertain, by means of a publick stamp, the quantity and uniform goodness of those
different commodities when brought to market.13
8The first publick stamps of this kind that were affixed to the current metals, seem in
many cases to have been intended to ascertain, what it was both most difficult and
most important to ascertain, the goodness or fineness of the metal, and to have
resembled the sterling mark which is at present affixed to plate and bars of silver, or
the Spanish mark which is sometimes affixed to ingots of gold, and which being
struck only upon one side of the piece, and not covering the whole surface, ascertains
the fineness, but not the weight of the metal. Abraham weighs to Ephron the four
hundred shekels of silver which he had agreed to pay for the field of Machpelah.14
They are said however to be the current money of the merchant, and yet are received
by weight and not by tale, in the same manner as ingots of gold and bars of silver are
at present. The revenues of the antient Saxon kings of England are said to have been
paid, not in money but in kind, that is, in victuals and provisions of all sorts.15
William the Conqueror introduced the custom of paying them in money. This money,
however, was, for a long time, received at the exchequer, by weight and not by tale.16
9The inconveniency and difficulty of weighing those metals with exactness gave
occasion to the institution of coins, of which the stamp, covering entirely both sides of
the piece and sometimes the edges too, was supposed to ascertain not only the
fineness, but the weight of the metal. Such coins, therefore, were received by tale as at
present, without the trouble of weighing.
10The denominations of those coins seem originally to have expressed the weight or
quantity of metal contained in them. In the time of Servius Tullius, who first coined
money at Rome, the Roman As or Pondo contained a Roman pound of good
copper.17 It was divided in the same manner as our Troyes pound, into twelve
ounces, each of which contained a real ounce of good copper. The English pound
sterling, in the time of Edward I., contained a pound, Tower weight, of silver of a
known fineness.18 The Tower pound seems to have been something more than the
Roman pound, and something less than the Troyes pound.19 This last was not
introduced into the mint of England till the 18th of Henry VIII.20 The French livre
contained in the time of Charlemagne a pound, Troyes weight, of silver of a known
fineness. The fair of Troyes in Champaign was at that time frequented by all the
nations of Europe, and the weights and measures of so famous a market were
generally known and esteemed.21 The Scots money pound contained, from the time
of Alexander the First to that of Robert Bruce, a pound of silver of the same weight
and fineness with the English pound sterling. English, French, and Scots pennies too,
contained all of them originally a real pennyweight of silver, the twentieth part of an
ounce, and the twohundred–and–fortieth part of a pound. The shilling too seems
originally to have been the denomination of a weight. When wheat is at twelve
shillings the quarter, says an antient statute of Henry III. then wastel bread of a
farthing shall weigh eleven shillings and four pence.22 The proportion, however,
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between the shilling and either the penny on the one hand, or the pound on the other,
seems not to have been so constant and uniform as that between the penny and the
pound. During the first race of the kings of France, the French sou or shilling appears
upon different occasions to have contained five, twelve, twenty, gand fortyg pennies.
Among the antient Saxons a shilling appears at one time to have contained only five
pennies,23 and it is not improbable that it may have been as variable among them as
among their neighbours, the antient Franks. From the time of Charlemagne among the
French,24 and from that of William the Conqueror among the English,25 the
proportion between the pound, the shilling, and the penny, seems to have been
uniformly the same as at present, though the value of each has been very different.
For in every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and injustice of princes and
sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished
the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins. The
Roman As, in the latter ages of the Republick, was reduced to the twenty–fourth part
of its original value, and, instead of weighing a pound, came to weigh only half an
ounce.26 The English pound and penny contain at present about a third only; the
Scots pound and penny about a thirty–sixth; and the French pound and penny about a
sixty–sixth part of their original value.27 By means of those operations the princes
and sovereign states which performed them were enabled, in appearance, to pay their
debts and htoh fulfil their engagements with a smaller quantity of silver than would
otherwise have been requisite. It was indeed in appearance only; for their creditors
were really defrauded of a part of what was due to them. All other debtors in the state
were allowed the same privilege, and might pay with the same nominal sum of the
new and debased coin whatever they had borrowed in the old.28 Such operations,
therefore, have always proved favourable to the debtor, and ruinous to the creditor,
and have sometimes produced a greater and more universal revolution in the fortunes
of private persons, than could have been occasioned by a very great publick
calamity.29
11It is in this manner that money has become in all civilized nations the universal
instrument of commerce, by the intervention of which goods of all kinds are bought
and sold, or exchanged for one another.30
12What are the rules which men naturally observe in exchanging them either for
money or for one another, I shall now proceed to examine. These rules determine
what may be called the relative or exchangeable value of goods.
13 The word value, it is to be observed, has two different meanings, and sometimes
expresses the utility of some particular object, and sometimes the power of purchasing
other goods which the possession of that object conveys. The one may be called
‘value in use;’ the other, ‘value in exchange.’ The things which have the greatest
value in use have frequently little or no value in exchange; and, on the contrary, those
which have the greatest value in exchange have frequently little or no value in use.
Nothing is more useful than water: but it will purchase scarce any thing; scarce any
thing can be had in exchange for it. A diamond, on the contrary, has scarce any value
in use; but a very great quantity of other goods may frequently be had in exchange for
it.31
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14In order to investigate the principles which regulate the exchangeable value of
commodities, I shall endeavour to shew,
15First, what is the real measure of this exchangeable value; or, wherein consists the
real price of all commodities,
16Secondly, what are the different parts of which this real price is composed or made
up.
17And, lastly, what are the different circumstances which sometimes raise some or all
of these different parts of price above, and sometimes sink them below their natural or
ordinary rate; or, what are the causes which sometimes hinder the market price, that
is, the actual price of commodities, from coinciding exactly with what may be called
their natural price.
18 I shall endeavour to explain, as fully and distinctly as I can, those three subjects in
the three following chapters, for which I must very earnestly entreat both the patience
and attention of the reader: his patience in order to examine a detail which may
perhaps in some places appear unnecessarily tedious; and his attention in order to
understand what may, perhaps, after the fullest explication which I am capable of
giving iofi it, appear still in some degree obscure. I am always willing to run some
hazard of being tedious in order to be sure that I am perspicuous; and after taking the
utmost pains that I can to be perspicuous, some obscurity may still appear to remain
upon a subject j in its own nature extremely abstracted.32
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CHAPTER V
Of The Real And Nominal Price Of Commodities, Or Of Their
Price In Labour, And Their Price In Money
1Every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the
necessaries, conveniencies, and amusements of human life.1 But after the division of
labour has once thoroughly taken place, it is but a very small part of these with which
a man’s own labour can supply him. The far greater part of them he must derive from
the labour of other people, and he must be rich or poor according to the quantity of
that labour which he can command, or which he can afford to purchase. The value of
any commodity, therefore, to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use
or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the
quantity of labour which it enables him to purchase or command.2 Labour, therefore,
is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities.3
2The real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to
acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.4 What every thing is really worth to
the man who has acquired it, and who wants to dispose of it or exchange it for
something else, is the toil and trouble which it can save to himself, and which it can
impose upon other people. What is bought with money or with goods is purchased by
labour as much as what we acquire by the toil of our own body.5 That money or those
goods indeed save us this toil. They contain the value of a certain quantity of labour
which we exchange for what is supposed at the time to contain the value of an equal
quantity.6 Labour was the first price, the original purchase–money that was paid for
all things.7 It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all the wealth of the
world was originally purchased;8 and its value, to those who possess it and who want
to exchange it for some new productions, is precisely equal to the quantity of labour
which it can enable them to purchase or command.
3aWealth , as Mr. Hobbes says, is power.9 But the person who either acquires, or
succeeds to a great fortune, does not necessarily acquire or succeed to any political
power, either civil or military. His fortune may, perhaps, afford him the means of
acquiring both, but the mere possession of that fortune does not necessarily convey to
him either. The power which that possession immediately and directly conveys to
him, is the power of purchasing; a certain command over all the labour, or over all the
produce of labour which is then in the market. His fortune is greater or less, precisely
in proportion to the extent of this power; or to the quantity either of other men’s
labour, or, what is the same thing, of the produce of other men’s labour, which it
enables him to purchase or command. The exchangeable value of every thing must
always be precisely equal to the extent of this power which it conveys to its owner.a
4But though labour be the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities,
it is not that by which their value is commonly estimated. It is often difficult to
ascertain the proportion between two different quantities of labour. The time spent in
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two different sorts of work will not always alone determine this proportion. The
different degrees of hardship endured, and of ingenuity exercised, must likewise be
taken into account.10 There may be more labour in an hour’s hard work than in two
hours easy business; or in an hour’s application to a trade which it cost ten years
labour to learn, than in a month’s industry at an ordinary and obvious employment.
But it is not easy to find any accurate measure either of hardship or ingenuity. In
exchanging indeed the different productions of different sorts of labour for one
another, some allowance is commonly made for both. It is adjusted, however, not by
any accurate measure, but by the higgling and bargaining of the market, according to
that sort of rough equality which, though not exact, is sufficient for carrying on the
business of common life.
5Every commodity besides, is more frequently exchanged for, and thereby compared
with, other commodities than with labour. It is more natural, therefore, to estimate its
exchangeable value by the quantity of some other commodity than by that of the
labour which it can purchase. The greater part of people too understand better what is
meant by a quantity of a particular commodity, than by a quantity of labour. The one
is a plain palpable object; the other an abstract notion, which, though it can be made
sufficiently intelligible, is not altogether so natural and obvious.
6But when barter ceases, and money has become the common instrument of
commerce, every particular commodity is more frequently exchanged for money than
for any other commodity. The butcher seldom carries his beef or his mutton to the
baker, or the brewer, in order to exchange them for bread or for beer, but he carries
them to the market, where he exchanges them for money, and afterwards exchanges
that money for bread and for beer. The quantity of money which he gets for them
regulates too the quantity of bread and beer which he can afterwards purchase. It is
more natural and obvious to him, therefore, to estimate their value by the quantity of
money, the commodity for which he immediately exchanges them, than by that of
bread and beer, the commodities for which he can exchange them only by the
intervention of another commodity; and rather to say that his butcher’s meat is worth
threepence or fourpence a pound, than that it is worth three or four pounds of bread,
or three or four quarts of small beer. Hence it comes to pass, that the exchangeable
value of every commodity is more frequently estimated by the quantity of money,
than by the quantity either of labour or of any other commodity which can be had in
exchange for it.11
7Gold and silver, however, like every other commodity, vary in their value, are
sometimes cheaper and sometimes dearer, sometimes of easier and sometimes of
more difficult purchase. The quantity of labour which any particular quantity of them
can purchase or command, or the quantity of other goods which it will exchange for,
depends always upon the fertility or barrenness of the mines which happen to be
known about the time when such exchanges are made. The discovery of the abundant
mines of America reduced, in the sixteenth century, the value of gold and silver in
Europe to about a third of what it had been before.12 As it cost less labour to bring
those metals from the mine to the market, so when they were brought bthitherb they
could purchase or command less labour; and this revolution in their value, though
perhaps the greatest, is by no means the only one of which history gives some
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account.13 But as a measure of quantity, such as the natural foot, fathom, or handful,
which is continually varying in its own quantity, can never be an accurate measure of
the quantity of other things; so a commodity which is itself continually varying in its
own value, can never be an accurate measure of the value of other commodities.14
Equal quantities of labour,c at all times and places, dmay be said tod be of equal value
to the labourer. eIn his ordinary state of health, strength and spirits ; in the ordinary
degree of his skill and dexterity,15 hee must always lay down the same portion of his
ease, his liberty, and his happiness.16 The price which he pays must always be the
same, whatever may be the quantity of goods which he receives in return for it. Of
these, indeed, it may sometimes purchase a greater and sometimes a smaller quantity;
but it is their value which varies, not that of the labour which purchases them. At all
times and places that is dear which it is difficult to come at, or which it costs much
labour to acquire; and that cheap which is to be had easily, or with very little labour.
Labour alone, therefore, never varying in its own value, is alone the ultimate and real
standard by which the value of all commodities can at all times and places be
estimated and compared. It is their real price; money is their nominal price only.
8But though equal quantities of labour are always of equal value to the labourer, yet
to the person who employs him they appear sometimes to be of greater and sometimes
of smaller value. He purchases them sometimes with a greater and sometimes with a
smaller quantity of goods, and to him the price of labour seems to vary like that of all
other things. It appears to him dear in the one case, and cheap in the other. In reality,
however, it is the goods which are cheap in the one case, and dear in the other.
9In this popular sense, therefore, labour, like commodities, may be said to have a real
and a nominal price. Its real price may be said to consist in the quantity of the
necessaries and conveniencies of life which are given for it; its nominal price, in the
quantity of money. The labourer is rich or poor, is well or ill rewarded, in proportion
to the real, not to the nominal price of his labour.17
10The distinction between the real and the nominal price of commodities and labour,
is not a matter of mere speculation, but may sometimes be of considerable use in
practice. The same real price is always of the same value; but on account of the
variations in the value of gold and silver, the same nominal price is sometimes of very
different values. When a landed estate, therefore, is sold with a reservation of a
perpetual rent, if it is intended that this rent should always be of the same value, it is
of importance to the family in whose favour it is reserved, that it should not consist in
a particular sum of money.18 Its value would in this case be liable to variations of two
different kinds; first, to those which arise from the different quantities of gold and
silver which are contained at different times in coin of the same denomination; and,
secondly, to those which arise from the different values of equal quantities of gold
and silver at different times.
11Princes and sovereign states have frequently fancied that they had a temporary
interest to diminish the quantity of pure metal contained in their coins; but they
seldom have fancied that they had any to augment it. The quantity of metal contained
in the coins, I believe of all nations has, accordingly, been almost continually
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diminishing, and hardly ever augmenting.19 Such variations therefore tend almost
always to diminish the value of a money rent.
12The discovery of the mines of America diminished the value of gold and silver in
Europe. This diminution, it is commonly supposed, though, I apprehend, without any
certain proof, is still going on gradually, and is likely to continue to do so for a long
time.20 Upon this supposition, therefore, such variations are more likely to diminish,
than to augment the value of a money rent, even though it should be stipulated to be
paid, not in such a quantity of coined money of such a denomination (in so many
pounds sterling, for example), but in so many ounces either of pure silver, or of silver
of a certain standard.
13 The rents which have been reserved in corn have preserved their value much better
than those which have been reserved in money, even where the denomination of the
coin has not been altered.21 By the 18th of Elizabeth22 it was enacted, That a third of
the rent of all college leases should be reserved in corn, to be paid, either in kind, or
according to the current prices at the nearest publick market. The money arising from
this corn rent, though originally but a third of the whole, is in the present times,
according to Doctor Blackstone, commonly near double of what arises from the other
two–thirds.23 The old money rents of colleges must, according to this account, have
sunk almost to a fourth part of their ancient value; or are worth little more than a
fourth part of the corn which they were formerly worth. But since the reign of Philip
and Mary the denomination of the English coin has undergone little or no alteration,
and the same number of pounds, shillings and pence have contained very nearly the
same quantity of pure silver. This degradation, therefore, in the value of the money
rents of colleges, has arisen altogether from the degradation in the value of silver.
14When the degradation in the value of silver is combined with the diminution of the
quantity of it contained in the coin of the same denomination, the loss is frequently
still greater. In Scotland, where the denomination of the coin has undergone much
greater alterations than it ever did in England, and in France, where it has undergone
still greater than it ever did in Scotland,24 some antient rents, originally of
considerable value, have in this manner been reduced almost to nothing.
15Equal quantities of labour will at distant times be purchased more nearly with equal
quantities of corn, the subsistence of the labourer, than with equal quantities of gold
and silver, or perhaps of any other commodity.25 Equal quantities of corn, therefore,
will, at distant times, be more nearly of the same real value, or enable the possessor to
purchase or command more nearly the same quantity of the labour of other people.
They will do this, I say, more nearly than equal quantities of almost any other
commodity; for even equal quantities of corn will not do it exactly. The subsistence of
the labourer, or the real price of labour, as I shall endeavour to show hereafter,26 is
very different upon different occasions; more liberal in a society advancing to
opulence than in one that is standing still; and in one that is standing still than in one
that is going backwards. Every other commodity, however, will at any particular time
purchase a greater or smaller quantity of labour in proportion to the quantity of
subsistence which it can purchase at that time. A rent therefore reserved in corn is
liable only to the variations in the quantity of labour which a certain quantity of corn
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can purchase. But a rent reserved in any other commodity is liable, not only to the
variations in the quantity of labour which any particular quantity of corn can
purchase, but to the variations in the quantity of corn which can be purchased by any
particular quantity of that commodity.
16Though the real value of a corn rent, it is to be observed however, varies much less
from century to century than that of a money rent, it varies much more from year to
year. The money price of labour, as I shall endeavour to show hereafter,27 does not
fluctuate from year to year with the money price of corn, but seems to be every where
accommodated, not to the temporary or occasional, but to the average or ordinary
price of that necessary of life. The average or ordinary price of corn again is
regulated, as I shall likewise endeavour to show hereafter, by the value of silver, by
the richness or barrenness of the mines which supply the market with that metal, or by
the quantity of labour which must be employed, and consequently of corn which must
be consumed, in order to bring any particular quantity of fsilverf from the mine to the
market. But the value of silver, though it sometimes varies greatly from century to
century, seldom varies much from year to year, but frequently continues the same, or
very nearly the same, for half a century or a century together.28 The ordinary or
average money price of corn, therefore, may, during so long a period, continue the
same or very nearly the same too, and along with it the money price of labour,
provided, at least, the society continues, in other respects, in the same or nearly in the
same condition. In the mean time the temporary and occasional price of corn may
frequently be double, one year, of what it had been the year before, or fluctuateg, for
example,g from five and twenty to fifty shillings the quarterh . But when corn is at the
latter price, not only the nominal, but the real value of a corn rent will be double of
what it is when at the former, or will command double the quantity either of labour or
of the greater part of other commodities; the money price of labour, and along with it
that of most other things, continuing the same during all these fluctuations.
17Labour, therefore, it appears evidently, is the only universal, as well as the only
accurate measure of value, or the only standard by which we can compare the values
of different commodities at all times and at all places. We cannot estimate, it is
allowed, the real value of different commodities from century to century by the
quantities of silver which were given for them. We cannot estimate it from year to
year by the quantities of corn. By the quantities of labour we can, with the greatest
accuracy, estimate it both from century to century and from year to year. From
century to century, corn is iai better measure than silver, because, from century to
century, equal quantities of corn will command the same quantity of labour more
nearly than equal quantities of silver. From year to year, on the contrary, silver is a
better measure than corn, because equal quantities of it will more nearly command the
same quantity of labour.29
18 But though in establishing perpetual rents, or even in letting very long leases, it
may be of use to distinguish between real and nominal price, it is of none in buying
and selling, the more common and ordinary transactions of human life.
19At the same time and place the real and the nominal price of all commodities are
exactly in proportion to one another. The more or less money you get for any
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commodity, in the London market, for example, the more or less labour it will at that
time and place enable you to purchase or command. At the same time and place,
therefore, money is the exact measure of the real exchangeable value of all
commodities. It is so, however, at the same time and place only.
20Though at distant places, there is no regular proportion between the real and the
money price of commodities, yet the merchant who carries goods from the one to the
other has nothing to consider but jtheirj money price, or the difference between the
quantity of silver for which he buys them, and that for which he is likely to sell them.
Half an ounce of silver at Canton in China may command a greater quantity both of
labour and of the necessaries and conveniencies of life, than an ounce at London. A
commodity, therefore, which sells for half an ounce of silver at Canton may there be
really dearer, of more real importance to the man who possesses it there, than ka
commodityk which sells for an ounce at London lisl to the man who possesses it at
London. If a London merchant, however, can buy at Canton for half an ounce of
silver, a commodity which he can afterwards sell at London for an ounce, he gains a
hundred per cent. by the bargain, just as much as if an ounce of silver was at London
exactly of the same value as at Canton. It is of no importance to him that half an
ounce of silver at Canton would have given him the command of more labour and of a
greater quantity of the necessaries and conveniencies of life than an ounce can do at
London. An ounce at London will always give him the command of double the
quantity of all these which half an ounce could have done there, and this is precisely
what he wants.
21As it is the nominal or money price of goods, therefore, which finally determines
the prudence or imprudence of all purchases and sales, and thereby regulates almost
the whole business of common life in which price is concerned, we cannot wonder
that it should have been so much more attended to than the real price.
22In such mam work as this, however, it may sometimes be of use to compare the
different real values of a particular commodity at different times and places, or the
different degrees of power over the labour of other people which it may, upon
different occasions, have given to those who possessed it. We must in this case
compare, not so much the different quantities of silver for which it was commonly
sold, as the different quantities of labour which those different quantities of silver
could have purchased. But the current prices of labour at distant times and places can
scarce ever be known with any degree of exactness. Those of corn, though they have
in few places been regularly recorded, are in general better known and have been
more frequently taken notice of by historians and other writers.30 We must generally,
therefore, content ourselves with them, not as being always exactly in the same
proportion as the current prices of labour, but as being the nearest approximation
which can commonly be had to that proportion. I shall hereafter have occasion to
make several comparisons of this kind.31
23In the progress of industry, commercial nations have found it convenient to coin
several different metals into money; gold for larger payments, silver for purchases of
moderate value, and copper, or some other coarse metal, for those of still smaller
consideration. They have always, however, considered one of those metals as more
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perculiarly the measure of value than any of the other two; and this preference seems
generally to have been given to the metal which they happened first to make use of as
the instrument of commerce. Having once begun to use it as their standard, which
they must have done when they had no other money, they have generally continued to
do so even when the necessity was not the same.
24The Romans are said to have had nothing but copper money till within five years
before the first Punic war* , when they first began to coin silver. Copper, therefore,
appears to have continued always the measure of value in that republick. At Rome all
accounts appear to have been kept, and the value of all estates to have been computed
either in Asses or in Sestertii. The As was always the denomination of a copper coin.
The word Sestertius signifies two Asses and a half. Though the Sestertius, therefore,
was ooriginallyo a silver coin, its value was estimated in copper. At Rome, one who
owed a great deal of money, was said to have a great deal of other people’s copper.32
25The northern nations who established themselves upon the ruins of the Roman
empire, seem to have had silver money from the first beginning of their settlements,
and not to have known either gold or copper coins for several ages thereafter. There
were silver coins in England in the time of the Saxons;33 but there was little gold
coined till the time of Edward III. nor any copper till that of James I. of Great Britain.
In England, therefore, and for the same reason, I believe, in all other modern nations
of Europe, all accounts are kept, and the value of all goods and of all estates is
generally computed in silver: and when we mean to express the amount of a person’s
fortune, we seldom mention the number of guineas, but the number of pounds
p
sterlingp which we suppose would be given for it.34
26qOriginally, inq all countries, I believe a legal tender of payment couldr be made
s
onlys in the coin of that metal,t which was peculiarly considered as the standard or
measure of value. In England, gold was not considered as a legal tender for a long
time after it was coined into money. The proportion between the values of gold and
silver money was not fixed by any public law or proclamation; but was left to be
settled by the market.35 If a debtor offered payment in gold, the creditor might either
reject such payment altogether, or accept of it at such a valuation of the gold as he and
his debtor could agree upon. Copper is not at present a legal tender, except in the
change of the smaller silver coins. In this state of things the distinction between the
metal which was the standard, and that which was not the standard, was something
more than a nominal distinction.
27In process of time, and as people became gradually more familiar with the use of
the different metals in coin, and consequently better acquainted with the proportion
between their respective values, it has in most countries, I believe, been found
convenient to ascertain this proportion, and to declare by a public law that a guinea,
for example, of such a weight and fineness, should exchange for one–and–twenty
shillings, or be a legal tender for a debt of that uamountu36 . In this state of things,
and during the continuance of any one regulated proportion of this kind, the
distinction between the metal which is the standard and that which is not the standard,
becomes little more than a nominal distinction.
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28In consequence of any change, however, in this regulated proportion, this
distinction becomes, or at least seems to become, something more than nominal again.
If the regulated value of a guinea, for example, was either reduced to twenty, or raised
to two–and–twenty shillings, all accounts being kept and almost all obligations for
debt being expressed in silver money, the greater part of payments could in either case
be made with the same quantity of silver money as before; but would require very
different quantities of gold money; a greater in the one case, and a smaller in the
other. Silver would appear to be more invariable in its value than gold. Silver would
appear to measure the value of gold, and gold would not appear to measure the value
of silver. The value of gold would seem to depend upon the quantity of silver which it
would exchange for; and the value of silver would not seem to depend upon the
quantity of gold which it would exchange for. This difference, however, would be
altogether owing to the custom of keeping accounts, and of expressing the amount of
all great and small sums rather in silver than in gold money. One of Mr Drummond’s
notes for five–and–twenty or fifty guineas would, after an alteration of this kind, be
still payable with five–and–twenty or fifty guineas in the same manner as before. It
would, after such an alteration, be payable with the same quantity of gold as before,
but with very different quantities of silver. In the payment of such a note, gold would
appear to be more invariable in its value than silver. Gold would appear to measure
the value of silver, and silver would not appear to measure the value of gold.37 If the
custom of keeping accounts, and of expressing promissory notes and other obligations
for money in this manner, should ever become general, gold, and not silver, would be
considered as the metal which was peculiarly the standard or measure of value.
29In reality, during the continuance of any one regulated proportion between the
respective values of the different metals in coin, the value of the most precious metal
regulates the value of the whole coin. Twelve copper pence contain half a pound,
avoirdupois, of copper, of not the best quality, which, before it is coined, is seldom
worth sevenpence in silver. But as by the regulation twelve such pence are ordered to
exchange for a shilling, they are in the market considered as worth a shilling, and a
shilling can at any time be had for them. Even before the late reformation of the gold
coin of Great Britain,38 the gold, that part of it at least which circulated in London
and its neighbourhood, was in general less degraded below its standard weight than
the greater part of the silver. One–and–twenty worn and defaced shillings, however,
were considered as equivalent to a guinea, which perhaps, indeed, was worn and
defaced too, but seldom so much so. The late regulations have brought the gold coin
as near perhaps to its standard weight as it is possible to bring the current coin of any
nation; and the order, to receive no gold at the public offices but by weight, is likely
to preserve it so vasv long as that order is enforced. The silver coin still continues in
the same worn and degraded state as before the reformation of the gold coin. In the
market, however, one–and–twenty shillings of this degraded silver coin are still
considered as worth a guinea of this excellent gold coin.
30The reformation of the gold coin has evidently raised the value of the silver coin
which can be exchanged for it.
31In the English mint a pound weight of gold is coined into forty–four guineas and a
half, which, at one–and–twenty shillings the guinea, is equal to forty–six pounds
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fourteen shillings and six–pence. An ounce of such gold coin, therefore, is worth
3l.17s.10d. ½ in silver. In England no duty or seignorage is paid upon the coinage,
and he who carries a pound weight or an ounce weight of standard gold bullion to the
mint, gets back a pound weight or an ounce weight of gold in coin, without any
deduction.39 Three pounds seventeen shillings and ten–pence halfpenny an ounce,
therefore is said to be the mint price of gold in England, or the quantity of gold coin
which the mint gives in return for standard gold bullion.
32Before the reformation of the gold coin, the price of standard gold bullion in the
market had for many years been upwards of 3l.18s. sometimes 3l.19s. and very
frequently 4l. an ounce; that sum, it is probable, in the worn and degraded gold coin,
seldom containing more than an ounce of standard gold. Since the reformation of the
gold coin, the market price of standard gold bullion seldom exceeds 3l.17s.7d. an
ounce. Before the reformation of the gold coin, the market price was always more or
less above the mint price.40 Since that reformation, the market price has been
constantly below the mint price. But that market price is the same whether it is paid in
gold or in silver coin. The late reformation of the gold coin, therefore, has raised not
only the value of the gold coin, but likewise that of the silver coin in proportion to
gold bullion, and probably too in proportion to all other commodities; though the
price of the greater part of other commodities being influenced by so many other
causes, the rise in the value either of gold or silver coin in proportion to them, may
not be so distinct and sensible.
33In the English mint a pound weight of standard silver bullion is coined into
sixty–two shillings, containing, in the same manner, a pound weight of standard
silver. Five shillings and two–pence an ounce, therefore, is said to be the mint price of
silver in England, or the quantity of silver coin which the mint gives in return for
standard silver bullion. Before the reformation of the gold coin, the market price of
standard silver bullion was, upon different occasions, five shillings and four–pence,
five shillings and five–pence, five shillings and six–pence, five shillings and
seven–pence, and very often five shillings and eight–pence an ounce. Five shillings
and sevenpence, however, seems to have been the most common price. Since the
reformation of the gold coin, the market price of standard silver bullion has fallen
occasionally to five shillings and three–pence, five shillings and four–pence, and five
shillings and five–pence an ounce, which last price it has scarce ever exceeded.
Though the market price of silver bullion has fallen considerably since the
reformation of the gold coin, it has not fallen so low as the mint price.
34In the proportion between the different metals in the English coin, as copper is
rated very much above its real value, so silver is rated somewhat below it. In the
market of Europe, in the French coin and in the Dutch coin, an ounce of fine gold
exchanges for about fourteen ounces of fine silver. In the English coin, it exchanges
for about fifteen ounces, that is, for more silver than it is worth according to the
common estimation of Europe.41 But as the price of copper in bars is not, even in
England, raised by the high price of copper in English coin, so the price of silver in
bullion is not sunk by the low rate of silver in English coin. Silver in bullion still
preserves its proper proportion to gold; for the same reason that copper in bars
preserves its proper proportion to silver.
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35Upon the reformation of the silver coin in the reign of William III. the price of
silver bullion still continued to be somewhat above the mint price.42 Mr. Locke
imputed this high price to the permission of exporting silver bullion, and to the
prohibition of exporting silver coin.43 This permission of exporting, he said, rendered
the demand for silver bullion greater than the demand for silver coin. But the number
of people who want silver coin for the common uses of buying and selling at home, is
surely much greater than that of those who want silver bullion either for the use of
exportation or for any other use. There subsists at present a like permission of
exporting gold bullion, and a like prohibition of exporting gold coin; and yet the price
of gold bullion has fallen below the mint price. But in the English coin silver was
then, in the same manner as now, under–rated in proportion to gold; and the gold coin
(which at that time too was not supposed to require any reformation) regulated then,
as well as now, the real value of the whole coin. As the reformation of the silver coin
did not then reduce the price of silver bullion to the mint price, it is not very probable
that a like reformation will do so now.
36Were the silver coin brought back as near to its standard weight as the gold, a
guinea, it is probable, would, according to the present proportion, exchange for more
silver in coin than it would purchase in bullion. The silver wcoinw containing its full
standard weight, there would in this case be a profit in melting it down, in order, first,
to sell the bullion for gold coin, and afterwards to exchange this gold coin for silver
coin to be melted down in the same manner. Some alteration in the present proportion
seems to be the only method of preventing this inconveniency.
37 The inconveniency perhaps would be less if silver was rated in the coin as much
above its proper proportion to gold as it is at present rated below it; provided it was at
the same time enacted that silver should not be a legal tender for more than the change
of a guinea; in the same manner as copper is not a legal tender for more than the
change of a shilling. No creditor could in this case be cheated in consequence of the
high valuation of silver in coin; as no creditor can at present be cheated in
consequence of the high valuation of copper. The bankers only would suffer by this
regulation. When a run comes upon them they sometimes endeavour to gain time by
paying in sixpences,44 and they would be precluded by this regulation from this
discreditable method of evading immediate payment. They would be obliged in
consequence to keep at all times in their coffers a greater quantity of cash than at
present; and though this might no doubt be a considerable inconveniency to them, it
would at the same time be a considerable security to their creditors.
38Three pounds seventeen shillings and ten–pence halfpenny (the mint price of gold)
certainly does not contain, even in our present excellent gold coin, more than an
ounce of standard gold, and it may be thought, therefore, should not purchase more
standard bullion. But gold in coin is more convenient than gold in bullion, and
though, in England, the coinage is free,45 yet the gold which is carried in bullion to
the mint, can seldom be returned in coin to the owner till after a delay of several
weeks. In the present hurry of the mint, it could not be returned till after a delay of
several months. This delay is equivalent to a small duty, and renders gold in coin
somewhat more valuable than an equal quantity of gold in bullion. If in the English
coin silver was rated according to its proper proportion to gold, the price of silver
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bullion would probably fall below the mint price even without any reformation of the
silver coin; the value even of the present worn and defaced silver coin being regulated
by the value of the excellent gold coin for which it can be changed.
39A small seignorage or duty upon the coinage of both gold and silver would
probably increase still more the superiority of those metals in coin above an equal
quantity of either of them in bullion. The coinage would in this case increase the value
of the metal coined in proportion to the extent of this small duty; for the same reason
that the fashion increases the value of plate in proportion to the price of that fashion.
The superiority of coin above bullion would prevent the melting down of the coin,
and would discourage its exportation.46 If upon any public exigency it should become
necessary to export the coin, the greater part of it would soon return again of its own
accord. Abroad it could sell only for its weight in bullion. At home it would buy more
than that weight. There would be a profit, therefore, in bringing it home again. In
France a seignorage of about eight per cent. is imposed upon the coinage,47 and the
French coin, when exported, is said to return home again of its own accord.
40The occasional fluctuations in the market price of gold and silver bullion arise from
the same causes as the like fluctuations in that of all other commodities. The frequent
loss of those metals from various accidents by sea and by land, the continual waste of
them in gilding and plating, in lace and embroidery, in the xwear and tearx of coin,
and in vthatv of plate; require, in all countries which possess no mines of their own, a
continual importation, in order to repair this loss and this waste. The merchant
importers, like all other merchants, we may believe, endeavour, as well as they can, to
suit their occasional importations to what, they judge, is likely to be the immediate
demand. With all their attention, however, they sometimes over–do the business, and
sometimes under–do it. When they import more bullion than is wanted, rather than
incur the risk and trouble of exporting it again, they are sometimes willing to sell a
part of it for something less than the ordinary or average price. When, on the other
hand, they import less than is wanted, they get something more than this price. But
when, under all those occasional fluctuations, the market price either of gold or silver
bullion continues for several years together steadily and constantly, either more or
less above, or more or less below the mint price; we may be assured that this steady
and constant, either superiority or inferiority of price, is the effect of something in the
state of the coin, which, at that time, renders a certain quantity of coin either of more
value or of less value than the precise quantity of bullion which it ought to contain.
The constancy and steadiness of the effect, supposes a proportionable constancy and
steadiness in the cause.
41The money of any particular country is, at any particular time and place, more or
less an accurate measure of value according as the current coin is more or less exactly
agreeable to its standard, or contains more or less exactly the precise quantity of pure
gold or pure silver which it ought to contain. If in England, for example, forty–four
guineas and a half contained exactly a pound weight of standard gold, or eleven
ounces of fine gold and one ounce of alloy, the gold coin of England would be as
accurate a measure of the actual value of goods at any particular time and place as the
nature of the thing would admit. But if, by rubbing and wearing, forty–four guineas
and a half generally contain less than a pound weight of standard gold; the
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diminution, however, being greater in some pieces than in others; the measure of
value comes to be liable to the same sort of uncertainty to which all other weights and
measures are commonly exposed. As it rarely happens that these are exactly agreeable
to their standard, the merchant adjusts the price of his goods, as well as he can, not to
what those weights and measures ought to be, but to what, upon an average, he finds
by experience they actually are. In consequence of a like disorder in the coin the price
of goods comes, in the same manner, to be adjusted, not to the quantity of pure gold
or silver which the coin ought to contain, but to that which, upon an average, it is
found by experience, it actually does contain.
42By the money–price of goods, it is to be observed, I understand always the quantity
of pure gold or silver for which they are sold, without any regard to the denomination
of the coin. Six shillings and eight–pence, for example, in the time of Edward I., I
consider as the same money–price with a pound sterling in the present times; because
it contained, as nearly as we can judge, the same quantity of pure silver.48
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CHAPTER VI
Of The Component Parts Of The Price Of Commodities
1In that early and rude state of society which precedes both the accumulation of stock
and the appropriation of land, the proportion between the quantities of labour
necessary for acquiring different objects seems to be the only circumstance which can
afford any rule for exchanging them for one another.1 If among a nation of hunters,
for example, it usually costs twice the labour to kill a beaver which it does to kill a
deer, one beaver should naturally exchange for or be worth two deer. It is natural that
what is usually the produce of two days or two hours labour, should be worth double
of what is usually the produce of one day’s or one hour’s labour.
2If the one species of labour should be more severe than the other, some allowance
will naturally be made for this superior hardship;2 and the produce of one hour’s
labour in the one way may frequently exchange for that of two hours labour in the
other.
3Or if the one species of labour requires an uncommon degree of dexterity and
ingenuity, the esteem which men have for such talents, will naturally give a value to
their produce, superior to what would be due to the time employed about it.3 Such
talents can seldom be acquired but in consequence of long application, and the
superior value of their produce may frequently be no more than a reasonable
compensation for the time and labour which must be spent in acquiring them. In the
advanced state of society, allowances of this kind, for superior hardship and superior
skill, are commonly made in the wages of labour; and something of the same kind
must probably have taken place in its earliest and rudest period.
4In this state of thingsa, the whole produce of labour belongs to the labourer; anda the
quantity of labour commonly employed in acquiring or producing any commodity, is
the only circumstance which can regulate the quantity of labour which it ought
commonly to purchase, command, or exchange for.
5As soon as stock has accumulated in the hands of particular persons, some of them
will naturally employ it in setting to work industrious people, whom they will supply
with materials and subsistence, in order to make a profit by the sale of their work, or
by what their labour adds to the value of the materials. In exchanging the complete
manufacture either for money, for labour, or for other goods, over and above what
may be sufficient to pay the price of the materials, and the wages of the workmen,
something must be given for the profits of the undertaker of the work who hazards his
stock in this adventure.4 The value which the workmen add to the materials,
therefore, resolves itself in this case into two parts, of which the one pays their wages,
the other the profits of their employer upon the whole stock of materials and wages
which he advanced. He could have no interest to employ them, unless he expected
from the sale of their work something more than what was sufficient to replace his
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stock to him; and he could have no interest to employ a great stock rather than a small
one, unless his profits were to bear some proportion to the extent of his stock.
6The profits of stock, it may perhaps be thought, are only a different name for the
wages of a particular sort of labour, the labour of inspection and direction. They are,
however, altogether different, are regulated by quite different principles, and bear no
proportion to the quantity, the hardship, or the ingenuity of this supposed labour of
inspection and direction. They are regulated altogether by the value of the stock
employed, and are greater or smaller in proportion to the extent of this stock. Let us
suppose, for example, that in some particular place, where the common annual profits
of manufacturing stock are ten per cent. There are two different manufactures, in each
of which twenty workmen are employed at the rate of fifteen pounds a year each, or at
the expence of three hundred a year in each manufactory. Let us suppose too, that the
coarse materials annually wrought up in the one cost only seven hundred pounds,
while the finer materials in the other cost seven thousand. The capital annually
employed in the one will in this case amount only to one thousand pounds; whereas
that employed in the other will amount to seven thousand three hundred pounds. At
the rate of ten per cent. therefore, the undertaker of the one will expect an yearly
profit of about one hundred pounds only; while that of the other will expect about
seven hundred and thirty pounds. But though their profits are so very different, their
labour of inspection and direction may be either altogether or very nearly the same. In
many great works, almost the whole labour of this kind isb committed to some
principal clerk. His wages properly express the value of this labour of inspection and
direction. Though in settling them some regard is had commonly, not only to his
labour and skill, but to the trust which is reposed in him, yet they never bear any
regular proportion to the capital of which he oversees the management; and the owner
of this capital, though he is thus discharged of almost all labour, still expects that his
profits should bear a regular proportion to chis capitalc In the price of commodities,
therefore, the profits of stock dconstitute a component partd altogether different from
the wages of labour, and regulated by quite different principles.
7In this state of things, ethe whole produce of labour does not always belong to the
labourer. He must in most cases share it with the owner of the stock which employs
him. Neither ise the quantity of labour commonly employed in acquiring or producing
any commodity,f the only circumstance which can regulate the quantity which it
ought commonly to purchase, command, or exchange for. An additional quantity, it is
evident, must be due for the profits of the stock which advanced the wages and
furnished the materials of that labour.
8As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords,
like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for
its natural produce. The wood of the forest, the grass of the field, and all the natural
fruits of the earth, which, when land was in common, cost gthe labourerg only the
trouble of gathering them, comeh, even to him,h to have an additional price fixed upon
them. iHei must then pay for the licence to gather them; and jmust give up to the
landlord a portion of what his labour either collects or produces. This portion, or,
what comes to the same thing, the price of this portion, constitutes the rent of land,
and in the price of the greater part of commodities makes a third component part.j5
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9The real value of all the different component parts of pricek, it must be observed, isk
measured by the quantity of labour which they can, each of them, purchase or
command. Labour measures the value not only of that part of price which resolves
itself into labour, but of that which resolves itself into rent, and of that which resolves
itself into profit.6
10In every society the price of every commodity finally resolves itself into some one
or other, or all of those three parts; and in every improved society, all the three enter
more or less, as component parts, into the price of the far greater part of commodities.
11In the price of corn, for example, one part pays the rent of the landlord, another
pays the wages or maintenance of the labourers and labouring cattle employed in
producing it, and the third pays the profit of the farmer. These three parts seem either
immediately or ultimately to make up the whole price of corn. A fourth part, it may
perhaps be thought, is necessary for replacing the stock of the farmer, or for
compensating the lwear and tearl of his labouring cattle, and other instruments of
husbandry. But it must be considered that the price of any instrument of husbandry,
such as a labouring horse, is itself made up of the same three parts; the rent of the land
upon which he is reared, the labour of tending and rearing him, and the profits of the
farmer who advances both the rent of this land, and the wages of this labour. Though
the price of the corn, therefore, may pay the price as well as the maintenance of the
horse, the whole price still resolves itself either immediately or ultimately into the
same three parts of rent, labour, and profit.
12In the price of flour or meal, we must add to the price of the corn, the profits of the
miller, and the wages of his servants; in the price of the bread, the profits of the baker,
and the wages of his servants; and in the price of both, the labour of transporting the
corn from the house of the farmer to that of the miller, and from that of the miller to
that of the baker, together with the profits of those who advance the wages of that
labour.
13The price of flax resolves itself into the same three parts as that of corn. In the price
of linen we must add to this price the wages of the flax–dresser, of the spinner, of the
weaver, of the bleacher, &c. together with the profits of their respective employers.
14As any particular commodity comes to be more manufactured, that part of the price
which resolves itself into wages and profit, comes to be greater in proportion to that
which resolves itself into rent. In the progress of the manufacture, not only the
number of profits increase, but every subsequent profit is greater than the foregoing;
because the capital from which it is derived must always be greater. The capital which
employs the weavers, for example, must be greater than that which employs the
spinners; because it not only replaces that capital with its profits, but pays, besides,
the wages of the weavers; and the profits must always bear some proportion to the
capital.
15In the most improved societies, however, there are always a few commodities of
which the price resolves itself into two parts only, the wages of labour, and the profits
of stock; and a still smaller number in which it consists altogether in the wages of
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labour. In the price of sea–fish, for example, one part pays the labour of the
fishermen, and the other the profits of the capital employed in the fishery. Rent very
seldom makes any part of it, though it does sometimes, as I shall shew hereafter.7 It is
otherwise, at least through the greater part of Europe, in river fisheries. A salmon
fishery pays a rent, and rent, though it cannot well be called the rent of land, makes a
part of the price of a salmon as well as wages and profit. In some parts of Scotland a
few poor people make a trade of gathering, along the sea–shore, those little variegated
stones commonly known by the name of Scotch Pebbles. The price which is paid to
them by the stone–cutter is altogether the wages of their labour; neither rent nor profit
make any part of it.
16 But the whole price of manym commodity must still finally resolve itself into some
one or other, or all of those three parts; as whatever part of it remains after paying the
rent of the land, and the price of the whole labour employed in raising, manufacturing,
and bringing it to market, must necessarily be profit to somebody.
17As the price or exchangeable value of every particular commodity, taken
separately, resolves itself into some one or other or all of those three parts; so that of
all the commodities which compose the whole annual produce of the labour of every
country, taken complexly, must resolve itself into the same three parts, and be
parcelled out among different inhabitants of the country, either as the wages of their
labour, the profits of their stock, or the rent of their land.8 The whole of what is
annually either collected or produced by the labour of every society, or what comes to
the same thing, the whole price of it, is in the manner originally distributed among
some of its different members. Wages, profit, and rent, are the three original sources
of all revenue as well as of all exchangeable value. All other revenue is ultimately
derived from some one or other of these.
18Whoever derives his revenue from a fund which is his own, must draw it either
from his labour, from his stock, or from his land. The revenue derived from labour is
called wages. That derived from stock, by the person who manages or employs it, is
called profit. That derived from it by the person who does not employ it himself, but
lends it to another, is called the interest or the use of money. It is the compensation
which the borrower pays to the lender, for the profit which he has an opportunity of
making by the use of the money. Part of that profit naturally belongs to the borrower,
who runs the risk and takes the trouble of employing it; and part to the lender, who
affords him the opportunity of making this profit. The interest of money is always a
derivative revenue, which, if it is not paid from the profit which is made by the use of
the money, must be paid from some other source of revenue, unless perhaps the
borrower is a spendthrift, who contracts a second debt in order to pay the interest of
the first.9 The revenue which proceeds altogether from land, is called rent, and
belongs to the landlord. The revenue of the farmer is derived partly from his labour,
and partly from his stock. To him, land is only the instrument which enables him to
earn the wages of this labour, and to make the profits of this stock. All taxes, and all
the revenue which is founded upon them, all salaries, pensions, and annuities of every
kind, are ultimately derived from some one or other of those three original sources of
revenue, and are paid either immediately or mediately from the wages of labour, the
profits of stock, or the rent of land.
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19When those three different sorts of revenue belong to different persons, they are
readily distinguished; but when they belong to the same they are sometimes
confounded with one another, at least in common language.10
20A gentleman who farms a part of his own estate, after paying the expence of
cultivation, should gain both the rent of the landlord and the profit of the farmer. He is
apt to denominate, however, his whole gain, profit, and thus confounds rent with
profit, at least in common language. The greater part of our North American and West
Indian planters are in this situation. They farm, the greater part of them, their own
estates, and accordingly we seldom hear of the rent of a plantation, but frequently of
its profit.
21Common farmers seldom employ any overseer to direct the general operations of
the farm. They generally too work a good deal with their own hands, as ploughmen,
harrowers, &c. What remains of the crop after paying the rent, therefore, should not
only replace to them their stock employed in cultivation, together with its ordinary
profits, but pay them the wages which are due to them, both as labourers and
overseers. Whatever remains, however, after paying the rent and keeping up the stock,
is called profit. But wages evidently make a part of it. The farmer, by saving these
wages, must necessarily gain them. Wages, therefore, are in this case confounded with
profit.
22An independent manufacturer, who has stock enough both to purchase materials,
and to maintain himself till he can carry his work to market, should gain both the
wages of a journeyman who works under a master, and the profit which that master
makes by the sale of nthe journeyman’sn work. His whole gains, however, are
commonly called profit, and wages are, in this case too, confounded with profit.
23A gardener who cultivates his own garden with his own hands, unites in his own
person the three different characters, of landlord, farmer, and labourer. His produce,
therefore, should pay him the rent of the first, the profit of the second, and the wages
of the third. The whole, however, is commonly considered as the earnings of his
labour. Both rent and profit are, in this case, confounded with wages.
24As in a civilized country there are but few commodities of which the exchangeable
value arises from labour only, rent and profit contributing largely to that of the far
greater part of them, so the annual produce of its labour will always be sufficient to
purchase or command a much greater quantity of labour than what was employed in
raising, preparing, and bringing that produce to market. If the society owaso annually
to employ all the labour which it can annually purchase, as the quantity of labour
would increase greatly every year, so the produce of every succeeding year would be
of vastly greater value than that of the foregoing. But there is no country in which the
whole annual produce is employed in maintaining the industrious.11 The idle every
where consume a great part of it; and according to the different proportions in which
it is annually divided between those two different orders of people, its ordinary or
average value must either annually increase, or diminish, or continue the same from
one year to another.
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CHAPTER VII
Of The Natural And Market Price Of Commodities1
1There is in every society or neighbourhood an ordinary or average rate both of wages
and profit in every different employment of labour and stock. This rate is naturally
regulated, as I shall show hereafter,2 partly by the general circumstances of the
society, their riches or poverty, their advancing, stationary, or declining condition;
and partly by the particular nature of each employment.3
2There is likewise in every society or neighbourhood an ordinary or average rate of
rent, which is regulated too, as I shall show hereafter,4 partly by the general
circumstances of the society or neighbourhood in which the land is situated, and
partly by the natural or improved fertility of the land.
3These ordinary or average rates may be called the natural rates of wages, profit, and
rent, at the time and place in which they commonly prevail.
4When the price of any commodity is neither more nor less than what is sufficient to
pay the rent of the land, the wages of the labour, and the profits of the stock employed
in raising, preparing, and bringing it to market, according to their natural rates, the
commodity is then sold for what may be called its natural price.5
5The commodity is then sold precisely for what it is worth, or for what it really costs
the person who brings it to market; for though in common language what is called the
prime cost of any commodity does not comprehend the profit of the person who is to
sell it again, yet if he sells it at a price which does not allow him the ordinary rate of
profit in his neighbourhood, he is evidently a loser by the trade; since by employing
his stock in some other way he might have made that profit. His profit, besides, is his
revenue, the proper fund of his subsistence. As, while he is preparing and bringing the
goods to market, he advances to his workmen their wages, or their subsistence; so he
advances to himself, in the same manner, his own subsistence, which is generally
suitable to the profit which he may reasonably expect from the sale of his goods.
Unless they yield him this profit, therefore, they do not repay him what they may very
properly be said to have really cost him.
6Though the price, therefore, which leaves him this profit, is not always the lowest at
which a dealer may sometimes sell his goods, it is the lowest at which he is likely to
sell them for any considerable time; at least where there is perfect liberty,6 or where
he may change his trade as often as he pleases.
7 The actual price at which any commodity is commonly sold is called its market
price. It may either be above, or below, or exactly the same with its natural price.
8The market price of every particular commodity is regulated by the proportion
between the quantity which is actually brought to market, and the demand of those
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who are willing to pay the natural price of the commodity, or the whole value of the
rent, labour, and profit, which must be paid in order to bring it thither. Such people
may be called the effectual demanders, and their demand the effectual demand;7 since
it may be sufficient to effectuate the bringing of the commodity to market. It is
different from the absolute demand. A very poor man may be said in some sense to
have a demand for a coach and six; he might like to have it; but his demand is not an
effectual demand, as the commodity can never be brought to market in order to satisfy
it.8
9When the quantity of any commodity which is brought to market falls short of the
effectual demand, all those who are willing to pay the whole value of the rent, wages,
and profit, which must be paid in order to bring it thither, cannot be supplied with the
quantity which they want. Rather than want it altogether, some of them will be willing
to give more. A competition will immediately begin among them, and the market
price will rise more or less above the natural price, according as aeithera the greatness
of the deficiencyb, or the wealth and wanton luxury of the competitors, happen to
animateb more or less the eagerness of cthec competition. dAmong competitors of
equal wealth and luxury thed same deficiency will generally occasion a more or less
eager competition, according as the acquisition of the commodity happens to be of
more or less importance to etheme Hence the exorbitant price of the necessaries of life
during the blockade of a town or in a famine.
10When the quantity brought to market exceeds the effectual demand, it cannot be all
sold to those who are willing to pay the whole value of the rent, wages and profit,
which must be paid in order to bring it thither. Some part must be sold to those who
are willing to pay less, and the low price which they give for it must reduce the price
of the whole. The market price will sink more or less below the natural price,
according as the greatness of the excess increases more or less the competition of the
sellers, or according as it happens to be more or less important to them to get
immediately rid of the commodity. The same excess in the importation of perishable,
will occasion a much greater competition than in that of durable commodities; in the
importation of oranges, for example, than finf that of old iron.9
11When the quantity brought to market is just sufficient to supply the effectual
demand and no more, the market price naturally comes to be either exactly, or as
nearly as can be judged of, the same with the natural price. The whole quantity upon
hand can be disposed of for this price, and cannot be disposed of for more. The
competition of the different dealers obliges them all to accept of this price, but does
not oblige them to accept of less.
12The quantity of every commodity brought to market naturally suits itself to the
effectual demand. It is the interest of all those who employ their land, labour, or stock,
in bringing any commodity to market, that the quantity never should exceed the
effectual demand; and it is the interest of all other people that it never should fall short
of gthat demandg .
13If at any time it exceeds the effectual demand, some of the component parts of its
price must be paid below their natural rate. If it is rent, the interest of the landlords
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will immediately prompt them to withdraw a part of their land; and if it is wages or
profit, the interest of the labourers in the one case, and of their employers in the other,
will prompt them to withdraw a part of their labour or stock from this employment.
The quantity brought to market will soon be no more than sufficient to supply the
effectual demand. All the different parts of its price will rise to their natural rate, and
the whole price to its natural price.
14If, on the contrary, the quantity brought to market should at any time fall short of
the effectual demand, some of the component parts of its price must rise above their
natural rate. If it is rent, the interest of all other landlords will naturally prompt them
to prepare more land for the raising of this commodity; if it is wages or profit, the
interest of all other labourers and dealers will soon prompt them to employ more
labour and stock in preparing and bringing it to market. The quantity brought thither
will soon be sufficient to supply the effectual demand. All the different parts of its
price will soon sink to their natural rate, and the whole price to its natural price.
15The natural price, therefore, is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of
all commodities are continually gravitating.10 Different accidents may sometimes
keep them suspended a good deal above it, and sometimes force them down even
somewhat below it. But whatever may be the obstacles which hinder them from
settling in this center of repose and continuance, they are constantly tending towards
it.
16The whole quantity of industry annually employed in order to bring any commodity
to market, naturally suits itself in this manner to the effectual demand. It naturally
aims at bringing always that precise quantity thither which may be sufficient to
supply, and no more than supply, that demand.
17But in some employments the same quantity of industry will in different years
produce very different quantities of commodities; while in others it will produce
always the same, or very nearly the same. The same number of labourers in husbandry
will, in different years, produce very different quantities of corn, wine, oil, hops, &c.
But the same number of spinners and weavers will every year produce the same or
very nearly the same quantity of linen and woollen cloth. It is only the average
produce of the one species of industry which can be suited in any respect to the
effectual demand; and as its actual produce is frequently much greater and frequently
much less than its average produce, the quantity of the commodities brought to market
will sometimes exceed a good deal, and sometimes fall short a good deal of the
effectual demand. Even though that demand therefore should continue always the
same, their market price will be liable to great fluctuations, will sometimes fall a good
deal below, and sometimes rise a good deal above their natural price. In the other
species of industry, the produce of equal quantities of labour being always the same or
very nearly the same, it can be more exactly suited to the effectual demand. While
that demand continues the same, therefore, the market price of the commodities is
likely to do so too, and to be either altogether, or as nearly as can be judged of, the
same with the natural price. That the price of linen and woollen cloth is liable neither
to such frequent nor to such great variations as the price of corn, every man’s
experience will inform him. The price of the one species of commodities varies only
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with the variations in the demand: That of the other varies, not only with the
variations in the demand, but with the much greater and more frequent variations in
the quantity of what is brought to market in order to supply that demand.
18The occasional and temporary fluctuations in the market price of any commodity
fall chiefly upon those parts of its price which resolve themselves into wages and
profit. That part which resolves itself into rent is less affected by them. A rent certain
in money is not in the least affected by them either in its rate or in its value. A rent
which consists either in a certain proportion or in a certain quantity of the rude
produce, is no doubt affected in its yearly value by all the occasional and temporary
fluctuations in the market price of that rude produce: but it is seldom affected by them
in its yearly rate. In settling the terms of the lease, the landlord and farmer endeavour,
according to their best judgment, to adjust that rate, not to the temporary and
occasional, but to the average and ordinary price of the produce.
19Such fluctuations affect both the value and the rate either of wages or of profit,
according as the market happens to be either over–stocked or understocked with
commodities or with labour; with work done, or with work to be done. A publick
mourning raises the price of black cloth11 (with which the market is almost always
under–stocked upon such occasions) and augments the profits of the merchants who
possess any considerable quantity of it. It has no effect upon the wages of the
weavers. The market is understocked with commodities, not with labour; with work
done, not with work to be done. It raises the wages of journeymen taylors. The market
is here under–stocked with labour. There is an effectual demand for hmoreh labour,
for more work to be done than can be had. It sinks the price of coloured silks and
cloths, and thereby reduces the profits of the merchants who have any considerable
quantity of them upon hand. It sinks too the wages of the workmen employed in
preparing such commodities, for which all demand is stopped for six months, perhaps
for a twelvemonth. The market is here over–stocked both with commodities and with
labour.
20But though the market price of every particular commodity is in this manner
continually gravitating, if one may say so, towards the natural price, yet sometimes
particular accidents, sometimes natural causes, and sometimes particular regulations
of police, may, in many commodities, keep up the market price, for a long time
together, a good deal above the natural price.12
21When by an increase in the effectual demand, the market price of some particular
commodity happens to rise a good deal above the natural price, those who employ
their stocks in supplying that market are generally careful to conceal this change. If it
was commonly known, their great profit would tempt so many new rivals to employ
their stocks in the same way, that, the effectual demand being fully supplied, the
market price would soon be reduced to the natural price, and perhaps for some time
even below it. If the market is at a great distance from the residence of those who
supply it, they may sometimes be able to keep the secret for several years together,
and may so long enjoy their extraordinary profits without any new rivals.13 Secrets of
this kind, however, it must be acknowledged, can seldom be long kept; and the
extraordinary profit can last very little longer than they are kept.
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22Secrets in manufactures are capable of being longer kept than secrets in trade. A
dyer who has found the means of producing a particular colour with materials which
cost only half the price of those commonly made use of, may, with good management,
enjoy the advantage of his discovery as long as he lives, and even leave it as a legacy
to his posterity. His extraordinary gains arise from the high price which is paid for his
private labour. They properly consist in the high wages of that labour. But as they are
repeated upon every part of his stock, and as their whole amount bears, upon that
account, a regular proportion to it, they are commonly considered as extraordinary
profits of stock.
23Such enhancements of the market price are evidently the effects of particular
accidents, of which, however, the operation may sometimes last for many years
together.
24Some natural productions require such a singularity of soil and situation, that all the
land in a great country, which is fit for producing them, may not be sufficient to
supply the effectual demand. The whole quantity brought to market, therefore, may be
disposed of to those who are willing to give more than what is sufficient to pay the
rent of the land which produced them, together with the wages of the labour, and the
profits of the stock which were employed in preparing and bringing them to market,
according to their natural rates. Such commodities may continue ifor whole centuries
togetheri to be sold at this high pricej ; and that part of it which resolves itself into the
rent of land is in this case the part which is generally paid above its natural rate. The
rent of the land which affords such singular and esteemed productions, like the rent of
some vineyards in France of a peculiarly happy soil and situation, bears no regular
proportion to the rent of other equally fertile and equally well–cultivated land in its
neighbourhood.14 The wages of the labour and the profits of the stock employed in
bringing such commodities to market, on the contrary, are seldom out of their natural
proportion to those of the other employments of labour and stock in their
neighbourhood.
25Such enhancements of the market price are evidently the effect of natural causes
which may hinder the effectual demand from ever being fully supplied, and which
may continue, therefore, to operate for ever.
26A monopoly granted either to an individual or to a trading company has the same
effect as a secret in trade or manufactures. The monopolists, by keeping the market
constantly under–stocked, by never fully supplying the effectual demand, sell their
commodities much above the natural price, and raise their emoluments, whether they
consist in wages or profit, greatly above their natural rate.15
27The price of monopoly is upon every occasion the highest which can be got. The
natural price, or the price of free competition, on the contrary, is the lowest which can
be taken, not upon every occasion, indeed, but for any considerable time together. The
one is upon every occasion the highest which can be squeezed out of the buyers, or
which, it is supposed, they will consent to give: The other is the lowest which the
sellers can commonly afford to take, and at the same time continue their business.
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28The exclusive privileges of corporations, statutes of apprenticeship, and all those
laws which restrain, in particular employments, the competition to a smaller number
than might otherwise go into them, have the same tendency, though in a less
degree.16 They are a sort of enlarged monopolies, and may frequently, for ages
together and in whole classes of employments, keep up the market price of particular
commodities above the natural price, and maintain both the wages of the labour and
the profits of the stock employed about them somewhat above their natural rate.
29Such enhancements of the market price may last as long as the regulations of police
which give occasion to them.
30The market price of any particular commodity, though it may continue long above,
can seldom continue long below its natural price. Whatever part of it was paid below
the natural rate, the persons whose interest it affected would immediately feel the loss,
and would immediately withdraw either so much land, or so much labour, or so much
stock, from being employed about it, that the quantity brought to market would soon
be no more than sufficient to supply the effectual demand. Its market price, therefore,
would soon rise to the natural price. This at least would be the case where there was
perfect liberty.17
31The same statutes of apprenticeship and other corporation laws indeed, which,
when a manufacture is in prosperity, enable the workman to raise his wages a good
deal above their natural rate, sometimes oblige him, when it decays, to let them down
a good deal below it. As in the one case they exclude many people from his
employment, so in the other they exclude him from many employments. The effect of
such regulations, however, is not near so durable in sinking the workman’s wages
below, as in raising them above their natural rate. Their operation in the one way may
endure for many centuries, but in the other it can last no longer than the lives of some
of the workmen who were bred to the business in the time of its prosperity. When
they are gone, the number of those who are afterwards educated to the trade will
naturally suit itself to the effectual demand. The police must be as violent as that of
Indostan or antient Egypt (where every man was bound by a principle of religion to
follow the occupation of his father, and was supposed to commit the most horrid
sacrilege if he changed it for another) which can in any particular employment, and
for several generations together, sink either the wages of labour or the profits of stock
below their natural rate.18
32This is all that I think necessary to be observed at present concerning the
deviations, whether occasional or permanent, of the market price of commodities
from the natural price.
33The natural price itself varies with the natural rate of each of its component parts,
of wages, profit, and rent; and in every society this rate varies according to their
circumstances, according to their riches or poverty, their advancing, stationary, or
declining condition. I shall, in the four following chapters, endeavour to explain, as
fully and distinctly as I can, the causes of those different variations.
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34First, I shall endeavour to explain what are the circumstances which naturally
determine the rate of wages, and in what manner those circumstances are affected by
the riches or poverty, by the advancing, stationary, or declining state of the society.
35Secondly, I shall endeavour to show what are the circumstances which naturally
determine the rate of profit, and in what manner too those circumstances are affected
by the like variations in the state of the society.
36Though pecuniary wages and profit are very different in the different employments
of labour and stock; yet a certain proportion seems commonly to take place between
both the pecuniary wages in all the different employments of labour, and the
pecuniary profits in all the different employments of stock. This proportion, it will
appear hereafter,19 depends partly upon the nature of the different employments, and
partly upon the different laws and policy of the society in which they are carried on.
But though in many respects dependent upon the laws and policy, this proportion
seems to be little affected by the riches or poverty of that society; by its advancing,
stationary, or declining condition; but to remain the same or very nearly the same in
all those different states. I shall, in the third place, endeavour to explain all the
different circumstances which regulate this proportion.
37In the fourth and last place, I shall endeavour to show what are the circumstances
which regulate the rent of land, and which either raise or lower the real price of all the
different substances which it produces.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
CHAPTER VIII
Of The Wages Of Labour
1The produce of labour constitutes the natural recompence or wages of labour.
2In that original state of things, which precedes both the appropriation of land and the
accumulation of stock,1 the whole produce of labour belongs to the labourer2 . He has
neither landlord nor master to share with him.
3Had this state continued, the wages of labour would have augmented with all those
improvements in its productive powers, to which the division of labour gives
occasion. All things would gradually have become cheaper. They would have been
produced by a smaller quantity of labour; and as the commodities produced by equal
quantities of labour would naturally in this state of things be exchanged for one
another, they would have been purchased likewise with the produce of a smaller
quantity.
4But though all things would have become cheaper in reality, in appearance many
things might have become dearer than before, or have been exchanged for a greater
quantity of other goods. Let us suppose, for example, that in the greater part of
employments the productive powers of labour had been improved to tenfold, or that a
day’s labour could produce ten times the quantity of work which it had done
originally; but that in a particular employment they had been improved only to
double, or that a day’s labour could produce only twice the quantity of work which it
had done before. In exchanging the produce of a day’s labour in the greater part of
employments, for that of a day’s labour in this particular one, ten times the original
quantity of work in them would purchase only twice the original quantity in it. Any
particular quantity in it, therefore, a pound weight, for example, would appear to be
five times dearer than before. In reality, however, it would be twice as cheap. Though
it required five times the quantity of other goods to purchase it, it would require only
half the quantity of labour either to purchase or to produce it. The acquisition,
therefore, would be twice as easy as before.
5But this original state of things, in which the labourer enjoyed the whole produce of
his own labour, could not last beyond the first introduction of the appropriation of
land and the accumulation of stock. It was at an end, therefore, long before the most
considerable improvements were made in the productive powers of labour, and it
would be to no purpose to trace afarthera what might have been its effects upon the
recompence or wages of labour.
6As soon as land becomes private property, the landlord demands a share of balmost
all theb produce cwhichc the labourer can either raise, or collect from it. His rent
makes the first deduction from the produce of the labour which is employed upon
land.
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7It seldom happens that the person who tills the ground has wherewithal to maintain
himself till he reaps the harvest. His maintenance is generally advanced to him from
the stock of a master, the farmer who employs him, and who would have no interest to
employ him, unless he was to share in the produce of his labour, or unless his stock
was to be replaced to him with a profit. This profit makes a second deduction from the
produce of the labour which is employed upon land.
8The produce of almost all other labour is liable to the like deduction of profit. In all
arts and manufactures the greater part of the workmen stand in need of a master to
advance them the materials of their work, and their wages and maintenance till it be
compleated. He shares in the produce of their labour, or in the value which it adds to
the materials upon which it is bestowed; and in this share consists his profit.3
9It sometimes happens, indeed, that a single independent workman has stock
sufficient both to purchase the materials of his work, and to maintain himself till it be
compleated. He is both master and workman, and enjoys the whole produce of his
own labour, or the whole value which it adds to the materials upon which it is
bestowed. It includes what are usually two distinct revenues, belonging to two distinct
persons, the profits of stock, and the wages of labour.4
10Such cases, however, are not very frequent, and in every part of Europe, twenty
workmen serve under a master for one that is independent; and the wages of labour
are every where understood to be, what they usually are, when the labourer is one
person, and the owner of the stock which employs him another.
11What are the common wages of labour depends every where upon the contract
usually made between those two parties, whose interests are by no means the same.
The workmen desire to get as much, the masters to give as little as possible. The
former are disposed to combine in order to raise, the latter in order to lower the wages
of labour.
12 It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of the two parties must, upon all
ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the dispute, and force the other into a
compliance with their terms. The masters, being fewer in number, dcan combine much
more easily; and the law, besides, authorises, or at least does not prohibit their
combinations,d while it prohibits those of the workmen.5 We have no acts of
parliament against combining to lower the price of work; but many against combining
to raise it. In all such disputes the masters can hold out much longer. A landlord, a
farmer, a master manufacturer, or merchant, though they did not employ a single
workman, could generally live a year or two upon the stocks which they have already
acquired. Many workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month, and
scarce any a year without employment. In the long–run the workman may be as
necessary to his master as his master is to him; but the necessity is not so immediate.
13We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters; though frequently
of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely
combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and every
where in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages
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of labour above their actual rate. To violate this combination is every where a most
unpopular action, and a sort of reproach to a master among his neighbours and equals.
We seldom, indeed, hear of this combination, because it is the usual, and one may say,
the natural state of things which nobody ever hears of.6 Masters too sometimes enter
into particular combinations to sink the wages of labour even below this rate. These
are always conducted with the utmost silence and secrecy, till the moment of
execution, and when the workmen yield, as they sometimes do, without resistance,
though severely felt by them, they are never heard of by other people. Such
combinations, however, are frequently resisted by a contrary defensive combination
of the workmen; who sometimes too, without any provocation of this kind, combine
of their own accord to raise the price of their labour. Their usual pretences are,
sometimes the high price of provisions;7 sometimes the great profit which their
masters make by their work. But whether their combinations be offensive or
defensive, they are always abundantly heard of. In order to bring the point to a speedy
decision, they have always recourse to the loudest clamour, and sometimes to the
most shocking violence and outrage. They are desperate, and act with the folly and
extravagance of desperate men, who must eeithere starve, or frighten their masters
into an immediate compliance with their demands. The masters upon these occasions
are just as clamorous upon the other side, and never cease to call aloud for the
assistance of the civil magistrate, and the rigorous execution of those laws which have
been enacted with so much severity against the combinations of servants, labourers,
and journeymen. The workmen, accordingly, very seldom derive any advantage from
the violence of those tumultuous combinations, which, partly from the interposition of
the civil magistrate, partly from the superior steadiness of the masters, partly from the
necessity which the greater part of the workmen are under of submitting for the sake
of present subsistence, generally end in nothing, but the punishment or ruin of the
ringleaders.8
But though in disputes with their workmen, masters must generally have the
advantage, there is however a certain rate below which it seems impossible to reduce,
for any considerable time, the ordinary wages even of the lowest species of labour.
15A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to
maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be somewhat more; otherwise it
would be impossible ffor himf to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen
could not last beyond the first generation. Mr. Cantillon seems, upon this account, to
suppose that the lowest species of common labourers must every where earn at least
double their own maintenance, in order that one with another they may be enabled to
bring up two children; the labour of the wife, on account of her necessary attendance
on the children, being supposed no more than sufficient to provide for herself. But
one–half the children born, it is computed, die before the age of manhood.9 The
poorest labourers, therefore, according to this account, must, one with another,
attempt to rear at least four children, in order that two may have an equal chance of
living to that age. But the necessary maintenance of four children, it is supposed, may
be nearly equal to that of one man. The labour of an able–bodied slave, the same
author adds, is computed to be worth double his maintenance; and that of the meanest
labourer, he thinks, cannot be worth less than that of an able–bodied slave. Thus far at
least seems certain, that, in order to bring up a family, the labour of the husband and
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wife together must, even in the lowest species of common labour, be able to earn
something more than what is precisely necessary for their own maintenance;10 but in
what proportion, whether in that abovementioned, or in any other, I shall not take
upon me to determine.11
16There are certain circumstances, however, which sometimes give the labourers an
advantage, and enable them to raise their wages considerably above this rate;
evidently the lowest which is consistent with common humanity.
17When in any country the demand for those who live by wages; labourers,
journeymen, servants of every kind, is continually increasing; when every year
furnishes employment for a greater number than had been employed the year before,
the workmen have no occasion to combine in order to raise their wages. The scarcity
of hands occasions a competition among masters, who bid against one another, in
order to get gworkmeng and thus voluntarily break through the natural combination of
masters not to raise wages.
18The demand for those who live by wages, it is evident, cannot increase but in
proportion to the increase of the funds which are destined for the payment of wages.
These funds are of two kinds; first, the revenue which is over and above what is
necessary for the maintenance; and, secondly, the stock which is over and above what
is necessary for the employment of their masters.
19When the landlord, annuitant, or monied man, has a greater revenue than what he
judges sufficient to maintain his own family, he employs either the whole or a part of
the surplus in maintaining one or more menial servants. Increase this surplus, and he
will naturally increase the number of those servants.
20When an independent workman, such as a weaver or shoe–maker, has got more
stock than what is sufficient to purchase the materials of his own work, and to
maintain himself till he can dispose of it, he naturally employs one or more
journeymen with the surplus, in order to make a profit by their work. Increase this
surplus, and he will naturally increase the number of his journeymen.
21The demand for those who live by wages, therefore, necessarily increases with the
increase of the revenue and stock of every country, and cannot possibly increase
without it. The increase of revenue and stock is the increase of national wealth. The
demand for those who live by wages, therefore, naturally increases with the increase
of national wealth, and cannot possibly increase without it.
22It is not the actual greatness of national wealth, but its continual increase, which
occasions a rise in the wages of labour. It is not, accordingly, in the richest countries,
but in the most thriving, or in those which are growing rich the fastest, that the wages
of labour are highest. England is certainly, in the present times, a much richer country
than any part of North America. The wages of labour, however, are much higher in
North America than in any part of England.12 In the province of New York, common
labourers earn* three shillings and sixpence currency, equal to two shillings sterling, a
day; ship carpenters, ten shillings and sixpence currency, with a pint of rum worth
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sixpence sterling, equal in all to six shillings and sixpence sterling; house carpenters
and bricklayers, eight shillings currency, equal to four shillings and sixpence sterling;
journeymen taylors, five shillings currency, equal to about two shillings and ten pence
sterling. These prices are all above the London price; and wages are said to be as high
in the other colonies as in New York. The price of provisions is every where in North
America much lower than in England. A dearth has never been known there. In the
worst seasons, they have always had a sufficiency for themselves, though less for
exportation. If the money price of labour, therefore, be higher than it is any where in
the mother country, its real price, the real command of the necessaries and
conveniencies of life which it conveys to the labourer, must be higher in a still greater
proportion.
23But though North America is not yet so rich as England, it is much more thriving,
and advancing with much greater rapidity to the further acquisition of riches.13 The
most decisive mark of the prosperity of any country is the increase of the number of
its inhabitants. In Great Britain, and most other European countries, they are not
supposed to double in less than five hundred years.14 In the British colonies in North
America, it has been found, that they double in twenty or five–and–twenty years.15
Nor in the present times is this increase principally owing to the continual importation
of new inhabitants, but to the great multiplication of the species. Those who live to
old age, it is said, frequently see there from fifty to a hundred, and sometimes many
more, descendants from their own body. Labour is there so well rewarded that a
numerous family of children, instead of being a burthen is a source of opulence and
prosperity to the parents. The labour of each child, before it can leave their house, is
computed to be worth a hundred pounds clear gain to them. A young widow with four
or five young children, who, among the middling or inferior ranks of people in
Europe, would have so little chance for a second husband, is there frequently courted
as a sort of fortune. The value of children is the greatest of all encouragements to
marriage. We cannot, therefore, wonder that the people in North America should
generally marry very young. Notwithstanding the great increase occasioned by such
early marriages, there is a continual complaint of the scarcity of hands in North
America.16 The demand for labourers, the funds destined for maintaining them,
increase, it seems, still faster than they can find labourers to employ.17
24Though the wealth of a country should be very great, yet if it has been long
stationary, we must not expect to find the wages of labour very high in it. The funds
destined for the payment of wages, the revenue and stock of its inhabitants, may be of
the greatest extent, but if they have continued for several centuries of the same, or
very nearly of the same extent, the number of labourers employed every year could
easily supply, and even more than supply, the number wanted the following year.
There could seldom be any scarcity of hands, nor could the masters be obliged to bid
against one another in order to get them. The hands, on the contrary, would, in this
case, naturally multiply beyond their employment. There would be a constant scarcity
of employment, and the labourers would be obliged to bid against one another in
order to get it. If in such a country the wages of labour had ever been more than
sufficient to maintain the labourer, and to enable him to bring up a family, the
competition of the labourers and the interest of the masters would soon reduce them to
this lowest rate which is consistent with common humanity. China has been long one
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of the richest, that is, one of the most fertile, best cultivated, most industrious, and
most populous countries in the world. It seems, however, to have been long
stationary. Marco Polo, who visited it more than five hundred years ago,18 describes
its cultivation, industry, and populousness, almost in the same terms in which they are
described by travellers in the present times. It had perhaps, even long before his time,
acquired that full complement of riches which the nature of its laws and institutions
permits it to acquire.19 The accounts of all travellers, inconsistent in many other
respects, agree in the low wages of labour, and in the difficulty which a labourer finds
in bringing up a family in China. If by digging the ground a whole day he can get
what will purchase a small quantity of rice in the evening, he is contented. The
condition of artificers is, if possible, still worse. Instead of waiting indolently in their
work–houses, for the calls of their customers, as in Europe, they are continually
running about the streets with the tools of their respective trades, offering their
service, and as it were begging employment.20 The poverty of the lower ranks of
people in China far surpasses that of the most beggarly nations in Europe. In the
neighbourhood of Canton many hundred, it is commonly said, many thousand
families have no habitation on the land, but live constantly in little fishing boats upon
the rivers and canals. The subsistence which they find there is so scanty that they are
eager to fish up the nastiest garbage thrown overboard from any European ship. Any
carrion, the carcase of a dead dog or cat, for example, though half putrid and stinking,
is as welcome to them as the most wholesome food to the people of other countries.
Marriage is encouraged in China, not by the profitableness of children, but by the
liberty of destroying them. In all great towns several are every night exposed in the
street, or drowned like puppies in the water. The performance of this horrid office is
even said to be the avowed business by which some people earn their subsistence.21
25China, however, though it may perhaps stand still, does not seem to go backwards.
Its towns are no–where deserted by their inhabitants. The lands which had once been
cultivated are no–where neglected. The same or very nearly the same annual labour
must therefore continue to be performed, and the funds destined for maintaining it
must not, consequently, be sensibly diminished. The lowest class of labourers,
therefore, notwithstanding their scanty subsistence, must some way or another make
shift to continue their race so far as to keep up their usual numbers.
26But it would be otherwise in a country where the funds destined for the
maintenance of labour were sensibly decaying. Every year the demand for servants
and labourers would, in all the different classes of employments, be less than it had
been the year before. Many who had been bred in the superior classes, not being able
to find employment in their own business, would be glad to seek it in the lowest. The
lowest class being not only overstocked with its own workmen, but with the
overflowings of all the other classes, the competition for employment would be so
great in it, as to reduce the wages of labour to the most miserable and scanty
subsistence of the labourer. Many would not be able to find employment even upon
these hard terms, but would either starve, or be driven to seek a subsistence either by
begging, or by the perpetration perhaps of the greatest enormities. Want, famine, and
mortality would immediately prevail in that class, and from thence extend themselves
to all the superior classes, till the number of inhabitants in the country was reduced to
what could easily be maintained by the revenue and stock which remained in it, and
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which had escaped either the tyranny or calamity which had destroyed the rest. This
perhaps is nearly the present state of Bengal, and of some other of the English
settlements in the East Indies.22 In a fertile country which had before been much
depopulated, where subsistence, consequently, should not be very difficult, and
where, notwithstanding, three or four hundred thousand people die of hunger in one
year, we may be assured that the funds destined for the maintenance of the labouring
poor are fast decaying. The difference between the genius of the British constitution
which protects and governs North America, and that of the mercantile company which
oppresses and domineers in the East Indies, cannot perhaps be better illustrated than
by the different state of those countries.23
27The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the necessary effect, so it is the
natural symptom of increasing national wealth. The scanty maintenance of the
labouring poor, on the other hand, is the natural symptom that things are at a stand,
and their starving condition that they are going fast backwards.
28In Great Britain the wages of labour seem, in the present times, to be evidently
more than what is precisely necessary to enable the labourer to bring up a family. In
order to satisfy ourselves upon this point it will not be necessary to enter into any
tedious or doubtful calculation of what may be the lowest sum upon which it is
possible to do this. There are many plain symptoms that the wages of labour are
no–where in this country regulated by this lowest rate which is consistent with
common humanity.
29First, in almost every part of Great Britain there is a distinction, even in the lowest
species of labour, between summer and winter wages. Summer wages are always
highest. But on account of the extraordinary expense of fewel, the maintenance of a
family is most expensive in winter. Wages, therefore, being highest when this
expence is lowest, it seems evident that they are not regulated by what is necessary for
this expence; but by the quantity and supposed value of the work. A labourer, it may
be said indeed, ought to save part of his summer wages in order to defray his winter
expence; and that through the whole year they do not exceed what is necessary to
maintain his family through the whole year. A slave, however, or one absolutely
dependent on us for immediate subsistence, would not be treated in this manner. His
daily subsistence would be proportioned to his daily necessities.
30Secondly, the wages of labour do not in Great Britain fluctuate with the price of
provisions. These vary every–where from year to year, frequently from month to
month. But in many places the money price of labour remains uniformly the same
sometimes for half a century together. If in these places, therefore, the labouring poor
can maintain their families in dear years, they must be at their ease in times of
moderate plenty, and in affluence in those of extraordinary cheapness. The high price
of provisions during these ten years past has not in many parts of the kingdom been
accompanied with any sensible rise in the money price of labour. It has, indeed, in
some; owing probably more to the increase of the demand for labour, than to that of
the price of provisions.
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31Thirdly, as the price of provisions varies more from year to year than the wages of
labour, so, on the other hand, the wages of labour vary more from place to place than
the price of provisions. The prices of bread and butcher’s meat are generally the same
or very nearly the same through the greater part of the united kingdom. These and
most other things which are sold by retail, the way in which the labouring poor buy all
things, are generally fully as cheap or cheaper in great towns than in the remoter parts
of the country, for reasons which I shall have occasion to explain hereafter.24 But the
wages of labour in a great town and its neighbourhood are frequently a fourth or a
fifth part, twenty or five–and–twenty per cent. higher than at a few miles distance.
Eighteen pence a day may be reckoned the common price of labour in London and its
neighbourhood. At a few miles distance it falls to fourteen and fifteen pence. Ten
pence may may be reckoned its price in Edinburgh and its neighbourhood.25 At a few
miles distance it falls to eight pence, the usual price of common labour through the
greater part of the low country of Scotland, where it varies a good deal less than in
England.26 Such a difference of prices, which it seems is not always sufficient to
transport a man from one parish to another, would necessarily occasion so great a
transportation of the most bulky commodities, not only from one parish to another,
but from one end of the kingdom, almost from one end of the world to the other, as
would soon reduce them more nearly to a level. After all that has been said of the
levity and inconstancy of human nature, it appears evidently from experience that a
man is of all sorts of luggage the most difficult to be transported. If the labouring
poor, therefore, can maintain their families in those parts of the kingdom where the
price of labour is lowest, they must be in affluence where it is highest.
32Fourthly, the variations in the price of labour not only do not correspond either in
place or time with those in the price of provisions, but they are frequently quite
opposite.
33Grain, the food of the common people, is dearer in Scotland than in England,
whence Scotland receives almost every year very large supplies. But English corn
must be sold dearer in Scotland, the country to which it is brought, than in England,
the country from which it comes; and in proportion to its quality it cannot be sold
dearer in Scotland than the Scotch corn that comes to the same market in competition
with it.27 The quality of grain depends chiefly upon the quantity of flour or meal
which it yields at the mill, and in this respect English grain is so much superior to the
Scotch, that, though often dearer in appearance, or in proportion to the measure of its
bulk, it is generally cheaper in reality, or in proportion to its quality, or even to the
measure of its weight. The price of labour, on the contrary, is dearer in England than
in Scotland. If the labouring poor, therefore, can maintain their families in the one
part of the united kingdom, they must be in affluence in the other. Oatmeal indeed
supplies the common people in Scotland with the greatest and the best part of their
food, which is in general much inferior to that of their neighbours of the same rank in
England.28 This difference, however, in the mode of their subsistence is not the
cause, but the effect of the difference in their wages; though, by a strange
misapprehension, I have frequently heard it represented as the cause. It is not because
one man keeps a coach while his neighbour walks a–foot, that the one is rich and the
other poor; but because the one is rich he keeps a coach, and because the other is poor
he walks a–foot.
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34During the course of the last century, taking one year with another, grain was
dearer in both parts of the united kingdom than during that of the present. This is a
matter of fact which cannot now admit of any reasonable doubt; and the proof of it is,
if possible, still more decisive with regard to Scotland than with regard to England. It
is in Scotland supported by the evidence of the publick fiars,29 annual valuations
made upon oath, according to the actual state of the markets, of all the different sorts
of grain in every different county of Scotland. If such direct proof could require any
collateral evidence to confirm it, I would observe that this has likewise been the case
in France, and probably in most other parts of Europe. With regard to France there is
the clearest proof.30 But though it is certain that in both parts of the united kingdom
grain was somewhat dearer in the last century than in the present, it is equally certain
that labour was much cheaper. If the labouring poor, therefore, could bring up their
families then, they must be much more at their ease now. In the last century, the most
usual day–wages of common labour through the greater part of Scotland were
sixpence in summer and five–pence in winter. Three shillings a week, the same price
very nearly, still continues to be paid in some parts of the Highlands and Western
Islands. Through the greater part of the low country the most usual wages of common
labour are now eight–pence a day; ten–pence, sometimes a shilling about Edinburgh,
in the counties which border upon England, probably on account of that
neighbourhood, and in a few other places where there has lately been a considerable
rise in the demand for labour, about Glasgow, Carron, Ayrshire, &c. In England the
improvements of agriculture, manufactures and commerce began much earlier than in
Scotland. The demand for labour, and consequently its price, must necessarily have
increased with those improvements. In the last century, accordingly, as well as in the
present, the wages of labour were higher in England than in Scotland. They have risen
too considerably since that time, though, on account of the greater variety of wages
paid there in different places, it is more difficult to ascertain how much. In 1614, the
pay of a foot soldier was the same as in the present times, eight pence a day. When it
was first established it would naturally be regulated by the usual wages of common
labourers, the rank of people from which foot soldiers are commonly drawn.31 Lord
Chief Justice Hales, who wrote in the time of Charles II. computes the necessary
expence of a labourer’s family, consisting of six persons, the father and mother, two
children able to do something, and two not able, at ten shillings a week, or twenty–six
pounds a year. If they cannot earn this by their labour, they must make it up, he
supposes, either by begging or stealing.32 He appears to have enquired very carefully
into this subject* . In 1688, Mr. Gregory King, whose skill in political arithmetick is
so much extolled by Doctor Davenant,33 computed the ordinary income of labourers
and out–servants to be fifteen pounds a year to a family, which he supposed to
consist, one with another, of three and a half persons. His calculation, therefore,
though different in appearance, corresponds very nearly at bottom with that of judge
Hales. Both suppose the weekly expence of such families to be about twenty pence a
head. Both the pecuniary income and expence of such families have increased
considerably since that time through the greater part of the kingdom; in some places
more, and in some less; though perhaps scarce any where so much as some
exaggerated accounts of the present wages of labour have lately represented them to
the publick. The price of labour, it must be observed, cannot be ascertained very
accurately any where, different prices being often paid at the same place and for the
same sort of labour, not only according to the different abilities of the workmen, but
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according to the easiness or hardness of the masters. Where wages are not regulated
by law, all that we can pretend to determine is what are the most usual; and
experience seems to show that law can never regulate them properly, though it has
often pretended to do so.
35The real recompence of labour, the real quantity of the necessaries and
conveniencies of life which it can procure to the labourer, has, during the course of
the present century, increased perhaps in a still greater proportion than its money
price. Not only grain has become somewhat cheaper, but many other things from
which the industrious poor derive an agreeable and wholesome variety of food, have
become a great deal cheaper. Potatoes, for example, do not at present, through the
greater part of the kingdom, cost half the price which they used to do thirty or forty
years ago. The same thing may be said of turnips, carrots, cabbages; things which
were formerly never raised but by the spade, but which are now commonly raised by
the plough.34 All sort of garden stuff too has become cheaper. The greater part of the
apples and even of the onions consumed in Great Britain were in the last century
imported from Flanders. The great improvements in the coarser manufactures of both
linen and woollen cloth furnish the labourers with cheaper and better cloathing; and
those in the manufactures of the coarser metals, with cheaper and better instruments
of trade, as well as with many agreeable and convenient pieces of houshold furniture.
Soap, salt, candles, leather, and fermented liquors have, indeed, become a good deal
dearer; chiefly from the taxes which have been laid upon them. The quantity of these,
however, which the labouring poor are under any necessity of consuming, is so very
small, that the increase in their price does not compensate the diminution in that of so
many other things.35 The common complaint that luxury extends itself even to the
lowest ranks of the people, and that the labouring poor will not now be contented with
the same food, cloathing and lodging which satisfied them in former times, may
convince us that it is not the money price of labour only, but its real recompence,
which has augumented.
36Is this improvement in the circumstances of the lower ranks of the people to be
regarded as an advantage or as an inconveniency to the society? The answer seems at
first sight abundantly plain. Servants, labourers and workmen of different kinds, make
up the far greater part of every great political society. But what improves the
circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the
whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of
the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed,
cloath and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the
produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, cloathed and
lodged.
37Poverty, though it no doubt discourages, does not always prevent marriage. It
seems even to be favourable to generation.36 A half–starved Highland woman
frequently bears more than twenty children, while a pampered fine lady is often
incapable of bearing any, and is generally exhausted by two or three. Barrenness, so
frequent among women of fashion, is very rare among those of inferior station.
Luxury in the fair sex, while it enflames perhaps the passion for enjoyment, seems
always to weaken, and frequently to destroy altogether, the powers of generation.
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38But poverty, though it does not prevent the generation, is extremely unfavourable to
the rearing of children. The tender plant is produced, but in so cold a soil and so
severe a climate, soon withers and dies. It is not uncommon, I have been frequently
told, in the Highlands of Scotland for a mother who has borne twenty children not to
have two alive. Several officers of great experience have assured me, that so far from
recruiting their regiment, they have never been able to supply it with drums and fifes
from all the soldiers children that were born in it. A greater number of fine children,
however, is seldom seen anywhere than about a barrack of soldiers. Very few of them,
it seems, arrive at the age of thirteen or fourteen. In some places one half the children
born die before they are four years of age; in many places before they are seven; and
in almost all places before they are nine or ten.37 This great mortality, however, will
every where be found chiefly among the children of the common people, who cannot
afford to tend them with the same care as those of better station. Though their
marriages are generally more fruitful than those of people of fashion, a smaller
proportion of their children arrive at maturity. In foundling hospitals, and among the
children brought up by parish charities, the mortality is still greater than among those
of the common people.
39Every species of animals naturally multiplies in proportion to the means of their
subsistence, and no species can ever multiply beyond it.38 But in civilized society it is
only among the inferior ranks of people that the scantiness of subsistence can set
limits to the further multiplication of the human species; and it can do so in no other
way than by destroying a great part of the children which their fruitful marriages
produce.
40The liberal reward of labour, by enabling them to provide better for their children,
and consequently to bring up a greater number, naturally tends to widen and extend
those limits. It deserves to be remarked too, that it necessarily does this as nearly as
possible in the proportion which the demand for labour requires. If this demand is
continually increasing, the reward of labour must necessarily encourage in such a
manner the marriage and multiplication of labourers, as may enable them to supply
that continually increasing demand by a continually increasing population. If kthe
rewardk should at any time be less than what was requisite for this purpose, the
deficiency of hands would soon raise it; and if it should at any time be more, their
excessive multiplication would soon lower it to this necessary rate. The market would
be so much under–stocked with labour in the one case, and so much over–stocked in
the other, as would soon force back its price to that proper rate which the
circumstances of the society required. It is in this manner that the demand for men,
like that for any other commodity, necessarily regulates the production of men;
quickens it when it goes on too slowly, and stops it when it advances too fast. It is this
demand which regulates and determines the state of propagation in all the different
countries of the world, in North America, in Europe, and in China; which renders it
rapidly progressive in the first, slow and gradual in the second, and altogether
stationary in the last.
41The lwear and tearl of a slave, it has been said, is at the expence of his master; but
that of a free servant is at his own expence. The mwear and tearm of the latter,
however, is, in reality, as much at the expence of his master as that of the former. The
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wages paid to journeymen and servants of every kind must be such as may enable
them, one with another, to continue the race of journeymen and servants, according as
the increasing, diminishing, or stationary demand of the society may happen to
require. But though the nwear and tearn of a free servant be equally at the expence of
his master, it generally costs him much less than that of a slave. The fund destined for
replacing or repairing, if I may say so, the owear and tearo of the slave, is commonly
managed by a negligent master or careless overseer. That destined for performing the
same office with regard to the free man, is managed by the free man himself. The
disorders which generally prevail in the œconomy of the rich, naturally introduce
themselves into the management of the former: The strict frugality and parsimonious
attention of the poor as naturally establish themselves in that of the latter. Under such
different management, the same purpose must require very different degrees of
expence to execute it. It appears, accordingly, from the experience of all ages and
nations, I believe, that the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than that
performed by slaves.39 It is found to do so even at Boston, New York, and
Philadelphia, where the wages of common labour are so very high.
42The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the effect of increasing wealth, so it
is the cause of increasing population. To complain of it is to lament over the necessary
effect and cause of the greatest publick prosperity.
43It deserves to be remarked, perhaps, that it is in the progressive state, while the
society is advancing to the further acquisition, rather than when it has acquired its full
complement of riches, that the condition of the labouring poor, of the great body of
the people, seems to be the happiest and the most comfortable. It is hard in the
stationary, and miserable in the declining state. The progressive state is in reality the
chearful and the hearty state to all the different orders of the society. The stationary is
dull; the declining, melancholy.
44 The liberal reward of labour, as it encourages the propagation, so it increases the
industry of the common people. The wages of labour are the encouragement of
industry, which, like every other human quality, improves in proportion to the
encouragement it receives. A plentiful subsistence increases the bodily strength of the
labourer, and the comfortable hope of bettering his condition,40 and of ending his
days perhaps in ease and plenty, animates him to exert that strength to the utmost.
Where wages are high, accordingly, we shall always find the workmen more active,
diligent, and expeditious, than where they are low; in England, for example, than in
Scotland; in the neighbourhood of great towns, than in remote country places. Some
workmen, indeed, when they can earn in four days what will maintain them through
the week, will be idle the other three.41 This, however, is by no means the case with
the greater part.42 Workmen, on the contrary, when they are liberally paid by the
piece, are very apt to over–work themselves, and to ruin their health and constitution
in a few years. A carpenter in London, and in some other places, is not supposed to
last in his utmost vigour above eight years. Something of the same kind happens in
many other trades, in which the workmen are paid by the piece; as they generally are
in manufactures, and even in country labour, wherever wages are higher than
ordinary. Almost every class of artificers is subject to some peculiar infirmity
occasioned by excessive application to their peculiar species of work. Ramuzzini, an
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eminent Italian physician, has written a particular book concerning such diseases.43
We do not reckon our soldiers the most industrious set of people among us. Yet when
soldiers have been employed in some particular sorts of work, and liberally paid by
the piece, their officers have frequently been obliged to stipulate with the undertaker,
that they should not be allowed to earn above a certain sum every day, according to
the rate at which they were paid.44 Till this stipulation was made, mutual emulation
and the desire of greater gain, frequently prompted them to over–work themselves,
and to hurt their health by excessive labour. Excessive application during four days of
the week, is frequently the real cause of the idleness of the other three, so much and
so loudly complained of. Great labour, either of mind or body, continued for several
days together, is in most men naturally followed by a great desire of relaxation,
which, if not restrained by force or by some strong necessity, is almost irresistible. It
is the call of nature, which requires to be relieved by some indulgence, sometimes of
ease only, but sometimes too of dissipation and diversion. If it is not complied with,
the consequences are often dangerous, and sometimes fatal, and such as almost
always, sooner or later, bring on the peculiar infirmity of the trade. If masters would
always listen to the dictates of reason and humanity, they have frequently occasion
rather to moderate, than to animate the application of many of their workmen. It will
be found, I believe, in every sort of trade, that the man who works so moderately, as
to be able to work constantly, not only preserves his health the longest, but, in the
course of the year, executes the greatest quantity of work.
45In cheap years, it is pretended, workmen are generally more idle, and in dear ones
more industrious than ordinary. A plentiful subsistence, therefore, it has been
concluded, relaxes, and a scanty one quickens their industry. That a little more plenty
than ordinary may render some workmen idle, cannot well be doubted; but that it
should have this effect upon the greater part, or that men in general should work better
when they are ill fed than when they are well fed, when they are disheartened than
when they are in good spirits, when they are frequently sick than when they are
generally in good health, seems not very probable. Years of dearth, it is to be
observed, are generally among the common people years of sickness and mortality,
which cannot fail to diminish the produce of their industry.
46In years of plenty, servants frequently leave their masters, and trust their
subsistence to what they can make by their own industry. But the same cheapness of
provisions, by increasing the fund which is destined for the maintenance of servants,
encourages masters, farmers especially, to employ a greater number. Farmers upon
such occasions expect more profit from their corn by maintaining a few more
labouring servants, than by selling it at a low price in the market. The demand for
servants increases, while the number of those who offer to supply that demand
diminishes. The price of labour, therefore, frequently rises in cheap years.45
47In years of scarcity, the difficulty and uncertainty of subsistence make all such
people eager to return to service. But the high price of provisions, by diminishing the
funds destined for the maintenance of servants, disposes masters rather to diminish
than to increase the number of those they have. In dear years too, poor independent
workmen frequently consume the little stocks with which they had used to supply
themselves with the materials of their work, and are obliged to become journeymen
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for subsistence. More people want employment than can easily get it; many are
willing to take it upon lower terms than ordinary, and the wages of both servants and
journeymen frequently sink in dear years.
48Masters of all sorts, therefore, frequently make better bargains with their servants in
dear than in cheap years, and find them more humble and dependent in the former
than in the latter. They naturally, therefore, commend the former as more favourable
to industry. Landlords and farmers, besides, two of the largest classes of masters, have
another reason for being pleased with dear years. The rents of the one and the profits
of the other depend very much upon the price of provisions. Nothing can be more
absurd, however, than to imagine that men in general should work less when they
work for themselves, than when they work for other people. A poor independent
workman will generally be more industrious than even a journeyman who works by
the piece. The one enjoys the whole produce of his own industry; the other shares it
with his master. The one, in his separate independent state, is less liable to the
temptations of bad company, which in large manufactories so frequently ruin the
morals of the other.46 The superiority of the independent workman over those
servants who are hired by the month or by the year, and whose wages and
maintenance are the same whether they do much or do little, is likely to be still
greater. Cheap years tend to increase the proportion of independent workmen to
journeymen and servants of all kinds, and dear years to diminish it.
49A French author of great knowledge and ingenuity, Mr. Messance, receiver of the
p
taillesp in the election of St. Etienne, endeavours to show that the poor do more work
in cheap than in dear years, by comparing the quantity and value of the goods made
upon those different occasions in three different manufactures; one of coarse woollens
carried on at Elbeuf; one of linen, and another of silk, both which extend through the
whole generality of Rouen.47 It appears from his account, which is copied from the
registers of the publick offices, that the quantity and value of the goods made in all
those three manufactures has generally been greater in cheap than in dear years; and
that it has always been greatest in the cheapest, and least in the dearest years. All the
three seem to be stationary manufactures, or which, though their produce may vary
somewhat from year to year, are upon the whole neither going backwards nor
forwards.
50The manufacture of linen in Scotland, and that of coarse woollens in the west riding
of Yorkshire, are growing manufactures, of which the produce is generally, though
with some variations, increasing both in quantity and value. Upon examining,
however, the accounts which have been published of their annual produce, I have not
been able to observe that its variations have had any sensible connection with the
dearness or cheapness of the seasons. In 1740, a year of great scarcity, both
manufactures, indeed, appear to have declined very considerably.48 But in 1756,
another year of great scarcity, the Scotch manufacture made more than ordinary
advances.49 The Yorkshire manufacture, indeed, declined, and its produce did not
rise to what it had been in 1755 till 1766, after the repeal of the American stamp
act.50 In that and the following year it greatly exceeded what it had ever been before,
and it has continued to qadvanceq ever since.
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51The produce of all great manufactures for distant sale must necessarily depend, not
so much upon the dearness or cheapness of the seasons in the countries where they are
carried on, as upon the circumstances which affect the demand in the countries where
they are consumed; upon peace or war, upon the prosperity or declension of other
rival manufactures, and upon the good or bad humour of their principal customers. A
great part of the extraordinary work, besides, which is probably done in cheap years,
never enters the publick registers of manufactures. The men servants who leave their
masters become independent labourers. The women return to their parents, and
commonly spin in order to make cloaths for themselves and their families. Even the
independent workmen do not always work for publick sale, but are employed by some
of their neighbours in manufactures for family use. The produce of their labour,
therefore, frequently makes no figure in those publick registers of which the records
are sometimes published with so much parade, and from which our merchants and
manufacturers would often vainly pretend to announce the prosperity or declension of
the greatest empires.
52Though the variations in the price of labour, not only do not always correspond
with those in the price of provisions, but are frequently quite opposite, we must not,
upon this account, imagine that the price of provisions has no influence upon that of
labour.51 The money price of labour is necessarily regulated by two circumstances;
the demand for labour, and the price of the necessaries and conveniencies of life.52
The demand for labour, according as it happens to be increasing, stationary, or
declining, or to require an increasing, stationary, or declining population, determines
the quantity of the necessaries and conveniencies of life which must be given to the
labourer; and the money price of labour is determined by what is requisite for
purchasing this quantity. Though the money price of labour, therefore, is sometimes
high where the price of provisions is low, it would be still higher, the demand
continuing the same, if the price of provisions was high.
53It is because the demand for labour increases in years of sudden and extraordinary
plenty, and diminishes in those of sudden and extraordinary scarcity, that the money
price of labour sometimes rises in the one, and sinks in the other.
54In a year of sudden and extraordinary plenty, there are funds in the hands of many
of the employers of industry, sufficient to maintain and employ a greater number of
industrious people than had been employed the year before; and this extraordinary
number cannot always be had. Those masters, therefore, who want more workmen,
bid against one another, in order to get them, which sometimes raises both the real
and the money price of their labour.
55The contrary of this happens in a year of sudden and extraordinary scarcity. The
funds destined for employing industry are less than they had been the year before. A
considerable number of people are thrown out of employment, who bid ragainst oner
another, in order to get it, which sometimes lowers both the real and the money price
of labour. In 1740, a year of extraordinary scarcity, many people were willing to work
for bare subsistence. In the succeeding years of plenty, it was more difficult to get
labourers and servants.
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56The scarcity of a dear year, by diminishing the demand for labour, tends to lower
its price, as the high price of sprovisionss tends to raise it. The plenty of a cheap year,
on the contrary, by increasing the demand, tends to raise the price of labour, as the
cheapness of provisions tends to lower it. In the ordinary variations of the price of
provisions, those two opposite causes seem to counterbalance one another; which is
probably in part the reason why the wages of labour are every–where so much more
steady and permanent than the price of provisions.
57The increase in the wages of labour necessarily increases the price of many
commodities, by increasing that part of it which resolves itself into wages, and so far
tends to diminish their consumption both at home and abroad. The same cause,
however, which raises the wages of labour, the increase of stock, tends to increase its
productive powers, and to make a smaller quantity of labour produce a greater
quantity of work. The owner of the stock which employs a great number of labourers,
necessarily endeavours, for his own advantage, to make such a proper division and
distribution of employment, that they may be enabled to produce the greatest quantity
of work possible. For the same reason, he endeavours to supply them with the best
machinery which either he or they can think of.53 What takes place among the
labourers in a particular workhouse, takes place, for the same reason, among those of
a great society. The greater their number, the more they naturally divide themselves
into different classes and subdivisions of employment. More heads are occupied in
inventing the most proper machinery for executing the work of each, and it is,
therefore, more likely to be invented. There are many commodities, therefore, which,
in consequence of these improvements, come to be produced by so much less labour
than before, that the increase of its price tis more than compensated byt the diminution
of its quantity.54
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CHAPTER IX
Of The Profits Of Stock
1The rise and fall in the profits of stock depend upon the same causes with the rise
and fall in the wages of labour, the increasing or declining state of the wealth of the
society; but those causes affect the one and the other very differently.
2The increase of stock, which raises wages, tends to lower profit. When the stocks of
many rich merchants are turned into the same trade, their mutual competition
naturally tends to lower its profit; and when there is a like increase of stock in all the
different trades carried on in the same society, the same competition must produce the
same effect in them all.1
3It is not easy, it has already been observed, to ascertain what are the average wages
of labour even in a particular place, and at a particular time.2 We can, even in this
case, seldom determine more than what are the most usual wages. But even this can
seldom be done with regard to the profits of stock. Profit is so very fluctuating, that
the person who carries on a particular trade cannot always tell you himself what is the
average of his annual profit. It is affected, not only by every variation of price in the
commodities which he deals in, but by the good or bad fortune both of his rivals and
of his customers, and by a thousand other accidents to which goods when carried
either by sea or by land, or even when stored in a warehouse, are liable. It varies,
therefore, not only from year to year, but from day to day, and almost from hour to
hour.3 To ascertain what is the average profit of all the different trades carried on in a
great kingdom, must be much more difficult; and to judge of what it may have been
formerly, or in remote periods of time, with any degree of precision, must be
altogether impossible.
4But though it may be impossible to determine, with any degree of precision, what are
or were the average profits of stock, either in the present, or in antient times, some
notion may be formed of them from the interest of money.4 It may be laid down as a
maxim, that wherever a great deal can be made by the use of money, a great deal will
commonly be given for the use of it; and that wherever little can be made by it, less
will commonly be given for it.5 According, therefore, as the usual market rate of
interest varies in any country, we may be assured that the ordinary profits of stock
must vary with it, must sink as it sinks, and rise as it rises. The progress of interest,
therefore, may lead us to form some notion of the progress of profit.6
5By the 37th of Henry VIII. all interest above ten per cent. was declared unlawful.7
More, it seems, had sometimes been taken before that. In the reign of Edward VI.
religious zeal prohibited all interest.8 This prohibition, however, like all others of the
same kind, is said to have produced no effect, and probably rather increased than
diminished the evil of usury.9 The statute of Henry VIII. was revived by the 13th of
Elizabeth, cap. 8.10 and ten per cent. continued to be the legal rate of interest till the
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21st of James I. when it was restricted to eight per cent.11 It was reduced to six per
cent. soon after the restoration,12 and by the 12th of Queen Anne, to five per cent.13
All these different statutory regulations seem to have been made with great propriety.
They seem to have followed and not to have gone before the market rate of interest, or
the rate at which people of good credit usually borrowed.14 Since the time of Queen
Anne, five per cent. seems to have been rather above than below the market rate.
Before the late war, the government borrowed at three per cent.;15 and people of good
credit in the capital, and in many other parts of the kingdom, at three and a half, four,
and four and a half per cent.
6Since the time of Henry VIII. the wealth and revenue of the country have been
continually advancing, and, in the course of their progress, their pace seems rather to
have been gradually accelerated than retarded. They seem, not only to have been
going on, but to have been going on faster and faster. The wages of labour have been
continually increasing during the same period, and in the greater part of the different
branches of trade and manufactures the profits of stock have been diminishing.
7It generally requires a greater stock to carry on any sort of trade in a great town than
in a country village. The great stocks employed in every branch of trade, and the
number of rich competitors, generally reduce the rate of profit in the former below
what it is in the latter. But the wages of labour are generally higher in a great town
than in a country village. In a thriving town the people who have great stocks to
employ, frequently cannot get the number of workmen they want, and therefore bid
against one another in order to get as many as they can, which raises the wages of
labour, and lowers the profits of stock. In the remote parts of the country there is
frequently not stock sufficient to employ all the people, who therefore bid against one
another in order to get employment, which lowers the wages of labour, and raises the
profits of stock.
8 In Scotland, though the legal rate of interest is the same as in England, the market
rate is rather higher. People of the best credit there seldom borrow under five per cent.
Even private bankers in Edinburgh give four per cent. upon their promissory notes, of
which payment either in whole or in part may be demanded at pleasure. Private
bankers in London give no interest for the money which is deposited with them. There
are few trades which cannot be carried on with a smaller stock in Scotland than in
England. The common rate of profit, therefore, must be somewhat greater. The wages
of labour, it has already been observed, are lower in Scotland than in England.16 The
country too is not only much poorer, but the steps by which it advances to a better
condition, for it is evidently advancing, seem to be much slower and more tardy.17
9The legal rate of interest in France has not, during the course of the present century,
been always regulated by the market rate* . In 1720 interest was reduced from the
twentieth to the fiftieth penny, or from five to two per cent. In 1724 it was raised to
the thirtieth penny, or to 3? per cent. In 1725 it was again raised to the twentieth
penny, or to five per cent. In 1766, during the administration of Mr. Laverdy, it was
reduced to the twenty–fifth penny, or to four per cent. The Abbe Terray raised it
afterwards to the old rate of five per cent. The supposed purpose of many of those
violent reductions of interest was to prepare the way for reducing that of the publick
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debts; a purpose which has sometimes been executed. France is perhaps in the present
times not so rich a country as England; and though the legal rate of interest has in
France frequently been lower than in England, the market rate has generally been
higher; for there, as in other countries, they have several very safe and easy methods
of evading the law.18 The profits of trade, I have been assured by British merchants
who had traded in both countries, are higher in France than in England; and it is no
doubt upon this account that many British subjects chuse rather to employ their
capitals in a country where trade is in disgrace, than in one where it is highly
respected. The wages of labour are lower in France than in England. When you go
from Scotland to England, the difference which you may remark between the dress
and countenance of the common people in the one country and in the other,
sufficiently indicates the difference in their condition. The contrast is still greater
when you return from France.19 France, though no doubt a richer country than
Scotland, seems not to be going forward so fast. It is a common and even a popular
opinion in the country that it is going backwards; an opinion which, I apprehend, is ill
founded even with regard to France, but which nobody can possibly entertain with
regard to Scotland, who sees the country now and who saw it twenty or thirty years
ago.
10 The province of Holland, on the other hand, in proportion to the extent of its
territory and the number of its people, is a richer country than England. The
government there borrow at two per cent., and private people of good credit at three.
The wages of labour are said to be higher in Holland than in England, and the Dutch,
it is well known, trade upon lower profits than any people in Europe.20 The trade of
Holland, it has been pretended by some people, is decaying, and it may perhaps be
true that some particular branches of it are so. But these symptoms seem to indicate
sufficiently that there is no general decay. When profit diminishes, merchants are very
apt to complain that trade decays; though the diminution of profit is the natural effect
of its prosperity, or of a greater stock being employed in it than before. During the late
war the Dutch gained the whole carrying trade of France, of which they still retain a
very large share. The great property which they possess both in the French and
English funds,21 about forty millions, it is said, in the latter (in which I suspect,
however, there is a considerable exaggeration);22 the great sums which they lend to
private people in countries where the rate of interest is higher than in their own, are
circumstances which no doubt demonstrate the redundancy of their stock, or that it
has increased beyond what they can employ with tolerable profit in the proper
business of their own country: but they do not demonstrate that that business has
decreased. As the capital of a private man, though acquired by a particular trade, may
increase beyond what he can employ in it, and yet that trade continue to increase too;
so may likewise the capital of a great nation.
11In our North American and West Indian colonies, not only the wages of labour, but
the interest of money, and consequently the profits of stock, are higher than in
England. In the different colonies both the legal and the market rate of interest run
from six to eight per cent. High wages of labour and high profits of stock, however,
are things, perhaps, which scarce ever go together, except in the peculiar
circumstances of new colonies.23 A new colony must always for some time be more
under–stocked in proportion to the extent of its territory, and more under–peopled in
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proportion to the extent of its stock, than the greater part of other countries.24 They
have more land than they have stock to cultivate. What they have, therefore, is applied
to the cultivation only of what is most fertile and most favourably situated, the blandsb
near the sea shore, and along the banks of navigable rivers.25 Such land too is
frequently purchased at a price below the value even of its natural produce.26 Stock
employed in the purchase and improvement of such lands must yield a very large
profit, and consequently afford to pay a very large interest. Its rapid accumulation in
so profitable an employment enables the planter to increase the number of his hands
faster than he can find them in a new settlement. Those whom he can find, therefore,
are very liberally rewarded. As the colony increases, the profits of stock gradually
diminish. When the most fertile and best situated lands have been all occupied, less
profit can be made by the cultivation of what is inferior both in soil and situation, and
less interest can be afforded for the stock which is so employed. In the greater part of
our colonies, accordingly, both the legal and the market rate of interest have been
considerably reduced during the course of the present century. As riches,
improvement, and population have increased, interest has declined. The wages of
labour do not sink with the profits of stock. The demand for labour increases with the
increase of stock whatever be its profits; and after these are diminished, stock may not
only continue to increase, but to increase much faster than before. It is with
industrious nations who are advancing in the acquisition of riches, as with industrious
individuals. A great stock, though with small profits, generally increases faster than a
small stock with great profits. Money, says the proverb, makes money. When you
have got a little, it is often easy to get more. The great difficulty is to get that little.
The connection between the increase of stock and that of industry, or of the demand
for useful labour, has partly been explained already,27 but will be explained more
fully hereafter in treating of the accumulation of stock.28
12The acquisition of new territory, or of new branches of trade, may sometimes raise
the profits of stock,29 and with them the interest of money, even in a country which is
fast advancing in the acquisition of riches. The stock of the country not being
sufficient for the whole accession of business, which such acquisitions present to the
different people among whom it is divided, is applied to those particular branches
only which afford the greatest profit. Part of what had before been employed in other
trades, is necessarily withdrawn from them, and turned into some of the new and more
profitable ones. In all those old trades, therefore, the competition comes to be less
than before. The market comes to be less fully supplied with many different sorts of
goods. Their price necessarily rises more or less, and yields a greater profit to those
who deal in them, who can, therefore, afford to borrow at a higher interest. For some
time after the conclusion of the late war, not only private people of the best credit, but
some of the greatest companies in London, commonly borrowed at five per cent. who
before that had not been used to pay more than four, and four and a half per cent. The
great accession both of territory and trade, by our acquisitions in North America and
the West Indies, will sufficiently account for this, without supposing any diminution
in the capital stock of the society. So great an accession of new business to be carried
on by the old stock, must necessarily have diminished the quantity employed in a
great number of particular branches, in which the competition being less, the profits
must have been greater. I shall hereafter have occasion to mention the reasons which
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dispose me to believe that the capital stock of Great Britain was not diminished even
by the enormous expence of the late war.30
13The diminution of the capital stock of the society, or of the funds destined for the
maintenance of industry, however, as it lowers the wages of labour, so it raises the
profits of stock, and consequently the interest of money. By the wages of labour being
lowered, the owners of what stock remains in the society can bring their goods cat less
expencec to market than before, and less stock being employed in supplying the
market than before, they can sell them dearer. Their goods cost them less, and they get
more for them. Their profits, therefore, being augmented at both ends, can well afford
a large interest. The great fortunes so suddenly and so easily acquired in Bengal and
the other British settlements in the East Indies, may satisfy us that, as the wages of
labour are very low, so the profits of stock are very high in those ruined countries.
The interest of money is proportionably so. In Bengal, money is frequently lent to the
farmers at forty, fifty, and sixty per cent. and the succeeding crop is mortgaged for the
payment. As the profits which can afford such an interest must eat up almost the
whole rent of the landlord, so such enormous usury must in its turn eat up the greater
part of those profits. Before the fall of the Roman republick, a usury of the same kind
seems to have been common in the provinces, under the ruinous administration of
their proconsuls. The virtuous Brutus lent money in Cyprus at deight–and–fortyd per
cent. as we learn from the letters of Cicero.31
14In a country which had acquired that full complement of riches which the nature of
its soil and climate, and its situation with respect to other countries allowed it to
acquire; which could, therefore, advance no further, and which was not going
backwards, both the wages of labour and the profits of stock would probably be very
low. In a country fully peopled in proportion to what either its territory could maintain
or its stock employ, the competition for employment would necessarily be so great as
to reduce the wages of labour to what was barely sufficient to keep up the number of
labourers, and, the country being already fully peopled, that number could never be
augmented. In a country fully stocked in proportion to all the business it had to
transact, as great a quantity of stock would be employed in every particular branch as
the nature and extent of the trade would admit. The competition, therefore, would
everywhere be as great, and consequently the ordinary profit as low as possible.
15But perhaps no country has ever yet arrived at this degree of opulence. China seems
to have been long stationary, and had probably long ago acquired that full
complement of riches which is consistent with the nature of its laws and
institutions.32 But this complement may be much inferior to what, with other laws
and institutions, the nature of its soil, climate, and situation might admit of. A country
which neglects or despises foreign commerce, and which admits the vessels of foreign
nations into one or two of its ports only, cannot transact the same quantity of business
which it might do with different laws and institutions.33 In a country too, where,
though the rich or the owners of large capitals enjoy a good deal of security, the poor
or the owners of small capitals enjoy scarce any, but are liable, under the pretence of
justice, to be pillaged and plundered at any time by the inferior mandarines, the
quantity of stock employed in all the different branches of business transacted within
it, can never be equal to what the nature and extent of that business might admit. In
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every different branch, the oppression of the poor must establish the monopoly of the
rich, who, by engrossing the whole trade to themselves, will be able to make very
large profits. Twelve per cent. accordingly is said to be the common interest of money
in China, and the ordinary profits of stock must be sufficient to afford this large
interest.34
16A defect in the law may sometimes raise the rate of interest considerably above
what the condition of the country, as to wealth or poverty, would require. When the
law does not enforce the performance of contracts,35 it puts all borrowers nearly upon
the same footing with bankrupts or people of doubtful credit in better regulated
countries. The uncertainty of recovering his money makes the lender exact the same
usurious interest which is usually required from bankrupts. Among the barbarous
nations who over–run the western provinces of the Roman empire, the performance of
contracts was left for many ages to the faith of the contracting parties. The courts of
justice of their kings seldom intermeddled in it. The high rate of interest which took
place in those antient times may perhaps be partly accounted for from this cause.
17When the law prohibits interest altogether, it does not prevent it. Many people must
borrow, and nobody will lend without such a consideration for the use of their money
as is suitable, not only to what can be made by the use of it, but to the difficulty and
danger of evading the law. The high rate of interest among all Mahometan nations is
accounted for by Mr. Montesquieu, not from their poverty, but partly from this, and
partly from the difficulty of recovering the money.36
18The lowest ordinary rate of profit must always be something more than what is
sufficient to compensate the occasional losses to which every employment of stock is
exposed.37 It is this surplus only which is neat or clear profit. What is called gross
profit comprehends frequently, not only this surplus, but what is retained for
compensating such extraordinary losses. The interest which the borrower can afford to
pay is in proportion to the clear profit only.
19The lowest ordinary rate of interest must, in the same manner, be something more
than sufficient to compensate the occasional losses to which lending, even with
tolerable prudence, is exposed. Were it not more, charity or friendship could be the
only motives for lending.
20In a country which had acquired its full complement of riches, where in every
particular branch of business there was the greatest quantity of stock that could be
employed in it, as the ordinary rate of clear profit would be very small, so that usual
market rate of interest which could be afforded out of it, would be so low as to render
it impossible for any but the very wealthiest people to live upon the interest of their
money. All people of small or middling fortunes would be obliged to superintend
themselves the employment of their own stocks. It would be necessary that almost
every man should be a man of business, or engage in some sort of trade. The province
of Holland seems to be approaching near to this state. It is there unfashionable not to
be a man of business. Necessity makes it usual for almost every man to be so, and
custom every where regulates fashion. As it is ridiculous not to dress, so is it, in some
measure, not to be employed, like other people. As a man of a civil profession seems
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aukward in a camp or a garrison, and is even in some danger of being despised there,
so does an idle man among men of business.
21The highest ordinary rate of profit may be such as, in the price of the greater part of
commodities, eats up the whole of what should go to the rent of the land, and leaves
only what is sufficient to pay the labour of preparing and bringing them to market,
according to the lowest rate at which labour can any–where be paid, the bare
subsistence of the labourer. The workman must always have been fed in some way or
other while he was about the work; but the landlord may not always have been paid.
The profits of the trade which the servants of the East India Company carry on in
Bengal may not perhaps be very far from this state.38
22The proportion which the usual market rate of interest ought to bear to the ordinary
rate of clear profit, necessarily varies as profit rises or falls. Double interest is in Great
Britain reckoned, what the merchants call, a good, moderate, reasonable profit;39
terms which I apprehend mean no more than a common and usual profit. In a country
where the ordinary rate of clear profit is eight or ten per cent., it may be reasonable
that one half of it should go to interest, wherever business is carried on with borrowed
money. The stock is at the risk of the borrower, who, as it were, insures it to the
lender; and four or five per cent. may, in the greater part of trades, be both a sufficient
profit upon the risk of this insurance, and a sufficient recompence for the trouble of
employing the stock. But the proportion between interest and clear profit might not be
the same in countries where the ordinary rate of profit was either a good deal lower,
or a good deal higher. If it were a good deal lower, one half of it perhaps could not be
afforded for interest; and more might be afforded if it were a good deal higher.
23In countries which are fast advancing to riches, the low rate of profit may, in the
price of many commodities, compensate the high wages of labour, and enable those
countries to sell as cheap as their less thriving neighbours, among whom the wages of
labour may be lower.
24eIn reality high profits tend much more to raise the price of work than high wages.
If in the linen manufacture, for example, the wages of the different working people;
the flax–dressers, the spinners, the weavers, &c. should, all of them, be advanced two
pence a day: it would be necessary to heighten the price of a piece of linen only by a
number of two pences equal to the number of people that had been employed about it,
multiplied by the number of days during which they had been so employed. That part
of the price of the commodity which resolved itself into wages would, through all the
different stages of the manufacture, rise only in arithmetical proportion to this rise of
wages. But if the profits of all the different employers of those working people should
be raised five per cent. that part of the price of the commodity which resolved itself
into profit, would, through all the different stages of the manufacture, rise in
geometrical proportion to this rise of profit. The employer of the flax–dressers would
in selling his flax require an additional five per cent. upon the whole value of the
materials and wages which he advanced to his workmen. The employer of the
spinners would require an additional five per cent. both upon the advanced price of
the flax and upon the wages of the spinners. And the employer of the weavers would
require a like five per cent. both upon the advanced price of the linen yarn and upon
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the wages of the weavers. In raising the price of commodities the rise of wages
operates in the same manner as simple interest does in the accumulation of debt. The
rise of profit operates like compound interest. Our merchants and
master–manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the
price, and thereby lessening the sale of their goods both at home and abroad. They say
nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the
pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.e40
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CHAPTER X
Of Wages And Profit In The Different Employments Of
Labour And Stock
1The whole of the advantages and disadvantages of the different employments of
labour and stock must, in the same neighbourhood, be either perfectly equal or
continually tending to equality. If in the same neighbourhood, there was any
employment aevidently eithera more or less advantageous than the rest, so many
people would crowd into it in the one case, and so many would desert it in the other,
that its advantages would soon return to the level of other employments.1 This at least
would be the case in a society where things were left to follow their natural course,
where there was perfect liberty,2 and where every man was perfectly free both to
chuse what occupation he thought proper, and to change it as often as he thought
proper. Every man’s interest would prompt him to seek the advantageous, and to shun
the disadvantageous employment.
2Pecuniary wages and profit, indeed, are every–where in Europe extremely different
according to the different employments of labour and stock. But this difference arises
partly from certain circumstances in the employments themselves, which, either
really, or at least in the imaginations of men, make up for a small pecuniary gain in
some, and counter–balance a great one in others; and partly from the policy of
Europe, which nowhere leaves things at perfect liberty.
3The particular consideration of those circumstances and of that policy will divide
this chapter into two parts.
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Part I
Inequalities Arising From The Nature Of The Employments
Themselves
1The five following are the principal circumstances which, so far as I have been able
to observe, make up for a small pecuniary gain in some employments, and
counter–balance a great one in others: first, the agreeableness or disagreeableness of
the employments themselves; secondly, the easiness and cheapness, or the difficulty
and expence of learning them; thirdly, the constancy or inconstancy of employment in
them; fourthly, the small or great trust which must be reposed in those who exercise
them; and, fiftly, the probability or improbability of success in them.3
2First, The wages of labour vary with the ease or hardship, the cleanliness or
dirtiness, the honourableness or dishonourableness of the employment. Thus in most
places, take the year round, a journeyman taylor earns less than a journeyman weaver.
His work is much easier. A journeyman weaver earns less than a journeyman smith.
His work is not always easier, but it is much cleanlier. A journeyman blacksmith,
though an artificer, seldom earns so much in twelve hours as a collier, who is only a
labourer, does in eight. His work is not quite so dirty, is less dangerous, and is carried
on in day–light, and above ground. Honour makes a great part of the reward of all
honourable professions. In point of pecuniary gain, all things considered, they are
generally under–recompensed, as I shall endeavour to show by and by.4 Disgrace has
the contrary effect. The trade of a butcher is a brutal and an odious business; but it is
in most places more profitable than the greater part of common trades. The most
detestable of all employments, that of public executioner, is in proportion to the
quantity of work done, better paid than any common trade whatever.
3Hunting and fishing, the most important employments of mankind in the rude state
of society, become in its advanced state their most agreeable amusements, and they
pursue for pleasure what they once followed from necessity.5 In the advanced state of
society, therefore, they are all very poor people who follow as a trade, what other
people pursue as a pastime.6 Fishermen have been so since the time of * Theocritus.
A poacher is everywhere a very poor man in Great Britain. In countries where the
rigour of the law suffers no poachers, the licensed hunter is not in a much better
condition. The natural taste for those employments makes more people follow them
than can live comfortably by them, and the produce of their labour, in proportion to its
quantity, comes always too cheap to market to afford any thing but the most scanty
subsistence to the labourers.
4Disagreeableness and disgrace affect the profits of stock in the same manner as the
wages of labour. The keeper of an inn or tavern, who is never master of his own
house, and who is exposed to the brutality of every drunkard, exercises neither a very
agreeable nor a very creditable business. But there is scarce any common trade in
which a small stock yields so great a profit.
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5Secondly, the wages of labour vary with the easiness and cheapness, or the difficulty
and expence of learning the business.7
6When any expensive machine is erected, the extraordinary work to be performed by
it before it is worn out, it must be expected, will replace the capital laid out upon it,
with at least btheb ordinary profits.8 A man educated at the expence of much labour
and time to any of those employments which require extraordinary dexterity and skill,
may be compared to one of those expensive machines.9 The work which he learns to
perform, it must be expected, over and above the usual wages of common labour, will
replace to him the whole expence of his education, with at least the ordinary profits of
an cequallyc valuable capital. It must do this too in a reasonable time, regard being
had to the very uncertain duration of human life, in the same manner as to the more
certain duration of the machine.10
7The difference between the wages of skilled labour and those of common labour, is
founded upon this principle.
8The policy of Europe considers the labour of all mechanicks, artificers, and
manufacturers, as skilled labour; and that of all country labourers as common labour.
It seems to suppose that of the former to be of a more nice and delicate nature than
that of the latter. It is so perhaps in some cases; but in the greater part it is quite
otherwise, as I shall endeavour to shew by and by.11 The laws and customs of
Europe, therefore, in order to qualify any person for exercising the one species of
labour, impose the necessity of an apprenticeship,12 though with different degrees of
rigour in different places. They leave the other free and open to every body. During
the continuance of the apprenticeship, the whole labour of the apprentice belongs to
his master. In the mean time he must, in many cases, be maintained by his parents or
relations, and in almost all cases must be cloathed by them.13 Some money too is
commonly given to the master for teaching him his trade. They who cannot give
money, give time, or become bound for more than the usual number of years; a
consideration which, though it is not always advantageous to the master, on account
of the usual idleness of apprentices, is always disadvantageous to the apprentice. In
country labour, on the contrary, the labourer, while he is employed about the easier,
learns the more difficult parts of his business, and his own labour maintains him
through all the different stages of his employment. It is reasonable, therefore, that in
Europe the wages of mechanicks, artificers, and manufacturers, should be somewhat
higher than those of common labourers. They are so accordingly, and their superior
gains make them in most places be considered as a superior rank of people. This
superiority, however, is generally very small; the daily or weekly earnings of
journeymen in the more common sorts of manufactures, such as those of plain linen
and woollen cloth, computed at an average, are, in most places, very little more than
the day wages of common labourers. Their employment, indeed, is more steady and
uniform, and the superiority of their earnings, taking the whole year together, may be
somewhat greater. It seems evidently, however, to be no greater than what is
sufficient to compensate the superior expence of their education.
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9Education in the ingenious arts and in the liberal professions, is still more tedious
and expensive. The pecuniary recompence, therefore, of painters and sculptors, of
lawyers and physicians, ought to be much more liberal: and it is so accordingly.
10The profits of stock seem to be very little affected by the easiness or difficulty of
learning the trade in which it is employed. All the different ways in which stock is
commonly employed in great towns seem, in reality, to be almost equally easy and
equally difficult to learn. One branch either of foreign or domestick trade, cannot well
be a much more intricate business than another.
11Thirdly, The wages of labour in different occupations vary with the constancy or
inconstancy of employment.
12Employment is much more constant in some trades than in others. In the greater
part of manufactures, a journeyman may be pretty sure of employment almost every
day in the year that he is able to work. A mason or bricklayer, on the contrary, can
work neither in hard frost nor in foul weather, and his employment at all other times
depends upon the occasional calls of his customers. He is liable, in consequence, to be
frequently without any. What he earns, therefore, while he is employed, must not only
maintain him while he is idle, but make him some compensation for those anxious
and desponding moments which the thought of so precarious a situation must
sometimes occasion. Where the computed earnings of the greater part of
manufacturers, accordingly, are nearly upon a level with the day wages of common
labourers, those of masons and bricklayers are generally from one–half more to
double those wages. Where common labourers earn four and five shillings a week,
masons and bricklayers frequently earn seven and eight; where the former earn six,
the latter often earn nine and ten; and where the former earn nine and ten, as in
London, the latter commonly earn fifteen and eighteen. No species of skilled labour,
however, seems more easy to learn than that of masons and bricklayers. Chairmen in
London, during the summer season, are said sometimes to be employed as
bricklayers. The high wages of those workmen, therefore, are not so much the
recompence of their skill, as the compensation for the inconstancy of their
employment.
13A house carpenter seems to exercise rather a nicer and d more ingenious trade than
a mason. In most places, however, for it is not universally so, his day–wages are
somewhat lower. His employment, though it depends much, does not depend so
entirely upon the occasional calls of his customers; and it is not liable to be
interrupted by the weather.
14When the trades which generally afford constant employment, happen in a
particular place not to do so, the wages of the workmen always rise a good deal above
their ordinary proportion to those of common labour. In London almost all
journeymen artificers are liable to be called upon and dismissed by their masters from
day to day, and from week to week, in the same manner as day–labourers in other
places. The lowest order of artificers, journeymen taylors, accordingly, earn there half
a crown a–day,14 though eighteen–pence may be reckoned the wages of common
labour. In small towns and country–villages, the wages of journeymen taylors
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frequently scarce equal those of common labour; but in London they are often many
weeks without employment, particularly during the summer.
15 When the inconstancy of employment is combined with the hardship,
disagreeableness and dirtiness of the work, it sometimes raises the wages of the most
common labour above those of the most skilful artificers. A collier working by the
piece is supposed, at Newcastle, to earn commonly about double, and in many parts of
Scotland about three times the wages of common labour.15 His high wages arise
altogether from the hardship, disagreeableness, and dirtiness of his work. His
employment may, upon most occasions, be as constant as he pleases. The
coal–heavers in London exercise a trade which in hardship, dirtiness, and
disagreeableness, almost equals that of colliers; and from the unavoidable irregularity
in the arrivals of coal–ships, the employment of the greater part of them is necessarily
very inconstant. If colliers, therefore, commonly earn double and triple the wages of
common labour, it ought not to seem unreasonable that coal–heavers should
sometimes earn four and five times those wages. In the enquiry made into their
condition a few years ago, it was found that at the rate at which they were then paid,
they could earn from six to ten shillings a day. Six shillings are about four times the
wages of common labour in London, and in every particular trade, the lowest
common earnings may always be considered as those of the far greater number. How
extravagant soever those earnings may appear, if they were more than sufficient to
compensate all the disagreeable circumstances of the business, there would soon be so
great a number of competitors as, in a trade which has no exclusive privilege, would
quickly reduce them to a lower rate.
16The constancy or inconstancy of employment cannot eaffecte the ordinary profits of
stock in any particular trade. Whether the stock is or is not constantly employed
depends, not upon the trade, but the trader.
17Fourthly, The wages of labour vary according to the small or great trust which must
be reposed in the workmen.16
18The wages of goldsmiths and jewellers are every–where superior to those of many
other workmen, not only of equal, but of much superior ingenuity; on account of the
precious materials with which they are intrusted.
19We trust our health to the physician; our fortune and sometimes our life and
reputation to the lawyer and attorney. Such confidence could not safely be reposed in
people of a very mean or low condition. Their reward must be such, therefore, as may
give them that rank in the society which so important a trust requires. The long time
and the great expence which must be laid out in their education, when combined with
this circumstance, necessarily enhance still further the price of their labour.17
20When a person employs only his own stock in trade, there is no trust; and the credit
which he may get from other people, depends, not upon the nature of his trade, but
upon their opinion of his fortune, probity, and prudence. The different rates of profit,
therefore, in the different branches of trade, cannot arise from the different degrees of
trust reposed in the traders.
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21Fifthly, the wages of labour in different employments vary according to the
probability or improbability of success in them.
22The probability that any particular person shall ever be qualified for the
employment to which he is educated, is very different in different occupations. In the
greater part of mechanick trades, success is almost certain; but very uncertain in the
liberal professions. Put your son apprentice to a shoemaker, there is little doubt of his
learning to make a pair of shoes: But send him to study the law, it is at least twenty to
one if ever he makes such proficiency as will enable him to live by the business. In a
perfectly fair lottery, those who draw the prizes ought to gain all that is lost by those
who draw the blanks. In a profession where twenty fail for one that succeeds, that one
ought to gain all that should have been gained by the unsuccessful twenty.18 The
counsellor at law who, perhaps, at near forty years of age, begins to make something
by his profession, ought to receive the retribution, not only of his own so tedious and
expensive education, but of that of more than twenty others who are never likely to
make any thing by it. How extravagant soever the fees of counsellors at law may
sometimes appear, their real retribution is never equal to this. Compute in any
particular place, what is likely to be annually gained, and what is likely to be annually
spent, by all the different workmen in any common trade, such as that of shoemakers
or weavers, and you will find that the former sum will generally exceed the latter. But
make the same computation with regard to all the counsellors and students of law, in
all the different inns of court, and you will find that their annual gains bear but a very
small proportion to their annual expence, even though you rate the former as high, and
the latter as low, as can well be done. The lottery of the law, therefore, is very far
from being a perfectly fair lottery; and that, as well as many other liberal and
honourable professions, faref , in point of pecuniary gain, evidently
under–recompenced.
23Those professions keep their level, however, with other occupations, and,
notwithstanding these discouragements, all the most generous and liberal spirits are
eager to crowd into them. Two different causes contribute to recommend them. First,
the desire of the reputation which attends upon superior excellence in any of them;
and, secondly, the natural confidence which every man has more or less, not only in
his own abilities, but in his own good fortune.
24To excel in any profession, in which but few arrive at mediocrity, is the most
decisive mark of what is called genius or superior talents. The publick admiration
which attends upon such distinguished abilities, makes always a part of their reward; a
greater or smaller in proportion as it is higher or lower in degree. It makes a
considerable part of gthat rewardg in the profession of physick; a still greater perhaps
in that of law; in poetry and philosophy it makes almost the whole.19
25There are some very agreeable and beautiful talents of which the possession
commands a certain sort of admiration; but of which the exercise for the sake of gain
is considered, whether from reason or prejudice, as a sort of publick prostitution. The
pecuniary recompence, therefore, of those who exercise them in this manner, must be
sufficient, not only to pay for the time, labour, and expence of acquiring the talents,
but for the discredit which attends the employment of them as the means of
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subsistence.20 The exorbitant rewards of players, opera–singers, opera–dancers, &c.
are founded upon those two principles; the rarity and beauty of the talents, and the
discredit of employing them in this manner.21 It seems absurd at first sight that we
should despise their persons, and yet reward their talents with the most profuse
liberality. While we do the one, however, we must of necessity do the other. Should
the publick opinion or prejudice ever alter with regard to such occupations, their
pecuniary recompence would quickly diminish. More people would apply to them,
and the competition would quickly reduce the price of their labour. Such talents,
though far from being common, are by no means so rare as is imagined. Many people
possess them in great perfection, who disdain to make this use of them; and many
more are capable of acquiring them, if any thing could be made honourably by them.
26The over–weening conceit which the greater part of men have of their own abilities,
is an antient evil remarked by the philosophers and moralists of all ages. Their absurd
presumption in their own good fortune, has been less taken notice of.22 It is, however,
if possible, still more universal. There is no man living who, when in tolerable health
and spirits, has not some share of it. The chance of gain is by every man more or less
over–valued, and the chance of loss is by most men under–valued, and by scarce any
man, who is in tolerable health and spirits, valued more than it is worth.
27That the chance of gain is naturally over–valued, we may learn from the universal
success of lotteries. The world neither ever saw, nor ever will see, a perfectly fair
lottery; or one in which the whole gain compensated the whole loss; because the
undertaker could make nothing by it. In the state lotteries the tickets are really not
worth the price which is paid by the original subscribers, and yet commonly sell in the
market for twenty, thirty, and sometimes forty per cent. advance. The vain hope of
gaining some of the great prizes is the sole cause of this demand. The soberest people
scarce look upon it as a folly to pay a small sum for the chance of gaining ten or
twenty thousand pounds; though they know that even that small sum is perhaps
twenty or thirty per cent. more than the chance is worth. In a lottery in which no prize
exceeded twenty pounds, though in other respects it approached much nearer to a
perfectly fair one than the common state lotteries, there would not be the same
demand for tickets. In order to have a better chance for some of the great prizes, some
people purchase several tickets, and others, small shares in a still greater number.
There is not, however, a more certain proposition in mathematicks, than that the more
tickets you adventure upon, the more likely you are to be a loser. Adventure upon all
the tickets in the lottery, and you lose for certain; and the greater the number of your
tickets the nearer you approach to this certainty.
28That the chance of loss is frequently under–valued, and scarce ever valued more
than it is worth, we may learn from the very moderate profit of insurers.23 In order to
make insurance, either from fire or sea–risk, a trade at all, the common premium must
be sufficient to compensate the common losses, to pay the expence of management,
and to afford such a profit as might have been drawn from an equal capital employed
in any common trade. The person who pays no more than this, evidently pays no more
than the real value of the risk, or the lowest price at which he can reasonably expect to
insure it. But though many people have made a little money by insurance, very few
have made a great fortune; and from this consideration alone, it seems evident
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enough, that the ordinary balance of profit and loss is not more advantageous in this,
than in other common trades by which so many people make fortunes. Moderate,
however, as the premium of insurance commonly is, many people despise the risk too
much to care to pay it. Taking the whole kingdom at an average, nineteen houses in
twenty, or rather perhaps ninety–nine in a hundred, are not insured from fire. Sea risk
is more alarming to the greater part of people, and the proportion of ships insured to
those not insured is much greater. Many sail, however, at all seasons, and even in time
of war, without any insurance. This may sometimes perhaps be done without any
imprudence. When a great company, or even a great merchant, has twenty or thirty
ships at sea, they may, as it were, insure one another. The premium saved upon them
all, may more than compensate such losses as they are likely to meet with in the
common course of chances. The neglect of insurance upon shipping, however, in the
same manner as upon houses, is, in most cases, the effect of no such nice calculation,
but of mere thoughtless rashness and presumptuous contempt of the risk.
29The contempt of risk and the presumptuous hope of success, are in no period of life
more active than at the age at which young people chuse their professions. How little
the fear of misfortune is then capable of balancing the hope of good luck, appears still
more evidently in the readiness of the common people to enlist as soldiers,24 or to go
to sea, than in the eagerness of those of better fashion to enter into what are called the
liberal professions.
30 What a common soldier may lose is obvious enough. Without regarding the
danger, however, young volunteers never enlist so readily as at the beginning of a new
war; and though they have scarce any chance of preferment, they figure to
themselves, in their youthful fancies, a thousand occasions of acquiring honour and
distinction which never occur. These romantick hopes make the whole price of their
blood. Their pay is less than that of common labourers, and in actual service their
fatigues are much greater.25
31The lottery of the sea is not altogether so disadvantageous as that of the army. The
son of a creditable labourer or artificer may frequently go to sea with his father’s
consent; but if he enlists as a soldier, it is always without it. Other people see some
chance of his making something by the one trade: nobody but himself sees any of his
making any thing by the other. The great admiral is less the object of publick
admiration than the great general, and the highest success in the sea service promises
a less brilliant fortune and reputation than equal success in the land. The same
difference runs through all the inferior degrees of preferment in both. By the rules of
precedency a captain in the navy ranks with a colonel in the army: but he does not
rank with him in the common estimation. As the great prizes in the lottery are less, the
smaller ones must be more numerous. Common sailors, therefore, more frequently get
some fortune and preferment than common soldiers; and the hope of those prizes is
what principally recommends the trade. Though their skill and dexterity are much
superior to that of almost any artificers, and though their whole life is one continual
scene of hardship and danger, yet for all this dexterity and skill, for all those hardships
and dangers, while they remain in the condition of common sailors, they receive
scarce any other recompence but the pleasure of exercising the one and of
surmounting the other. Their wages are not greater than those of common labourers at
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the port which regulates the rate of seamens wages. As they are continually going
from port to port, the monthly pay of those who sail from all the different ports of
Great Britain, is more nearly upon a level than that of any other workmen in those
different places; and the rate of the port to and from which the greatest number sail,
that is the port of London, regulates that of all the rest. At London the wages of the
greater part of the different classes of workmen are about double those of the same
classes at Edinburgh.26 But the sailors who sail from the port of London seldom earn
above three or four shillings a month more than those who sail from the port of Leith,
and the difference is frequently not so great. In time of peace, and in the merchant
service, the London price is from a guinea to about seven–and–twenty shillings the
calendar month. A common labourer in London, at the rate of nine or ten shillings a
week, may earn in the calendar month from forty to five–and–forty shillings. The
sailor, indeed, over and above his pay, is supplied with provisions. Their value,
however, may not perhaps always exceed the difference between his pay and that of
the common labourer; and though it sometimes should, the excess will not be clear
gain to the sailor, because he cannot share it with his wife and family, whom he must
maintain out of his wages at home.
32The dangers and hair–breadth escapes of a life of adventures, instead of
disheartening young people, seem frequently to recommend a trade to them. A tender
mother, among the inferior ranks of people, is often afraid to send her son to school at
a sea–port town, lest the sight of the ships and the conversation and adventures of the
sailors should entice him to go to sea. The distant prospect of hazards, from which we
can hope to extricate ourselves by courage and address, is not disagreeable to us, and
does not raise the wages of labour in any employment. It is otherwise with those in
which courage and address can be of no avail. In trades which are known to be very
unwholesome, the wages of labour are always remarkably high. Unwholesomeness is
a species of disagreeableness, and its effects upon the wages of labour are to be
ranked under that general head.
33In all the different employments of stock, the ordinary rate of profit varies more or
less with the certainty or uncertainty of the returns. These are in general less uncertain
in the inland than in the foreign trade, and in some branches of foreign trade than in
others; in the trade to North America, for example, than in that to Jamaica.27 The
ordinary rate of profit always rises more or less with the risk.28 It does not, however,
seem to rise in proportion to it, or so as to compensate it compleately. Bankruptcies
are most frequent in the most hazardous trades. The most hazardous of all trades, that
of a smuggler, though when the adventure succeeds it is likewise the most profitable,
is the infallible road to bankruptcy. The presumptuous hope of success seems to act
here as upon all other occasions, and to entice so many adventurers into those
hazardous trades, that their competition reduces htheh profit below what is sufficient
to compensate the risk. To compensate it compleatly, the common returns ought, over
and above the ordinary profits of stock, not only to make up for all occasional losses,
but to afford a surplus profit to the adventurers of the same nature with the profit of
insurers. But if the common returns were sufficient for all this, bankruptcies would
not be more frequent in these than in other trades.
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34Of the five circumstances, therefore, which vary the wages of labour, two only
affect the profits of stock; the agreeableness or disagreeableness of the business, and
the risk or security with which it is attended.29 In point of agreeableness or
disagreeableness, there is little or no difference in the far greater part of the different
employments of stock; but a great deal in those of labour; and the ordinary profit of
stock, though it rises with the risk, does not always seem to rise in proportion to it. It
should follow from all this, that, in the same society or neighbourhood, the average
and ordinary rates of profit in the different employments of stock should be more
nearly upon a level than the pecuniary wages of the different sorts of labour. They are
so accordingly. The difference between the earnings of a common labourer and those
of a well employed lawyer or physician, is evidently much greater, than that, between
the ordinary profits in any two different branches of trade. The apparent difference,
besides, in the profits of different trades, is generally a deception arising from our not
always distinguishing what ought to be considered as wages, from what ought to be
considered as profit.30
35Apothecaries profit is become a bye–word, denoting something uncommonly
extravagant. This great apparent profit, however, is frequently no more than the
reasonable wages of labour. The skill of an apothecary is a much nicer and more
delicate matter than that of any artificer whatever; and the trust which is reposed in
him is of much greater importance. He is the physician of the poor in all cases, and of
the rich when the distress or danger is not very great. His reward, therefore, ought to
be suitable to his skill and his trust, and it arises generally from the price at which he
sells his drugs. But the whole drugs which the best employed apothecary, in a large
market town, will sell in a year, may not perhaps cost him above thirty or forty
pounds. Though he should sell them, therefore, for three or four hundred, or at a
thousand per cent. profit, this may frequently be no more than the reasonable wages of
his labour charged, in the only way in which he can charge them, upon the price of his
drugs. The greater part of the apparent profit is real wages disguised in the garb of
profit.
36In a small sea–port town, a little grocer will make forty or fifty per cent. upon a
stock of a single hundred pounds, while a considerable wholesale merchant in the
same place will scarce make eight or ten per cent. upon a stock of ten thousand. The
trade of the grocer may be necessary for the conveniency of the inhabitants, and the
narrowness of the market may not admit the employment of a larger capital in the
business. The man, however, must not only live by his trade, but live by it suitably to
the qualifications which it requires. Besides possessing a little capital, he must be able
to read, write, and account, and must be a tolerable judge too of, perhaps, fifty or sixty
different sorts of goods, their prices, qualities, and the markets where they are to be
had cheapest. He must have all the knowledge, in short, that is necessary for a great
merchant, which nothing hinders him from becoming but the want of a sufficient
capital. Thirty or forty pounds a year cannot be considered as too great a recompence
for the labour of a person so accomplished. Deduct this from the seemingly great
profits of his capital, and little more will remain, perhaps, than the ordinary profits of
stock. The greater part of the apparent profit is, in this case too, real wages.
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37 The difference between the apparent profit of the retail and that of the wholesale
trade, is much less in the capital than in small towns and country villages.31 Where
ten thousand pounds can be employed in the grocery trade, the wages of the grocer’s
labour imake buti a very trifling addition to the real profits of so great a stock. The
apparent profits of the wealthy retailer, therefore, are there more nearly upon a level
with those of the wholesale merchant. It is upon this account that goods sold by retail
are generally as cheap and frequently much cheaper in the capital than in small towns
and country villages. Grocery goods, for example, are generally much cheaper; bread
and butcher’s meat frequently as cheap. It costs no more to bring grocery goods to the
great town than to the country village; but it costs a great deal more to bring corn and
cattle, as the greater part of them must be brought from a much greater distance. The
prime cost of grocery goods, therefore, being the same in both places, they are
cheapest where the least profit is charged upon them. The prime cost of bread and
butcher’s–meat is greater in the great town than in the country village; and though the
profit is less, therefore, they are not always cheaper there, but often equally cheap. In
such articles as bread and butcher’s meat, the same cause, which diminishes apparent
profit, increases prime cost. The extent of the market, by giving employment to
greater stocks, diminishes apparent profit; but by requiring supplies from a greater
distance, it increases prime cost. This diminution of the one and increase of the other
seem, in most cases, nearly to counter–balance one another; which is probably the
reason that, though the prices of corn and cattle are commonly very different in
different parts of the kingdom, those of bread and butcher’s–meat are generally very
nearly the same through the greater part of it.
38Though the profits of stock both in the wholesale and retail trade are generally less
in the capital than in small towns and country villages, yet great fortunes are
frequently acquired from small beginnings in the former, and scarce ever in the latter.
In small towns and country villages, on account of the narrowness of the market, trade
cannot always be extended as stock extends. In such places, therefore, though the rate
of a particular person’s profits may be very high, the sum or amount of them can
never be very great, nor consequently that of his annual accumulation. In great towns,
on the contrary, trade can be extended as stock increases, and the credit of a frugal
and thriving man increases much faster than his stock. His trade is extended in
proportion to the amount of both, and the sum or amount of his profits is in proportion
to the extent of his trade, and his annual accumulation in proportion to the amount of
his profits. It seldom happens, however, that great fortunes are made even in great
towns by any one regular, established, and well–known branch of business, but in
consequence of a long life of industry, frugality, and attention. Sudden fortunes,
indeed, are sometimes made in such places by what is called the trade of speculation.
The speculative merchant exercises no one regular, established, or well–known
branch of business. He is a corn merchant this year, and a wine merchant the next, and
a sugar, tobacco, or tea merchant the year after. He enters into every trade when he
foresees that it is likely to be more than commonly profitable, and he quits it when he
foresees that its profits are likely to return to the level of other trades. His profits and
losses, therefore, can bear no regular proportion to those of any one established and
well–known branch of business. A bold adventurer may sometimes acquire a
considerable fortune by two or three successful speculations; but j is just as likely to
lose one by two or three unsuccessful ones. This trade can be carried on no where but
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in great towns. It is only in places of the most extensive commerce and
correspondence that the intelligence requisite for it can be had.
39The five circumstances above mentioned, though they occasion considerable
inequalities in the wages of labour and profits of stock, occasion none in the whole of
the advantages and disadvantages, real or imaginary, of the different employments of
either. The nature of those circumstances is such, that they make up for a small
pecuniary gain in some, and counter–balance a great one in others.
40In order, however, that this equality may take place in the whole of their advantages
or disadvantages, three things are requisite even where there is the most perfect
freedom. First, the employments must be well known and long established in the
neighbourhood; secondly, they must be in their ordinary, or what may be called their
natural state; and, thirdly, they must be the sole or principal employments of those
who occupy them.
41First, this equality can take place only in those employments which are well known,
and have been long established in the neighbourhood.
42Where all other circumstances are equal, wages are generally higher in new than in
old trades. When a projector attempts to establish a new manufacture, he must at first
entice his workmen from other employments by higher wages than they can either
earn in their own trades, or than the nature of his work would otherwise require, and a
considerable time must pass away before he can venture to reduce them to the
common level. Manufactures for which the demand arises altogether from fashion and
fancy, are continually changing, and seldom last long enough to be considered as old
established manufactures. Those, on the contrary, for which the demand arises chiefly
from use or necessity, are less liable to change, and the same form or fabrick may
continue in demand for whole centuries together. The wages of labour, therefore, are
likely to be higher in manufactures of the former, than in those of the latter kind.
Birmingham deals chiefly in manufactures of the former kind; Sheffield in those of
the latter; and the wages of labour in those two different places, are said to be suitable
to this difference in the nature of their manufactures.32
43The establishment of any new manufacture, of any new branch of commerce, or of
any new practice in agriculture, is always a speculation, from which the projector
promises himself extraordinary profits.33 These profits sometimes are very great, and
sometimes, more frequently, perhaps, they are quite otherwise; but in general they
bear no regular proportion to those of other old trades in the neighbourhood. If the
project succeeds, they are commonly at first very high. When the trade or practice
becomes thoroughly established and well known, the competition reduces them to the
level of other trades.
44Secondly, this equality in the whole of the advantages and disadvantages of the
different employments of labour and stock, can take place only in the ordinary, or
what may be called the natural state of those employments.
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45The demand for almost every different species of labour, is sometimes greater and
sometimes less than usual. In the one case the advantages of the employment rise
above, in the other they fall below the common level. The demand for country labour
is greater at hay–time and harvest, than during the greater part of the year; and wages
rise with the demand. In time of war, when forty or fifty thousand sailors are forced
from the merchant service into that of the king, the demand for sailors to merchant
ships necessarily rises with their scarcity, and their wages upon such occasions
commonly rise from a guinea and seven–and–twenty–shillings, to forty shillings and
three pounds a month.34 In a decaying manufacture, on the contrary, many workmen,
rather than quit their old trade, are contented with smaller wages than would
otherwise be suitable to the nature of their employment.
46The profits of stock vary with the price of the commodities in which it is employed.
As the price of any commodity rises above the ordinary or average rate, the profits of
at least some part of the stock that is employed in bringing it to market, rise above
their proper level, and as it falls they sink below it. All commodities are more or less
liable to variations of price, but some are much more so than others. In all
commodities which are produced by human industry, the quantity of industry annually
employed is necessarily regulated by the annual demand, in such a manner that the
average annual produce may, as nearly as possible, be equal to the average annual
consumption. In some employments, it has already been observed,35 the same
quantity of industry will always produce the same, or very nearly the same quantity of
commodities. In the linen or woollen manufactures, for example, the same number of
hands will annually work up very nearly the same quantity of linen and woollen cloth.
The variations in the market price of such commodities, therefore, can arise only from
some accidental variation in the demand. A publick mourning raises the price of black
cloth.36 But as the demand for most sorts of plain linen and woollen cloth is pretty
uniform, so is likewise the price. But there are other employments in which the same
quantity of industry will not always produce the same quantity of commodities. The
same quantity of industry, for example, will, in different years, produce very different
quantities of corn, wine, hops, sugar, tobacco, &c. The price of such commodities,
therefore, varies not only with the variations of demand, but with the much greater
and more frequent variations of quantity, and is consequently extremely fluctuating.
But the profit of some of the dealers must necessarily fluctuate with the price of the
commodities. The operations of the speculative merchant are principally employed
about such commodities. He endeavours to buy them up when he foresees that their
price is likely to rise, and to sell them when it is likely to fall.
47Thirdly, This equality in the whole of the advantages and disadvantages of the
different employments of labour and stock; can take place only in such as are the sole
or principal employments of those who occupy them.
48When a person derives his subsistence from one employment, which does not
occupy the greater part of his time; in the intervals of his leisure he is often willing to
work at another for less wages than would otherwise suit the nature of the
employment.37
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49There still subsists in many parts of Scotland a set of people called Cotters or
Cottagers,38 though they were more frequent some years ago than they are now. They
are a sort of out–servants of the landlords and farmers. The usual reward which they
receive from their masters is a house, a small garden for pot–herbs, as much grass as
will feed a cow, and, perhaps, an acre or two of bad arable land. When their master
has occasion for their labour, he gives them, besides, two pecks of oatmeal a week,
worth about sixteen–pence sterling. During a great part of the year he has little or no
occasion for their labour, and the cultivation of their own little possession is not
sufficient to occupy the time which is left at their own disposal. When such occupiers
were more numerous than they are at present, they are said to have been willing to
give their spare time for a very small recompence to any body, and to have wrought
for less wages than other labourers. In antient times they seem to have been common
all over Europe. In countries ill cultivated and worse inhabited, the greater part of
landlords and farmers could not otherwise provide themselves with the extraordinary
number of hands, which country labour requires at certain seasons. The daily or
weekly recompence which such labourers occasionally received from their masters,
was evidently not the whole price of their labour. Their small tenement made a
considerable part of it. This daily or weekly recompence, however, seems to have
been considered as the whole of it, by many writers who have collected the prices of
labour and provisions in antient times, and who have taken pleasure in representing
both as wonderfully low.
50 The produce of such labour comes frequently cheaper to market than would
otherwise be suitable to its nature.39 Stockings in many parts of Scotland are knit
much cheaper than they can any–where be wrought upon the loom. They are the work
of servants and labourers, who derive the principal part of their subsistence from some
other employment. More than a thousand pair of Shetland stockings are annually
imported into Leith, of which the price is from five–pence to seven–pence a pair. At
Learwick,40 the small capital of the Shetland islands, ten–pence a day, I have been
assured, is a common price of common labour. In the same islands they knit worsted
stockings to the value of a guinea a pair and upwards.
51The spinning of linen yarn is carried on in Scotland nearly in the same way as the
knitting of stockings, by servants who are chiefly hired for other purposes. They earn
but a very scanty subsistence, who endeavour to get their whole livelihood by either
of those trades. In most parts of Scotland she is a good spinner who can earn
twenty–pence a week.41
52In opulent countries the market is generally so extensive, that any one trade is
sufficient to employ the whole labour and stock of those who occupy it. Instances of
people’s living by one employment, and at the same time deriving some little
advantage from another, occur chiefly in poor countries. The following instance,
however, of something of the same kind is to be found in the capital of a very rich
one. There is no city in Europe, I believe, in which house–rent is dearer than in
London, and yet I know no capital in which a furnished apartment can be hired so
cheap.42 Lodging is not only much cheaper in London than in Paris; it is much
cheaper than in Edinburgh of the same degree of goodness; and what may seem
extraordinary, the dearness of house–rent is the cause of the cheapness of lodging.
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The dearness of house–rent in London arises, not only from those causes which render
it dear in all great capitals, the dearness of labour, the dearness of all the materials of
building, which must generally be brought from a great distance, and above all the
dearness of ground–rent, every landlord acting the part of a monopolist, and
frequently exacting a higher rent for a single acre of bad land in a town, than can be
had for a hundred of the best in the country; but it arises in part from the peculiar
manners and customs of the people, which oblige every master of a family to hire a
whole house from top to bottom. A dwelling–house in England means every thing that
is contained under the same roof. In France, Scotland, and many other parts of
Europe, it frequently means no more than a single story. A tradesman in London is
obliged to hire a whole house in that part of the town where his customers live. His
shop is upon the ground–floor, and he and his family sleep in the garret; and he
endeavours to pay a part of his house–rent by letting the two middle stories to lodgers.
He expects to maintain his family by his trade, and not by his lodgers. Whereas, at
Paris and Edinburgh, the people who let lodgings, have commonly no other means of
subsistence; and the price of the lodging must pay, not only the rent of the house, but
the whole expence of the family.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
Part Ii
Inequalities Occasioned By The Policy Of Europe
1Such are the inequalities in the whole of the advantages and disadvantages of the
different employments of labour and stock, which the defect of any of the three
requisites above–mentioned must occasion, even where there is the most perfect
liberty. But the policy of Europe, by not leaving things at perfect liberty, occasions
other inequalities of much greater importance.
2It does this chiefly in the three following ways. First, by restraining the competition
in some employments to a smaller number than would otherwise be disposed to enter
into them; secondly, by increasing it in others beyond what it naturally would be; and,
thirdly, by obstructing the free circulation of labour and stock, both from employment
to employment and from place to place.1
3First, The policy of Europe occasions a very important inequality in the whole of the
advantages and disadvantages of the different employments of labour and stock, by
restraining the competition in some employments to a smaller number than might
otherwise be disposed to enter into them.
4The exclusive privileges of corporations are the principal means it makes use of for
this purpose.2
5The exclusive privilege of an incorporated trade necessarily restrains the
competition, in the town where it is established, to those who are free of the trade. To
have served an apprenticeship in the town, under a master properly qualified, is
commonly the necessary requisite for obtaining this freedom. The bye–laws of the
corporation regulate sometimes the number of apprentices which any master is
allowed to have, and almost always the number of years which each apprentice is
obliged to serve. The intention of both regulations is to restrain the competition to a
much smaller number than might otherwise be disposed to enter into the trade. The
limitation of the number of apprentices restrains it directly. A long term of
apprenticeship restrains it more indirectly, but as effectually, by increasing the
expence of education.3
6In Sheffield no master cutler can have more than one apprentice at a time, by a
bye–law of the corporation. In Norfolk and Norwich no master weaver can have more
than two apprentices, under pain of forfeiting five pounds a month to the king.4 No
master hatter can have more than two apprentices any–where in England, or in the
English plantations, under pain of forfeiting five pounds a month, half to the king, and
half to him who shall sue in any court of record.5 Both these regulations, though they
have been confirmed by a publick law of the kingdom, are evidently dictated by the
same corporation spirit which enacted the bye–law of Sheffield. The silk weavers in
London had scarce been incorporated a year when they enacted a bye–law, restraining
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any master from having more than two apprentices at a time. It required a particular
act of parliament to rescind this bye–law.6
7Seven years seem antiently to have been, all over Europe, the usual term established
for the duration of apprenticeships in the greater part of incorporated trades. All such
incorporations were antiently called universities; which indeed is the proper Latin
name for any incorporation whatever. The university of smiths, the university of
taylors, &c. are expressions which we commonly meet with in the old charters of
antient towns.7 When those particular incorporations which are now peculiarly called
universities were first established, the term of years which it was necessary to study,
in order to obtain the degree of master of arts, appears evidently to have been copied
from the term of apprenticeship in common trades, of which the incorporations were
much more antient. As to have wrought seven years under a master properly qualified,
was necessary, in order to intitle any person to become a master, and to have himself
apprentices in a common trade; so to have studied seven years under a master
properly qualified, was necessary to entitle him to become a master, teacher, or doctor
(words antiently synonimous) in the liberal arts, and to have scholars or apprentices
(words likewise originally synonimous) to study under him.8
8By the 5th of Elizabeth, commonly called the Statute of Apprenticeship,9 it was
enacted, that no person should for the future exercise any trade, craft, or mystery at
that time exercised in England, unless he had previously served to it an apprenticeship
of seven years at least; and what before had been the bye–law of many particular
corporations, became in England the general and publick law of all trades carried on
in market towns. For though the words of the statute are very general, and seem
plainly to include the whole kingdom, by interpretation its operation has been limited
to market towns, it having been held that in country villages a person may exercise
several different trades, though he has not served a seven years apprenticeship to
each, they being necessary for the conveniency of the inhabitants, and the number of
people frequently not being sufficient to supply each with a particular sett of hands.10
9By a strict interpretation of the words too the operation of this statute has been
limited to those trades which were established in England before the 5th of Elizabeth,
and has never been extended to such as have been introduced since that time.11 This
limitation has given occasion to several distinctions which, considered as rules of
police, appear as foolish as can well be imagined. It has been adjudged, for example,
that a coach–maker can neither himself make nor employ journeymen to make his
coach–wheels, but must buy them of a master wheel–wright; this latter trade having
been exercised in England before the 5th of Elizabeth. But a wheel–wright, though he
has never served an apprenticeship to a coach–maker, may either himself make or
employ journeymen to make coaches; the trade of a coach–maker not being within the
statute, because not exercised in England at the time when it was made. The
manufactures of Manchester, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton, are many of them,
upon this account, not within the statute; not having been exercised in England before
the 5th of Elizabeth.12
10In France, the duration of apprenticeships is different in different towns and in
different trades. In Paris, five years is the term required in a great number; but before
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any person can be qualified to exercise the trade as a master, he must, in many of
them, serve five years more as a journeyman. During this latter term he is called the
companion of his master, and the term itself is called his companionship.13
11In Scotland there is no general law which regulates universally the duration of
apprenticeships. The term is different in different corporations. Where it is long, a part
of it may generally be redeemed by paying a small fine. In most towns too a very
small fine is sufficient to purchase the freedom of any corporation. The weavers of
linen and hempen cloth, the principal manufactures of the country, as well as all other
artificers subservient to them, wheel–makers, reel–makers, &c. may exercise their
trades in any town corporate without paying any fine. In all towns corporate all
persons are free to sell butcher’s–meat upon any lawful day of the week. Three years
is in Scotland a common term of apprenticeship, even in some very nice trades; and in
general I know of no country in Europe in which corporation laws are so little
oppressive.14
12The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation
of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable. The patrimony of a poor
man lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands; and to hinder him from employing
this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper without injury to his
neighbour, is a plain violation of this most sacred property. It is a manifest
encroachment upon the just liberty both of the workman, and of those who might be
disposed to employ him. As it hinders the one from working at what he thinks proper,
so it hinders the aothersa from employing whom they think proper. To judge whether
he is fit to be employed, may surely be trusted to the discretion of the employers
whose interest it so much concerns. The affected anxiety of the law–giver lest they
should employ an improper person, is evidently as impertinent as it is oppressive.
13The institution of long apprenticeships can give no security that insufficient
workmanship shall not frequently be exposed to publick sale. When this is done it is
generally the effect of fraud, and not of inability; and the longest apprenticeship can
give no security against fraud. Quite different regulations are necessary to prevent this
abuse. The sterling mark upon plate,15 and the stamps upon linen16 and woollen
cloth,17 give the purchaser much greater security than any statute of
apprenticeship.18 He generally looks at these, but never thinks it worth while to
enquire whether the bworkmanb had served a seven years apprenticeship.
14The institution of long apprenticeships has no tendency to form young people to
industry. A journeyman who works by the piece is likely to be industrious, because he
derives a benefit from every exertion of his industry.19 An apprentice is likely to be
idle, and almost always is so, because he has no immediate interest to be otherwise.20
In the inferior employments, the sweets of labour consist altogether in the recompence
of labour. They who are soonest in a condition to enjoy the sweets of it, are likely
soonest to conceive a relish for it, and to acquire the early habit of industry. A young
man naturally conceives an aversion to labour, when for a long time he receives no
benefit from it. The boys who are put out apprentices from publick charities are
generally bound for more than the usual number of years, and they generally turn out
very idle and worthless.
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15Apprenticeships were altogether unknown to the antients. The reciprocal duties of
master and apprentice make a considerable article in every modern code. The Roman
law is perfectly silent with regard to them. I know no Greek or Latin word (I might
venture, I believe, to assert that there is none) which expresses the idea we now annex
to the word Apprentice, a servant bound to work at a particular trade for the benefit of
a master, during a term of years, upon condition that the master shall teach him that
trade.
16Long apprenticeships are altogether unnecessary. The arts, which are much superior
to common trades, such as those of making clocks and watches, contain no such
mystery as to require a long course of instruction.21 The first invention of such
beautiful machines, indeed, and even that of some of the instruments employed in
making them, must, no doubt, have been the work of deep thought and long time, and
may justly be considered as among the happiest efforts of human ingenuity. But when
both have been fairly invented and are well understood, to explain to any young man,
in the compleatest manner, how to apply the instruments and how to construct the
machines, cannot well require more than the lessons of a few weeks: perhaps those of
a few days might be sufficient. In the common mechanick trades, those of a few days
might certainly be sufficient. The dexterity of hand, indeed, even in common trades,
cannot be acquired without much practice and experience. But a young man would
practise with much more diligence and attention, if from the beginning he wrought as
a journeyman, being paid in proportion to the little work which he could execute, and
paying in his turn for the materials which he might sometimes spoil through
awkwardness and inexperience. His education would generally in this way be more
effectual, and always less tedious and expensive. The master, indeed, would be a
loser. He would lose all the wages of the apprentice, which he now saves, for seven
years together. In the end, perhaps, the apprentice himself would be a loser. In a trade
so easily learnt he would have more competitors, and his wages, when he came to be a
compleat workman, would be much less than at present. The same increase of
competition would reduce the profits of the masters as well as the wages of the
workmen. The trades, the crafts, the mysteries, would all be losers. But the publick
would be a gainer, the work of all artificers coming in this way much cheaper to
market.
17It is to prevent this reduction of price, and consequently of wages and profit, by
restraining that free competition which would most certainly ocasion it, that all
corporations, and the greater part of corporation laws, have been established. In order
to erect a corporation, no other authority in antient times was requisite in many parts
of Europe, but that of the town corporate in which it was established.22 In England,
indeed, a charter from the king was likewise necessary. But this prerogative of the
crown seems to have been reserved rather for extorting money from the subject, than
for the defence of the common liberty against such oppressive monopolies. Upon
paying a fine to the king, the charter seems generally to have Cf. LJ (A) vi.61: been
readily granted; and when any particular class of artificers or traders thought proper to
act as a corporation without a charter, such adulterine guilds, as they were called,
were not always disfranchised upon that account, but obliged to fine annually to the
king for permission to exercise their usurped privileges* . The immediate inspection
of all corporations, and of the bye–laws which they might think proper to enact for
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their own government, belonged to the town corporate in which they were
established; and whatever discipline was exercised over them, proceeded commonly,
not from the king, but from that greater incorporation of which those subordinate ones
were only parts or members.
18The government of towns corporate was altogether in the hands of traders and
artificers; and it was the manifest interest of every particular class of them, to prevent
the market from being over–stocked, as they commonly express it, with their own
particular species of industry; which is in reality to keep it always under–stocked.
Each class was eager to establish regulations proper for this purpose, and, provided it
was allowed to do so, was willing to consent that every other class should do the
same. In consequence of such regulations, indeed, each class was obliged to buy the
goods they had occasion for from every other within the town, somewhat dearer than
they otherwise might have done. But in recompence, they were enabled to sell their
own just as much dearer; so that so far it was as broad as long, as they say; and in the
dealings of the different classes within the town with one another, none of them were
losers by these regulations. But in their dealings with the country they were all great
gainers; and in these latter dealings consists the whole trade which supports and
enriches every town.
19Every town draws its whole subsistence, and all the materials of its industry, from
the country.23 It pays for these chiefly in two ways: first, by sending back to the
country a part of those materials wrought up and manufactured; in which case their
price is augmented by the wages of the workmen, and the profits of their masters or
immediate employers: secondly, by sending to it a part both of the rude and
manufactured produce, either of other countries, or of distant parts of the same
country, imported into the town; in which case too the original price of those goods is
augmented by the wages of the carriers or sailors, and by the profits of the merchants
who employ them. In what is gained upon the first of those two branches of
commerce, consists the advantage which the town makes by its manufactures; in what
is gained upon the second, the advantage of its inland and foreign trade. The wages of
the workmen, and the profits of their different employers, make up the whole of what
is gained upon both. Whatever regulations, therefore, tend to increase those wages
and profits beyond what they otherwise would be, tend to enable the town to
purchase, with a smaller quantity of its labour, the produce of a greater quantity of the
labour of the country. They give the traders and artificers in the town an advantage
over the landlords, farmers, and labourers in the country, and break down that natural
equality which would otherwise take place in the commerce which is carried on
between them. The whole annual produce of the labour of the society is annually
divided between those two different sets of people. By means of those regulations a
greater share of it is given to the inhabitants of the town than would otherwise fall to
them; and a less to those of the country.
20The price which the town really pays for the provisions and materials annually
imported into it, is the quantity of manufactures and other goods annually exported
from it. The dearer the latter are sold, the cheaper the former are bought. The industry
of the town becomes more, and that of the country less advantageous.
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21That the industry which is carried on in towns is, every–where in Europe, more
advantageous than that which is carried on in the country, without entering into any
very nice computations, we may satisfy ourselves by one very simple and obvious
observation. In every country of Europe we find, at least, a hundred people who have
acquired great fortunes from small beginnings by trade and manufactures, the industry
which properly belongs to towns, for one who has done so by that which properly
belongs to the country, the raising of rude produce by the improvement and
cultivation of land.24 Industry, therefore, must be better rewarded, the wages of
labour and the profits of stock must evidently be greater in the one situation than in
the other. But stock and labour naturally seek the most advantageous employment.
They naturally, therefore, resort as much as they can to the town, and desert the
country.
22The inhabitants of a town, being collected into one place, can easily combine
together. The most insignificant trades carried on in towns have accordingly, in some
place or other, been incorporated; and even where they have never been incorporated,
yet the corporation spirit, the jealousy of strangers, the aversion to take apprentices, or
to communicate the secret of their trade, generally prevail in them, and often teach
them, by voluntary associations and agreements, to prevent that free competition
which they cannot prohibit by bye–laws. The trades which employ but a small number
of hands, run most easily into such combinations. Half a dozen wool–combers,
perhaps, are necessary to keep a thousand spinners and weavers at work. By
combining not to take apprentices they can not only engross the employment, but
reduce the whole manufacture into a sort of slavery to themselves, and raise the price
of their labour much above what is due to the nature of their work.
23 The inhabitants of the country, dispersed in distant places, cannot easily combine
together.25 They have not only never been incorporated, but the corporation spirit
never has prevailed among them. No apprenticeship has ever been thought necessary
to qualify for husbandry, the great trade of the country. After what are called the fine
arts, and the liberal professions, however, there is perhaps no trade which requires so
great a variety of knowledge and experience.26 The innumerable volumes which have
been written upon it in all languages, may satisfy us, that among the wisest and most
learned nations, it has never been regarded as a matter very easily understood. And
from all those volumes we shall in vain attempt to collect that knowledge of its
various and complicated operations, which is commonly possessed even by the
common farmer; how contemptuously soever the very contemptible authors of some
of them may sometimes affect to speak of him. There is scarce any common
mechanick trade, on the contrary, of which all the operations may not be as
compleatly and distinctly explained in a pamphlet of a very few pages, as it is possible
for words illustrated by figures to explain them. In the history of the arts, now
publishing by the French academy of sciences,27 several of them are actually
explained in this manner. The direction of operations, besides, which must be varied
with every change of the weather, as well as with many other accidents, requires
much more judgment and discretion, than that of those which are always the same or
very nearly the same.
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24Not only the art of the farmer, the general direction of the operations of husbandry,
but many inferior branches of country labour require much more skill and experience
than the greater part of mechanick trades. The man who works upon brass and iron,
works with instruments and upon materials of which the temper is always the same, or
very nearly the same. But the man who ploughs the ground with a team of horses or
oxen, works with instruments of which the health, strength, and temper are very
different upon different occasions. The condition of the materials which he works
upon too is as variable as that of the instruments which he works with, and both
require to be managed with much judgment and discretion. The common ploughman,
though generally regarded as the pattern of stupidity and ignorance, is seldom
defective in this judgment and discretion. He is less accustomed, indeed, to social
intercourse than the mechanick who lives in a town. His voice and language are more
uncouth and more difficult to be understood by those who are not used to them. His
understanding, however, being accustomed to consider a greater variety of objects, is
generally much superior to that of the other, whose whole attention from morning till
night is commonly occupied in performing one or two very simple operations.28 How
much the lower ranks of people in the country are really superior to those of the town,
is well known to every man whom either business or curiosity has led to converse
much with both. In China and Indostan accordingly both the rank and the wages of
country labourers are said to be superior to those of the greater part of artificers and
manufacturers. They would probably be so every where, if corporation laws and the
corporation spirit did not prevent it.
25The superiority which the industry of the towns has every where in Europe over
that of the country, is not altogether owing to corporations and corporation laws. It is
supported by many other regulations. The high duties upon foreign manufactures and
upon all goods imported by alien merchants, all tend to the same purpose.29
Corporation laws enable the inhabitants of towns to raise their prices, without fearing
to be under–sold by the dfreed competition of their own countrymen. Those other
regulations secure them equally against that of foreigners. The enhancement of price
occasioned by both is every where finally paid by the landlords, farmers, and
labourers of the country, who have seldom opposed the establishment of such
monopolies. They have commonly neither inclination nor fitness to enter into
combinations; and the clamour and sophistry of merchants and manufacturers easily
persuade them that the private interest of a part, and of a subordinate part of the
society, is the general interest of the whole.
26In Great Britain the superiority of the industry of the towns over that of the country,
seems to have been greater formerly than in the present times. The wages of country
labour approach nearer to those of manufacturing labour, and the profits of stock
employed in agriculture to those of trading and manufacturing stock, than they are
said to have done in the last century, or in the beginning of the present. This change
may be regarded as the necessary, though very late consequence of the extraordinary
encouragement given to the industry of the towns. The stock accumulated in them
comes in time to be so great, that it can no longer be employed with the antient profit
in that species of industry which is peculiar to them. That industry has its limits like
every other; and the increase of stock, by increasing the competition, necessarily
reduces the profit.30 The lowering of profit in the town forces out stock to the
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country, where, by creating a new demand for country labour, it necessarily raises its
wages. It then spreads itself, if I may say so, over the face of the land, and by being
employed in agriculture is in part restored to the country, at the expence of which, in a
great measure, it had originally been accumulated in the town. That every where in
Europe the greatest improvements of the country have been owing to such
overflowings of the stock originally accumulated in the towns, I shall endeavour to
show hereafter;31 and at the same time to demonstrate, that though some countries
have by this course attained to a considerable degree of opulence, it is in itself
necessarily slow, uncertain, liable to be disturbed and interrupted by innumerable
accidents, and in every respect contrary to the order of nature and of reason. The
interests, prejudices, laws and customs which have given occasion to it, I shall
endeavour to explain as fully and distinctly as I can in the third and fourth books of
this enquiry.
27People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,
but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance
to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which
either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though
the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together,
it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them
necessary.
28A regulation which obliges all those of the same trade in a particular town to enter
their names and places of abode in a publick register, facilitates such assemblies. It
connects individuals who might never otherwise be known to one another, and gives
every man of the trade a direction where to find every other man of it.
29A regulation which enables those of the same trade to tax themselves in order to
provide for their poor, their sick, their widows and orphans, by giving them a
common interest to manage, renders such assemblies necessary.
30An incorporation not only renders them necessary, but makes the act of the
majority binding upon the whole. In a free trade an effectual combination cannot be
established but by the unanimous consent of every single etradere and it cannot last
longer than every single ftraderf continues of the same mind. The majority of a
corporation can enact a bye–law with proper penalties, which will limit the
competition more effectually and more durably than any voluntary combination
whatever.
31The pretence that corporations are necessary for the better government of the trade,
is without any foundation. The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a
workman, is not that of his corporation, but that of his customers. It is the fear of
losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence. An
exclusive corporation necessarily weakens the force of this discipline. A particular set
of workmen must then be employed, let them behave well or ill. It is upon this
account that in many large incorporated towns no tolerable workmen are to be found,
even in some of the most necessary trades. If you would have your work tolerably
executed, it must be done in the suburbs, where the workmen having no exclusive
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privilege, have nothing but their character to depend upon, and you must then
smuggle it into the town as well as you can.
32It is in this manner that the policy of Europe, by restraining the competition in some
employments to a smaller number than would otherwise be disposed to enter into
them, occasions a very important inequality in the whole of the advantages and
disadvantages of the different employments of labour and stock.
33 Secondly, The policy of Europe, by increasing the competition in some
employments beyond what it naturally would be, occasions another inequality of an
opposite kind in the whole of the advantages and disadvantages of the different
employments of labour and stock.
34It has been considered as of so much importance that a proper number of young
people should be educated for certain professions, that, sometimes the publick, and
sometimes the piety of private founders have established many pensions, scholarships,
exhibitions, bursaries, &c.32 for this purpose, which draw many more people into
those trades than could otherwise pretend to follow them. In all christian countries, I
believe, the education of the greater part of churchmen is paid for in this manner.
Very few of them are educated altogether at their own expence. The long, tedious and
expensive education, therefore, of those who are, will not always procure them a
suitable reward, the church being crowded with people who, in order to get
employment, are willing to accept of a much smaller recompence than what such an
education would otherwise have entitled them to; and in this manner the competition
of the poor takes away the reward of the rich. It would be indecent, no doubt, to
compare either a curate or a chaplain with a journeyman in any common trade. The
pay of a curate or chaplain, however, may very properly be considered as of the same
nature with the wages of a journeyman. They are, all three, paid for their work
according to the contract which they may happen to make with their respective
superiors. Till after the middle of the fourteenth century, five merks, containing about
as much silver as ten pounds of our present money, was in England the usual pay of a
curate or g stipendiary parish priest, as we find it regulated by the decrees of several
different national councils.33 At the same period four–pence a day, containing the
same quantity of silver as a shilling of our present money, was declared to be the pay
of a master mason, and three–pence a day, equal to nine–pence of our present money,
that of a journeyman mason* . The wages of both these labourers, therefore,
supposing them to have been constantly employed, were much superior to those of the
curate. The wages of the master mason, supposing him to have been without
employment one–third of the year, would have fully equalled them. By the 12th of
Queen Anne, c.12,34 it is declared, “That whereas for want of sufficient maintenance
and encouragement to curates, the cures have in several places been meanly supplied,
the bishop is, therefore, empowered to appoint by writing under his hand and seal a
sufficient certain stipend or allowance, not exceeding fifty and not less than twenty
pounds a year”. Forty pounds a year is reckoned at present very good pay for a curate,
and notwithstanding this act of parliament, there are many curacies under twenty
pounds a year. There are journeymen shoemakers in London who earn forty pounds a
year, and there is scarce an industrious workman of any kind in that metropolis who
does not earn more than twenty. This last sum indeed does not exceed what is
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frequently earned by common labourers in many country parishes. Whenever the law
has attempted to regulate the wages of workmen, it has always been rather to lower
them than to raise them.35 But the law has upon many occasions attempted to raise
the wages of curates, and for the dignity of the church, to oblige the rectors of
parishes to give them more than the wretched maintenance which they themselves
might be willing to accept of. And in both cases the law seems to have been equally
ineffectual, and has never either been able to raise the wages of curates or to sink
those of labourers to the degree that was intended; because it has never been able to
hinder either the one from being willing to accept of less than the legal allowance, on
account of the indigence of their situation and the multitude of their competitors; or
the other from receiving more, on account of the contrary competition of those who
expected to derive either profit or pleasure from employing them.
35The great benefices and other ecclesiastical dignities support the honour of the
church, notwithstanding the mean circumstances of some of its inferior members. The
respect paid to the profession too makes some compensation even to them for the
meanness of their pecuniary recompence. In England, and in all Roman Catholick
countries, the lottery of the church is in reality much more advantageous than is
necessary. The example of the churches of Scotland, of Geneva, and of several other
protestant churches, may satisfy us that in so creditable a profession, in which
education is so easily procured, the hopes of much more moderate benefices will draw
a sufficient number of learned, decent, and respectable men into holy orders.
36In professions in which there are no benefices, such as law and physick, if an equal
proportion of people were educated at the publick expence, the competition would
soon be so great, as to sink very much their pecuniary reward. It might then not be
worth any man’s while to educate his son to either of those professions at his own
expence. They would be entirely abandoned to such as had been educated by those
publick charities, whose numbers and necessities would oblige them in general to
content themselves with a very miserable recompence, to the entire degradation of the
now respectable professions of law and physick.
37That unprosperous race of men commonly called men of letters, are pretty much in
the situation which lawyers and physicians probably would be in upon the foregoing
supposition. In every part of Europe the greater part of them have been educated for
the church, but have been hindered by different reasons from entering into holy
orders.36 They have generally, therefore, been educated at the publick expence, and
their numbers are every–where so great as commonly to reduce the price of their
labour to a very paultry recompence.
38Before the invention of the art of printing, the only employment by which a man of
letters could make any thing by his talents, was that of a publick ior privatei teacher,
or by communicating to other people the curious and useful knowledge which he had
acquired himself: And this is still surely a more honourable, a more useful, and in
general even a more profitable employment than that other of writing for a bookseller,
to which the art of printing has given occasion. The time and study, the genius,
knowledge, and application requisite to qualify an eminent teacher of the sciences, are
at least equal to what is necessary for the greatest practitioners in law and physick.
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But the usual reward of the eminent teacher bears no proportion to that of the lawyer
or physician; because the trade of the one is crowded with indigent people who have
been brought up to it at the publick expence; whereas those of the other two are
incumbered with very few who have not been educated at their own. The usual
recompence, however, of publick and private teachers, small as it may appear, would
undoubtedly be less than it is, if the competition of those yet more indigent men of
letters who write for bread was not taken out of the market.37 Before the invention of
the art of printing, a scholar and a beggar seem to have been terms very nearly
synonimous. The different governors of the universities before that time appear to
have often granted licences to their scholars to beg.38
39In antient times, before any charities of this kind had been established for the
education of indigent people to the learned professions, the rewards of eminent
teachers appear to have been much more considerable. Isocrates, in what is called his
discourse against the sophists, reproaches the teachers of his own times with
inconsistency. “They make the most magnificent promises to their scholars”, says he,
“and undertake to teach to be wise, to be happy, and to be just, and in return for so
important a service they stipulate the paultry reward of four or five minae. They who
teach wisdom”, continues he, “ought certainly to be wise themselves; but if any man
j
wasj to sell such a bargain for such a price, he would be convicted of the most
evident folly.”39 He certainly does not mean here to exaggerate the reward, and we
may be assured that it was not less than he represents it. Four minae were equal to
thirteen pounds six shillings and eight pence: five minae to sixteen pounds thirteen
shillings and four pence. Something not less than the largest of those two sums,
therefore, must at that time have been usually paid to the most eminent teachers at
Athens. Isocrates himself demanded ten minae, or thirty–three pounds six shillings
and eight pence, from each scholar.40 When he taught at Athens, he is said to have
had an hundred scholars. I understand this to be the number whom he taught at one
time, or who attended what we would call one course of lectures, a number which will
not appear extraordinary from so great a city to so famous a teacher, who taught too
what was at that time the most fashionable of all sciences, rhetorick. He must have
made, therefore, by each course of lectures, a thousand minae, or 3,333 l. 6s. 8d. A
thousand minae, accordingly, is said by Plutarch in another place, to have been his
Didactron, or usual price of teaching.41 Many other eminent teachers in those times
appear to have acquired great fortunes. Gorgias made a present to the temple of
Delphi of his own statue in solid gold.42 We must not, I presume, suppose that it was
as large as the life. His way of living, as well as that of Hippias and Protagoras, two
other eminent teachers of those times, is represented by Plato as splendid even to
ostentation. Plato himself is said to have lived with a good deal of magnificence.
Aristotle, after having been tutor to Alexander and most munificently rewarded,43 as
it is universally agreed, both by him and his father Phillip, thought it worth while,
notwithstanding, to return to Athens, in order to resume the teaching of his school.
Teachers of the sciences were probably in those times less common than they came to
be in an age or two afterwards, when the competition had probably somewhat reduced
both the price of their labour and the admiration for their persons. The most eminent
of them, however, appear always to have enjoyed a degree of consideration much
superior to any of the like profession in the present times. The Athenians sent
Carneades the academick, and Diogenes the stoick, upon a solemn embassy to Rome;
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and though their city had then declined from its former grandeur, it was still an
independent and considerable republick. Carneades too was a Babylonian by birth,
and as there never was a people more jealous of admitting foreigners to publick
offices than the Athenians, their consideration for him must have been very great.44
40This inequality is upon the whole, perhaps, rather advantageous than hurtful to the
publick. It may somewhat degrade the profession of a publick teacher; but the
cheapness of literary education is surely an advantage which greatly over–balances
this trifling inconveniency. The publick too might derive still greater benefit from it,
if the constitution of those schools and colleges, in which education is carried on, was
more reasonable than it is at present through the greater part of Europe.45
41Thirdly, The policy of Europe, by obstructing the free circulation of labour and
stock both from employment to employment, and from place to place, occasions in
some cases a very inconvenient inequality in the whole of the advantages and
disadvantages of their different employments.
42The statute of apprenticeship obstructs the free circulation of labour from one
employment to another, even in the same place.46 The exclusive privileges of
corporations obstruct it from one place to another, even in the same employment.
43 It frequently happens that while high wages are given to the workmen in one
manufacture, those in another are obliged to content themselves with bare subsistence.
The one is in an advancing state, and has, therefore, a continual demand for new
hands: The other is in a declining state, and the super–abundance of hands is
continually increasing. Those two manufactures may sometimes be in the same town,
and sometimes in the same neighbourhood, without being able to lend the least
assistance to one another. The statute of apprenticeship may oppose it in the one case,
and both that and an exclusive corporation in the other. In many different
manufactures, however, the operations are so much alike, that the workmen could
easily change trades with one another, if those absurd laws did not hinder them.47
The arts of weaving plain linen and plain silk, for example, are almost entirely the
same. That of weaving plain woollen is somewhat different; but the difference is so
insignificant, that either a linen or a silk weaver might become a tolerable workman in
a kveryk few days.48 If any of those three capital manufactures, therefore, were
decaying, the workmen might find a resource in one of the other two which was in a
more prosperous condition; and their wages would neither rise too high in the
thriving, nor sink too low in the decaying manufacture. The linen manufacture indeed
is, in England, by a particular statute,49 open to every body; but, as it is not much
cultivated through the greater part of the country, it can afford no general resource to
the workmen of other decaying manufactures, who, wherever the statute of
apprenticeship takes place, have no other choice but either to come upon the parish, or
to work as common labourers, for which, by their habits, they are much worse
qualified than for any sort of manufacture that bears any resemblance to their own.
They generally, therefore, chuse to come upon the parish.
44Whatever obstructs the free circulation of labour from one employment to another,
obstructs that of stock likewise; the quantity of stock which can be employed in any
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branch of business depending very much upon that of lthel labour which can be
employed in it. Corporation laws, however, give less obstruction to the free
circulation of stock from one place to another than to that of labour. It is every–where
much easier for a wealthy merchant to obtain the privilege of trading in a town
corporate, than for a poor artificer to obtain that of working in it.
45The obstruction which corporation laws give to the free circulation of labour is
common, I believe, to every part of Europe. That which is given to it by the poor laws
m
is, so far as I know,m peculiar to England. It consists in the difficulty which a poor
man finds in obtaining a settlement, or even in being allowed to exercise his industry
in any parish but that to which he belongs. It is the labour of artificers and
manufacturers only of which the free circulation is obstructed by corporation laws.
The difficulty of obtaining settlements obstructs even that of common labour. It may
be worth while to give some account of the rise, progress, and present state of this
disorder, the greatest perhaps of any in the police of England.50
46When by the destruction of monasteries the poor had been deprived of the
charity51 of those religious houses, after some other ineffectual attempts for their
relief, it was enacted by the 43d of Elizabeth, c.2.52 that every parish should be bound
to provide for its own poor; and that overseers of the poor should be annually
appointed, who, with the churchwardens, should raise by a parish rate, competent
sums for this purpose.
47By this statute the necessity of providing for their own poor was indispensably
imposed upon every parish. Who were to be considered as the poor of each parish,
n
became, therefore,n a question of some importance. This question, after some
variation, was at last determined by the 13th and 14th of Charles II.53 when it was
enacted, that forty days undisturbed residence should gain any person a settlement in
any parish; but that within that time it should be lawful for two justices of the peace,
upon complaint made by the churchwardens or overseers of the poor, to remove any
new inhabitant to the parish where he was last legally settled; unless he either rented a
tenement of ten pounds a year, or could give such security for the discharge of the
parish where he was then living, as those justices should judge sufficient.
48 Some frauds, it is said, were committed in consequence of this statute; parish
officers sometimes bribing their own poor to go clandestinely to another parish, and
by keeping themselves concealed for forty days to gain a settlement there, to the
discharge of that to which they properly belonged. It was enacted, therefore, by the
1st of James II.54 that the forty days undisturbed residence of any person necessary to
gain a settlement, should be accounted only from the time of his delivering notice in
writing, of the place of his abode and the number of his family, to one of the
churchwardens or overseers of the parish where he came to dwell.
49But parish officers, it seems, were not always more honest with regard to their own,
than they had been with regard to other parishes, and sometimes connived at such
intrusions, receiving the notice, and taking no proper steps in consequence of it. As
every person in a parish, therefore, was supposed to have an interest to prevent as
much as possible their being burdened by such intruders, it was further enacted by the
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3d of William III.55 that the forty days residence should be accounted only from the
publication of such notice in writing on Sunday in the church, immediately after
divine service.
50“After all,” says Doctor Burn, “this kind of settlement, by continuing forty days
after publication of notice in writing, is very seldom obtained; and the design of the
acts is not so much for gaining of settlements, as for the avoiding of them, by persons
coming into a parish clandestinely: for the giving of notice is only putting a force
upon the parish to remove. But if a person’s situation is such, that it is doubtful
whether he is actually removeable or not, he shall by giving of notice compel the
parish either to allow him a settlement uncontested, by suffering him to continue forty
days; or, by removing him, to try the right”.56
51This statute, therefore, rendered it almost impracticable for a poor man to gain a
new settlement in the old way, by forty days inhabitancy. But that it might not appear
to preclude altogether the common people of one parish from ever establishing
themselves with security in another, it appointed four other ways by which a
settlement might be gained without any notice delivered or published. The first was,
by being taxed to parish rates and paying them; the second, by being elected into an
annual parish office and serving in it a year; the third, by serving an apprenticeship in
the parish; the fourth, by being hired into service there for a year, and continuing in
the same service during the whole of it.57
52Nobody can gain a settlement by either of the two first ways, but by the publick
deed of the whole parish, who are too well aware of the consequences to adopt any
new–comer who has nothing but his labour to support him, either by taxing him to
parish rates, or by electing him into a parish office.
53 No married man can well gain any settlement in either of the two last ways. An
apprentice is scarce ever married; and it is expressly enacted, that no married servant
shall gain any settlement by being hired for a year.58 The principal effect of
introducing settlement by service, has been to put out in a great measure the old
fashion of hiring for a year, which before had been so customary in England, that
even at this day, if no particular term is agreed upon, the law intends that every
servant is hired for a year. But masters are not always willing to give their servants a
settlement by hiring them in this manner; and servants are not always willing to be so
hired, because as every last settlement discharges all the foregoing, they might
thereby lose their original settlement in the places of their nativity, the habitation of
their parents and relations.
54No independent workman, it is evident, whether labourer or artificer, is likely to
gain any new settlement either by apprenticeship or by service. When such a person,
therefore, carried his industry to a new parish, he was liable to be removed, how
healthy and industrious soever, at the caprice of any churchwarden or overseer, unless
he either rented a tenement of ten pounds a year, a thing impossible for one who has
nothing but his labour to live by; or could give such security for the discharge of the
parish as two justices of the peace should judge sufficient. What security they shall
require, indeed, is left altogether to their discretion; but they cannot well require less
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than thirty pounds, it having been enacted, that the purchase even of a free–hold estate
of less than thirty pounds value, shall not gain any person a settlement, as not being
sufficient for the discharge of the parish.59 But this is a security which scarce any
man who lives by labour can give; and much greater security is frequently demanded.
55In order to restore in some measure that free circulation of labour which those
different statutes had almost entirely taken away, the invention of certificates was
fallen upon. By the 8th and 9th of William III.60 it was enacted, that if any person
should bring a certificate from the parish where he was last legally settled, subscribed
by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor, and allowed by two justices of the
peace, that every other parish should be obliged to receive him; that he should not be
removeable merely upon account of his being likely to become chargeable, but only
upon his becoming actually chargeable, and that then the parish which granted the
certificate should be obliged to pay the expence both of his maintenance and of his
removal. And in order to give the most perfect security to the parish where such
certificated man should come to reside, it was further enacted by the same statute,61
that he should gain no settlement there by any means whatever, except either by
renting a tenement of ten pounds a year, or by serving upon his own account in an
annual parish office for one whole year; and consequently neither by notice, nor by
service, nor by apprenticeship, nor by paying parish rates. By the 12th of Queen Anne
too, stat. I. c. 18.62 it was further enacted, that neither the servants nor apprentices of
such certificated man should gain any settlement in the parish where he resided under
such certificate.
56How far this invention has restored that free circulation of labour which the
preceding statutes had almost entirely taken away, we may learn from the following
very judicious observation of Doctor Burn. “It is obvious,” says he, “that there are
divers good reasons for requiring certificates with persons coming to settle in any
place; namely, that persons residing under them can gain no settlement, neither by
apprenticeship, nor by service, nor by giving notice, nor by paying parish rates; that
they can settle neither apprentices nor servants; that if they become chargeable, it is
certainly known whither to remove them, and the parish shall be paid for the removal,
and for their maintenance in the mean time; and that if they fall sick, and cannot be
removed, the parish which gave the certificate must maintain them: none of all which
can be without a certificate. Which reasons will hold proportionably for parishes not
granting certificates in ordinary cases; for it is far more than an equal chance, but that
they will have the certificated persons again, and in a worse condition”.63 The moral
of this observation seems to be, that certificates ought always to be required by the
parish where any poor man comes to reside, and that they ought very seldom to be
granted by that which he proposes to leave. “There is somewhat of hardship in this
matter of certificates” says the same very intelligent author in his History of the Poor
Laws, “by putting it in the power of a parish officer, to imprison a man as it were for
life; however inconvenient it may be for him to continue at that place where he has
had the misfortune to acquire what is called a settlement, or whatever advantage he
may propose to himself by living elsewhere”.64
57Though a certificate carries along with it no testimonial of good behaviour, and
certifies nothing but that the person belongs to the parish to which he really does
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belong, it is altogether discretionary in the parish officers either to grant or to refuse
it. A mandamus was once moved for, says Doctor Burn, to compel the
church–wardens and overseers to sign a certificate; but the court of King’s Bench
rejected the motion as a very strange attempt.65
58The very unequal price of labour which we frequently find in England in places at
no great distance from one another, is probably owing to the obstruction which the
law of settlements gives to a poor man who would carry his industry from one parish
to another without a certificate.66 A single man, indeed, who is healthy and
industrious, may sometimes reside by sufferance without one; but a man with a wife
and family who should attempt to do so, would in most parishes be sure of being
removed, and if the single man should afterwards marry, he would generally be
removed likewise. The scarcity of hands in one parish, therefore, cannot always be
relieved by their super–abundance in another, as it is constantly in Scotland,67 and, I
believe, in all other countries where there is no difficulty of settlement. In such
countries, though wages may sometimes rise a little in the neighbourhood of a great
town, or wherever else there is an extraordinary demand for labour, and sink
gradually as the distance from such places increases, till they fall back to the common
rate of the country; yet we never meet with those sudden and unaccountable
differences in the wages of neighbouring places which we sometimes find in England,
where it is often more difficult for a poor man to pass the artificial boundary of a
parish, than an arm of the sea or a ridge of high mountains, natural boundaries which
sometimes separate very distinctly different rates of wages in other countries.
59To remove a man who has committed no misdemeanour from the parish where he
chuses to reside, is an evident violation of natural liberty and justice. The common
people of England, however, so jealous of their liberty, but like the common people of
most other countries never rightly understanding wherein it consists, have now for
more than a century together suffered themselves to be exposed to this oppression
without a remedy. Though men of reflection too have sometimes complained of the
law of settlements as a publick grievance; yet it has never been the object of any
general popular clamour, such as that against general warrants, an abusive practice
undoubtedly, but such a one as was not likely to occasion any general oppression.
There is scarce a poor man in England of forty years of age, I will venture to say, who
has not in some part of his life felt himself most cruelly oppressed by this
ill–contrived law of settlements.
60I shall conclude this long chapter with observing,68 that though antiently it was
usual to rate wages, first by general laws extending over the whole kingdom, and
afterwards by particular orders of the justices of peace in every particular county, both
these practices have now gone entirely into disuse. “By the experience of above four
hundred years,” says Doctor Burn, “it seems time to lay aside all endeavours to bring
under strict regulations, what in its own nature seems incapable of minute limitation:
for if all persons in the same kind of work were to receive equal wages, there would
be no emulation, and no room left for industry or ingenuity”.69
61Particular acts of parliament, however, still attempt sometimes to regulate wages in
particular trades and in particular places. Thus the 8th of George III.70 prohibits
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under heavy penalties all master taylors in London, and five miles round it, from
giving, and their workmen from accepting, more than two shillings and seven–pence
halfpenny a day, except in the case of a general mourning.71 Whenever the legislature
attempts to regulate the differences between masters and their workmen, its
counsellors are always the masters.72 When the regulation, therefore, is in favour of
the workmen, it is always just and equitable; but it is sometimes otherwise when in
favour of the masters. Thus the law which obliges the masters in several different
trades to pay their workmen in money and not in goods, is quite just and equitable. It
imposes no real hardship upon the masters. It only obliges them to pay that value in
money, which they pretended to pay, but did not always really pay, in goods.73 This
law is in favour of the workmen; but the 8th of George III. is in favour of the
masters.74 When masters combine together in order to reduce the wages of their
workmen, they commonly enter into a private bond or agreement, not to give more
than a certain wage under a certain penalty. Were the workmen to enter into a
contrary combination of the same kind, not to accept of a certain wage under a certain
penalty, the law would punish them very severely; and if it dealt impartially, it would
treat the masters in the same manner. But the 8th of George III. enforces by law that
very regulation which masters sometimes attempt to establish by such combinations.
The complaint of the workmen, that it puts the ablest and most industrious upon the
same footing with an ordinary workman, seems perfectly well founded.
62In antient times too it was usual to attempt to regulate the profits of merchants and
other dealers, by rating the price both of provisions and other goods. The assize of
bread is, so far as I know, the only remnant of this ancient usage.75 Where there is an
exclusive corporation, it may perhaps be proper to regulate the price of the first
necessary of life. But where there is none, the competition will regulate it much better
than any assize. The method of fixing the assize of bread established by the 31st of
George II.76 could not be put in practice in Scotland, on account of a defect in the
law; its execution depending upon the office of clerk of the market, which does not
exist there. This defect was not remedied till the 3d of George III.77 The want of an
assize occasioned no sensible inconveniency, and the establishment of one, in the few
places where it has yet taken place, has produced no sensible advantage. In the greater
part of the towns of Scotland, however, there is an incorporation of bakers who claim
exclusive privileges, though they are not very strictly guarded.
63The proportion between the different rates both of wages and profit in the different
employments of labour and stock, seems not to be much affected, as has already been
observed,78 by the riches or poverty, the advancing, stationary, or declining state of
the society. Such revolutions in the publick welfare, though they affect the general
rates both of wages and profit, must in the end affect them equally in all different
employments. The proportion between them, therefore, must remain the same, and
cannot well be altered, at least for any considerable time, by any such revolutions.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
CHAPTER XI
Of The Rent Of Land
1Rent, considered as the price paid for the use of land, is naturally the highest which
the tenant can afford to pay in the actual circumstances of the land. In adjusting the
terms of the lease, the landlord endeavours to leave him no greater share of the
produce than what is sufficient to keep up the stock from which he furnishes the seed,
pays the labour, and purchases and maintains the cattle and other instruments of
husbandry, together with the ordinary profits of farming stock in the neighbourhood.1
This is evidently the smallest share with which the tenant can content himself without
being a loser, and the landlord seldom means to leave him any more. Whatever part of
the produce, or, what is the same thing, whatever part of its price, is over and above
this share, he naturally endeavours to reserve to himself as the rent of his land, which
is evidently the highest the tenant can afford to pay in the actual circumstances of the
land. Sometimes, indeed, the liberality, more frequently the ignorance, of the
landlord,2 makes him accept of somewhat less than this portion; and sometimes too,
though more rarely, the ignorance of the tenant makes him undertake to pay
somewhat more, or to content himself with somewhat less than the ordinary profits of
farming stock in the neighbourhood. This portion, however, may still be considered as
the natural rent of land, or the rent for which it is naturally meant that land should for
the most part be let.
2The rent of land, it may be thought, is frequently no more than a reasonable profit or
interest for the stock laid out by the landlord upon its improvement. This, no doubt,
may be partly the case upon some occasions; for it can scarce ever be more than partly
the case.3 The landlord demands a rent even for unimproved land, and the supposed
interest or profit upon the expence of improvement is generally an addition to this
original rent. Those improvements, besides, are not always made by the stock of the
landlord, but sometimes by that of the tenant. When the lease comes to be renewed,
however, the landlord commonly demands the same augmentation of rent, as if they
had been all made by his own.
3He sometimes demands rent for what is altogether incapable of human improvement.
Kelp is a species of sea–weed, which, when burnt, yields an alkaline salt, useful for
making glass, soap, and for several other purposes. It grows in several parts of Great
Britain, particularly in Scotland, upon such rocks only as lie within the high water
mark, which are twice every day covered with the sea, and of which the produce,
therefore, was never augmented by human industry.4 The landlord, however, whose
estate is bounded by a kelp shore of this kind, demands a rent for it as much as for his
corn fields.5
4The sea in the neighbourhood of the islands of Shetland is more than commonly
abundant in fish, which make a great part of the subsistence of their inhabitants. But
in order to profit by the produce of the water, they must have a habitation upon the
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neighbouring land. The rent of the landlord is in proportion, not to what the farmer
can make by the land, but to what he can make both by the land and abya the water. It
is partly paid in sea–fish; and one of the very few instances in which rent makes a part
of the price of that commodity, is to be found in that country.
5The rent of land, therefore, considered as the price paid for the use of the land, is
naturally a monopoly price.6 It is not at all proportioned to what the landlord may
have laid out upon the improvement of the land, or to what he can afford to take; but
to what the farmer can afford to give.7
6Such parts only of the produce of land can commonly be brought to market of which
the ordinary price is sufficient to replace the stock which must be employed in
bringing them thither, together with its ordinary profits. If the ordinary price is more
than this, the surplus part of it will naturally go to the rent of the land. If it is not
more, though the commodity may be brought to market, it can afford no rent to the
landlord. Whether the price is, or is not more, depends upon the demand.
7There are some parts of the produce of land for which the demand must always be
such as to afford a greater price than what is sufficient to bring them to market; and
there are others for which it either may or may not be such as to afford this greater
price. The former must always afford a rent to the landlord. The latter sometimes
may, and sometimes may not, according to different circumstances.8
8Rent, it is to be observed, therefore, enters into the composition of the price of
commodities in a different way from wages and profit. High or low wages and profit,
are the causes of high or low price; high or low rent is the effect of it.9 It is because
high or low wages and profit must be paid, in order to bring a particular commodity to
market, that its price is high or low. But it is because its price is high or low; a great
deal more, or very little more, or no more, than what is sufficient to pay those wages
and profit, that it affords a high rent, or a low rent, or no rent at all.
9The particular consideration, first, of those parts of the produce of land which always
afford some rent; secondly, of those which sometimes may and sometimes may not
afford rent; and, thirdly, of the variations which, in the different periods of
improvement, naturally take place, in the relative value of those two different sorts of
rude produce, when compared both with one another and with manufactured
commodities, will divide this chapter into three parts.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
Part I
Of The Produce Of Land Which Always Affords Rent
1As men, like all other animals, naturally multiply in proportion to the means of their
subsistence, food is always, more or less, in demand.1 It can always purchase or
command a greater or smaller quantity of labour, and somebody can always be found
who is willing to do something, in order to obtain it. The quantity of labour, indeed,
which it can purchase, is not always equal to what it could maintain, if managed in the
most œconomical manner, on account of the high wages which are sometimes given
to labour. But it can always purchase such a quantity of labour as it can maintain,
according to the rate at which that sort of labour is commonly maintained in the
neighbourhood.
2But land, in almost any situation, produces a greater quantity of food than what is
sufficient to maintain all the labour necessary for bringing it to market, in the most
liberal way in which that labour is ever maintained. The surplus too is always more
than sufficient to replace the stock which employed that labour, together with its
profits. Something, therefore, always remains for a rent to the landlord.2
3The most desart moors in Norway and Scotland produce some sort of pasture for
cattle, of which the milk and the increase are always more than sufficient, not only to
maintain all the labour necessary for tending them, and to pay the ordinary profit to
the farmer or owner of the herd or flock; but to afford some small rent to the landlord.
The rent increases in proportion to the goodness of the pasture. The same extent of
ground not only maintains a greater number of cattle, but as they are brought within a
smaller compass, less labour becomes requisite to tend them, and to collect their
produce. The landlord gains both ways; by the increase of the produce, and by the
diminution of the labour which must be maintained out of it.
4The rent of land anot onlya varies with its fertility, whatever be its produce, bbutb
with its situation, whatever be its fertility.3 Land in the neighbourhood of a town,
gives a greater rent than land equally fertile in a distant part of the country. Though it
may cost no more labour to cultivate the one than the other, it must always cost more
to bring the produce of the distant land to market. A greater quantity of labour,
therefore, must be maintained out of it; and the surplus, from which are drawn both
the profit of the farmer and the rent of the landlord, must be diminished. But in remote
parts of the country the rate of cprofitc, as has already been shown,4 is generally
higher than in the neighbourhood of a large town. A smaller proportion of this
diminished surplus, therefore, must belong to the landlord.
5Good roads, canals, and navigable rivers, by diminishing the expence of carriage, put
the remote parts of the country more nearly upon a level with those in the
neighbourhood of the town.5 They are upon that account the greatest of all
improvements. They encourage the cultivation of the remote, which must always be
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the most extensive circle of the country. They are advantageous to the town, by
breaking down the monopoly of the country in its neighbourhood. They are
advantageous even to that part of the country. Though they introduce some rival
commodities into the old market, they open many new markets to its produce.
Monopoly, besides, is a great enemy to good management, which can never be
universally established but in consequence of that free and universal competition
which forces every body to have recourse to it for the sake of self–defence. It is not
more than fifty years ago that some of the counties in the neighbourhood of London,
petitioned the parliament against the extension of the turnpike roads into the remoter
counties. Those remoter counties, they pretended, from the cheapness of labour,
would be able to sell their grass and corn cheaper in the London market than
themselves, and would thereby reduce their rents, and ruin their cultivation. Their
rents, however, have risen, and their cultivation has been improved since that time.
6A corn field of moderate fertility produces a much greater quantity of food for man,
than the best pasture of equal extent. Though its cultivation requires much more
labour, yet the surplus which remains after replacing the seed and maintaining all that
labour, is likewise much greater. If a pound of butcher’s–meat, therefore, was never
supposed to be worth more than a pound of bread, this greater surplus would
everywhere be of greater value, and constitute a greater fund both for the profit of the
farmer and the rent of the landlord. It seems to have done so universally in the rude
beginnings of agriculture.
7But the relative values of those two different species of food, bread and
butcher’s–meat, are very different in the different periods of agriculture. In its rude
beginnings, the unimproved wilds, which then occupy the far greater part of the
country, are all abandoned to cattle. There is more butcher’s–meat than bread, and
bread, therefore, is the food for which there is the greatest competition, and which
consequently brings the greatest price.6 At Buenos Ayres, we are told by Ulloa, four
reals, one–and–twenty pence halfpenny sterling, was, forty or fifty years ago, the
ordinary price of an ox, chosen from a herd of two or three hundred.7 He says nothing
of the price of bread, probably because he found nothing remarkable about it. An ox
there, he says, costs little more than the labour of catching him. But corn can
no–where be raised without a great deal of labour, and in a country which lies upon
the river Plate, at that time the direct road from Europe to the silver mines of Potosi,
the money price of labour could not be very cheap. It is otherwise when cultivation is
extended over the greater part of the country. There is then more bread than
butcher’s–meat. The competition changes its direction, and the price of
butcher’s–meat becomes greater than the price of bread.
8By the extension besides of cultivation, the unimproved wilds become insufficient to
supply the demand for butcher’s–meat.8 A great part of the cultivated lands must be
employed in rearing and fattening cattle, of which the price, therefore, must be
sufficient to pay, not only the labour necessary for tending them, but the rent which
the landlord and the profit which the farmer could have drawn from such land
employed in tillage. The cattle bred upon the most uncultivated moors, when brought
to the same market, are, in proportion to their weight or goodness, sold at the same
price as those which are reared upon the most improved land. The proprietors of those
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moors profit by it, and raise the rent of their land in proportion to the price of their
cattle. It is not more than a century ago that in many parts of the highlands of
Scotland, butcher’s–meat was as cheap or cheaper than even bread made of oatmeal.9
The union opened the market of England to the highland cattle. Their ordinary price is
at present about three times greater than at the beginning of the century, and the rents
of many highland estates have been tripled and quadrupled in the same time. In
almost every part of Great Britain a pound of the best butcher’s–meat is, in the present
times, generally worth more than two pounds of the best white bread; and in plentiful
years it is sometimes worth three or four pounds.
9It is thus that in the progress of improvement the rent and profit of unimproved
pasture come to be regulated in some measure by the rent and profit of what is
improved, and these again by the rent and profit of corn.10 Corn is an annual crop,
butcher’s–meat, a crop which requires four or five years to grow. As an acre of land,
therefore, will produce a much smaller quantity of the one species of food than of the
other, the inferiority of the quantity must be compensated by the superiority of the
price. If it was more than compensated, more corn land would be turned into pasture;
and if it was not compensated, part of what was in pasture would be brought back into
corn.
10This equality, however, between the rent and profit of grass and those of corn; of
the land of which the immediate produce is food for cattle, and of that of which the
immediate produce is food for men; must be understood to take place only through the
greater part of the improved lands of a great country. In some particular local
situations it is quite otherwise, and the rent and profit of grass are much superior to
what can be made by corn.
11Thus in the neighbourhood of a great town, the demand for milk and for forage to
horses, frequently contribute, dtogetherd with the high price of butcher’s–meat, to
raise the value of grass above what may be called its natural proportion to that of
corn. This local advantage, it is evident, cannot be communicated to the lands at a
distance.
12Particular circumstances have sometimes rendered some countries so populous, that
the whole territory, like the lands in the neighbourhood of a great town, has not been
sufficient to produce both the grass and the corn necessary for the subsistence of their
inhabitants. Their lands, therefore, have been principally employed in the production
of grass, the more bulky commodity, and which cannot be so easily brought from a
great distance; and corn, the food of the great body of the people, has been chiefly
imported from foreign countries.11 Holland is at present in this situation,12 and a
considerable part of antient Italy, seems to have been so during the prosperity of the
Romans. To feed well, old Cato said, as we are told by Cicero, was the first and most
profitable thing in the management of a private estate; to feed tolerably well, the
second; and to feed ill, the third.13 To plough, he ranked only in the fourth place of
profit and advantage. Tillage, indeed, in that part of antient Italy which lay in the
neighbourhood of Rome, must have been very much discouraged by the distributions
of corn which were frequently made to the people, either gratuitously, or at a very low
price. This corn was brought from the conquered provinces, of which several, instead
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of taxes, were obliged to furnish a tenth part of their produce at a stated price, about
sixpence a peck, to the republick. The low price at which this corn was distributed to
the people, must necessarily have sunk the price of what could be brought to the
Roman market from Latium, or the antient territory of Rome, and must have
discouraged its cultivation in that country.14
13In an open country too, of which the principal produce is corn, a well–enclosed
piece of grass will frequently rent higher than any corn field in its neighbourhood. It is
convenient for the maintenance of the cattle employed in the cultivation of the corn,
and its high rent is, in this case, not so properly paid from the value of its own
produce, as from that of the corn lands which are cultivated by means of it. It is likely
to fall, if ever the neighbouring lands are compleatly inclosed. The present high rent
of enclosed land in Scotland seems owing to the scarcity of enclosure, and will
probably last no longer than that scarcity.15 The advantage of enclosure is greater for
pasture than for corn. It saves the labour of guarding the cattle, which feed better too
when they are not liable to be disturbed by their keeper or his dog.
14But where there is no local advantage of this kind, the rent and profit of corn, or
whatever else is the common vegetable food of the people, must naturally regulate,
upon the land which is fit for producing it, the rent and profit of pasture.
15The use of the artificial grasses, of turnips, carrots, cabbages, and the other
expedients which have been fallen upon to make an equal quantity of land feed a
greater number of cattle than when in natural grass, should somewhat reduce, it might
be expected, the superiority which, in an improved country, the price of
butcher’s–meat naturally has over that of bread. It seems accordingly to have done so;
and there is some reason for believing that, at least in the London market, the price of
butcher’s–meat in proportion to the price of bread is a good deal lower in the present
times than it was in the beginning of the last century.16
16In the appendix to the Life of prince Henry, Doctor Birch has given us an account
of the prices of butcher’s–meat as commonly paid by that prince. It is there said, that
the four quarters of an ox weighing six hundred pounds usually cost him nine pounds
ten shillings, or thereabouts; that is, thirty–one shillings and eight pence per hundred
pounds weight.17 Prince Henry died on the 6th of November, 1612, in the nineteenth
year of his age.
17In March, 1764, there was a parliamentary enquiry into the causes of the high price
of provisions at that time.18 It was then, among other proof to the same purpose,
given in evidence by a Virginia merchant, that in March, 1763, he had victualled his
ships for twenty–four or twenty–five shillings the hundred weight of beef, which he
considered as the ordinary price; whereas, in that dear year, he had paid twenty–seven
shillings for the same weight and sort.19 This high price in 1764, is, however, four
shillings and eight–pence cheaper than the ordinary price paid by prince Henry; and it
is the best beef only, it must be observed, which is fit to be salted for those distant
voyages.
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18The price paid by prince Henry amounts to 3 ?th d. per pound weight of the whole
carcase, coarse and choice pieces taken together; and at that rate the choice pieces
could not have been sold by retail for less than 4½d. or 5d. the pound.
19In the parliamentary enquiry in 1764, the witnesses stated the price of the choice
pieces of the best beef to be to the consumer 4d. and 4¼d. the pound; and the coarse
pieces in general to be from seven farthings to 2½d. and 2¾d.; and this they said was
in general one half–penny dearer than the same sort of pieces had usually been sold in
the month of March. But even this high price is still a good deal cheaper than what we
can well suppose the ordinary retail price to have been in the time of prince Henry.
20During the twelve first years of the last century, the average price of the best wheat
at the Windsor market was 1 l. 18s. 3 1/6d. the quarter of nine Winchester bushels.
21But in the twelve years preceding 1764, including that year, the average price of the
same measure of the best wheat at the same market was 2 l. 1s. 9½d.20
22In the twelve first years of the last century, therefore, wheat appears to have been a
good deal cheaper, and butcher’s–meat a good deal dearer than in the twelve years
preceding 1764, including that year.
23 In all great countries the greater part of the cultivated lands are employed in
producing either food for men or food for cattle. The rent and profit of these regulate
the rent and profit of all other cultivated land. If any particular produce afforded less,
the land would soon be turned into corn or pasture; and if any afforded more, some
part of the lands in corn or pasture would soon be turned to that produce.
24Those productions, indeed, which require either a greater original expence of
improvement, or a greater annual expence of cultivation, in order to fit the land for
them, appear commonly to afford, the one a greater rent, the other a greater profit than
corn or pasture. This superiority, however, will seldom be found to amount to more
than a reasonable interest or compensation for this superior expence.
25In a hop garden, a fruit garden, a kitchen garden, both the rent of the landlord, and
the profit of the farmer, are generally greater than in a corn or grass field. But to bring
the ground into this condition requires more expence. Hence a greater rent becomes
due to the landlord. It requires too a more attentive and skilful management. Hence a
greater profit becomes due to the farmer. The crop too, at least in the hop and fruit
garden, is more precarious. Its price, therefore, besides compensating all occasional
losses, must afford something like the profit of insurance. The circumstances of
gardeners, generally mean, and always moderate, may satisfy us that their great
ingenuity is not commonly over–recompensed. Their delightful art is practised by so
many rich people for amusement, that little advantage is to be made by those who
practise it for profit; because the persons who should naturally be their best
customers, supply themselves with all their most precious productions.21
26The advantage which the landlord derives from such improvements seems at no
time to have been greater than what was sufficient to compensate the original expence
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of making them. In the antient husbandry, after the vineyard, a well–watered kitchen
garden seems to have been the part of the farm which was supposed to yield the most
valuable produce. But Democritus, who wrote upon husbandry about two thousand
years ago, and who was regarded by the antients as one of the fathers of the art,
thought they did not act wisely who enclosed a kitchen garden. The profit, he said,
would not compensate the expence of a stone wall; and bricks (he meant, I suppose,
bricks baked in the sun) mouldered with the rain, and the winter storm, and required
continual repairs. Columella, who reports this judgment of Democritus, does not
controvert it, but proposes a very frugal method of enclosing with a hedge of
e
bramblese and briars, which, he says, he had found by experience to be both a lasting
and an impenetrable fence;22 but which, it seems, was not commonly known in the
time of Democritus. Palladius adopts the opinion of Columella, which had before
been recommended by Varro.23 In the judgment of those antient improvers, the
produce of a kitchen garden had, it seems, been little more than sufficient to pay the
extraordinary culture and the expence of watering; for in countries so near the sun, it
was thought proper, in those times as in the present, to have the command of a stream
of water, which could be conducted to every bed in the garden. Through the greater
part of Europe, a kitchen garden is not at present supposed to deserve a better
inclosure than that recommended by Columella. In Great Britain, and some other
northern countries, the finer fruits cannot be brought to perfection but by the
assistance of a wall. Their price, therefore, in such countries must be sufficient to pay
the expence of building and maintaining what they cannot be had without. The
fruit–wall frequently surrounds the kitchen garden, which thus enjoys the benefit of
an enclosure which its own produce could seldom pay for.
27That the vineyard, when properly planted and brought to perfection, was the most
valuable part of the farm, seems to have been an undoubted maxim in the antient
agriculture, as it is in the modern through all the wine countries. But whether it was
advantageous to plant a new vineyard, was a matter of dispute among the antient
Italian husbandmen, as we learn from Columella.24 He decides, like a true lover of all
curious cultivation, in favour of the vineyard, and endeavours to show, by a
comparison of the profit and expence, that it was a most advantageous improvement.
Such comparisons, however, between the profit and expence of new projects, are
commonly very fallacious; and in nothing more so than in agriculture. Had the gain
actually made by such plantations been commonly as great as he imagined it might
have been, there could have been no dispute about it. The same point is frequently at
this day a matter of controversy in the wine countries. Their writers on agriculture,
indeed, the lovers and promoters of high cultivation, seem generally disposed to
decide with Columella in favour of the vineyard. In France the anxiety of the
proprietors of the old vineyards to prevent the planting of any new ones, seems to
favour their opinion, and to indicate a consciousness in those who must have the
experience, that this species of cultivation is at present in that country more profitable
than any other. It seems at the same time, however, to indicate another opinion, that
this superior profit can last no longer than the laws which at present restrain the free
cultivation of the vine.25 In 1731, they obtained an order of council, prohibiting both
the planting of new vineyards, and the renewal of those old ones, of which the
cultivation had been interrupted for two years; without a particular permission from
the king, to be granted only in consequence of an information from the intendant of
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the province, certifying that he had examined the land, and that it was incapable of
any other culture.26 The pretence of this order was the scarcity of corn and pasture,
and the super–abundance of wine. But had this super–abundance been real, it would,
without any order of council, have effectually prevented the plantation of new
vineyards, by reducing the profits of this species of cultivation below their natural
proportion to those of corn and pasture. With regard to the supposed scarcity of corn
occasioned by the multiplication of vineyards,27 corn is no where in France more
carefully cultivated than in the wine provinces, where the land is fit for producing it;
as in Burgundy, Guienne, and the Upper Languedoc.28 The numerous hands
employed in the one species of cultivation necessarily encourage the other, by
affording a ready market for its produce. To diminish the number of those who are
capable of paying for it, is surely a most unpromising expedient for encouraging the
cultivation of corn. It is like the policy which would promote agriculture by
discouraging manufactures.
28The rent and profit of those productions, therefore, which require either a greater
original expence of improvement in order to fit the land for them, or a greater annual
expence of cultivation, though often much superior to those of corn and pasture, yet
when they do no more than compensate such extraordinary expence, are in reality
regulated by the rent and profit of those common crops.
29It sometimes happens, indeed, that the quantity of land which can be fitted for some
particular produce, is too small to supply the effectual demand. The whole produce
can be disposed of to those who are willing to give somewhat more than what is
sufficient to pay the whole rent, wages and profit necessary for raising and bringing it
to market, according to their natural rates, or according to the rates at which they are
paid in the greater part of other cultivated land. The surplus part of the price which
remains after defraying the whole expence of improvement and cultivation may
commonly, in this case, and in this case only, bear no regular proportion to the like
surplus in corn or pasture, but may exceed it in almost any degree; and the greater part
of this excess naturally goes to the rent of the landlord.
30The usual and natural proportion, for example, between the rent and profit of wine
and those of corn and pasture, must be understood to take place only with regard to
those vineyards which produce nothing but good common wine, such as can be raised
almost any where, upon any light, gravelly, or sandy soil, and which has nothing to
recommend it but its strength and wholesomeness. It is with such vineyards only that
the common land of the country can be brought into competition; for with those of a
peculiar quality it is evident that it cannot.
31The vine is more affected by the difference of soils than any other fruit tree. From
some it derives a flavour which no culture or management can equal, it is supposed,
upon any other. This flavour, real or imaginary, is sometimes peculiar to the produce
of a few vineyards; sometimes it extends through the greater part of a small district,
and sometimes through a considerable part of a large province. The whole quantity of
such wines that is brought to market falls short of the effectual demand, or the
demand of those who would be willing to pay the whole rent, profit and wages
necessary for preparing and bringing them thither, according to the ordinary rate, or
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according to the rate at which they are paid in common vineyards.29 The whole
quantity, therefore, can be disposed of to those who are willing to pay more, which
necessarily raises the price above that of common wine. The difference is greater or
less, according as the fashionableness and scarcity of the wine render the competition
of the buyers more or less eager. Whatever it be, the greater part of it goes to the rent
of the landlord. For though such vineyards are in general more carefully cultivated
than most others, the high price of the wine seems to be, not so much the effect, as the
cause of this careful cultivation. In so valuable a produce the loss occasioned by
negligence is so great as to force even the most careless to attention. A small part of
this high price, therefore, is sufficient to pay the wages of the extraordinary labour
bestowed upon their cultivation, and the profits of the extraordinary stock which puts
that labour into motion.
32The sugar colonies possessed by the European nations in the West Indies, may be
compared to those precious vineyards. Their whole produce falls short of the effectual
demand of Europe, and can be disposed of to those who are willing to give more than
what is sufficient to pay the whole rent, profit and wages necessary for preparing and
bringing it to market, according to the rate at which they are commonly paid by any
other produce.30 In Cochin–china the finest white sugar commonly sells for three
piasters the quintal, about thirteen shillings and sixpence of our money, as we are told
by* Mr. Poivre, a very careful observer of the agriculture of that country. What is
there called the quintal weighs from a hundred and fifty to two hundred Paris pounds,
or a hundred and seventy–five Paris pounds at a medium, which reduces the price of
the hundred weight English to about eight shillings sterling, not a fourth part of what
is commonly paid for the brown or muskavada sugars imported from our colonies,
and not a sixth part of what is paid for the finest white sugar.31 The greater part of the
cultivated lands in Cochin–china are employed in producing corn and rice, the food of
the great body of the people. The respective prices of corn, rice, and sugar, are there
probably in the natural proportion, or in that which naturally takes place in the
different crops of the greater part of cultivated land, and which recompences the
landlord and farmer, as nearly as can be computed, according to what is usually the
original expence of improvement and the annual expence of cultivation. But in our
sugar colonies the price of sugar bears no such proportion to that of the produce of a
rice or corn field either in Europe or ging America. It is commonly said, that a sugar
planter expects that the rum and the molasses should defray the whole expence of his
cultivation, and that his sugar should be all clear profit. If this be true, for I pretend
not to affirm it, it is as if a corn farmer expected to defray the expence of his
cultivation with the chaff and the straw, and that the grain should be all clear profit.
We see frequently societies of merchants in London and other trading towns, purchase
waste lands in our sugar colonies, which they expect to improve and cultivate with
profit by means of factors and agents; notwithstanding the great distance and the
uncertain returns, from the defective administration of justice in those countries.
Nobody will attempt to improve and cultivate in the same manner the most fertile
lands of Scotland, Ireland, or the corn provinces of North America, though from the
more exact administration of justice in these countries, more regular returns might be
expected.
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33In Virginia and Maryland, the cultivation of tobacco is preferred, as hmoreh
profitable, to that of corn.32 Tobacco might be cultivated with advantage through the
greater part of Europe; but in almost every part of Europe it has become a principal
subject of taxation, and to collect a tax from every different farm in the country where
this plant might happen to be cultivated, would be more difficult, it has been
supposed, than to levy one upon its importation at the custom–house. The cultivation
of tobacco has upon this account been most absurdly prohibited through the greater
part of Europe,33 which necessarily gives a sort of monopoly to the countries where it
is allowed; and as Virginia and Maryland produce the greatest quantity of it, they
share largely, though with some competitors, in the advantage of this monopoly. The
cultivation of tobacco, however, seems not to be so advantageous as that of sugar. I
have never even heard of any tobacco plantation that was improved and cultivated by
the capital of merchants who resided in Great Britain, and our tobacco colonies send
us home no such wealthy planters as we see frequently arrive from our sugar islands.
Though from the preference given in those colonies to the cultivation of tobacco
above that of corn, it would appear that the effectual demand of Europe for tobacco is
not compleatly supplied, it probably is more nearly so than that for sugar: And though
the present price of tobacco is probably more than sufficient to pay the whole rent,
wages and profit necessary for preparing and bringing it to market, according to the
rate at which they are commonly paid in corn land; it must not be so much more as the
present price of sugar. Our tobacco planters, accordingly, have shewn the same fear of
the super–abundance of tobacco, which the proprietors of the old vineyards in France
have of the super–abundance of wine. By act of assembly they have restrained its
cultivation to six thousand plants, supposed to yield a thousand weight of tobacco, for
every negro between sixteen and sixty years of age.34 Such a negro, over and above
this quantity of tobacco, can manage, they reckon, four acres of Indian corn. To
prevent the market from being overstocked too, they have sometimes, in plentiful
years, we are told by Dr. Douglas, (I suspect he has been ill informed)* burnt a certain
quantity of tobacco for every negro, in the same manner as the Dutch are said to do of
spices.35 If such violent methods are necessary to keep up the present price of
tobacco, the superior advantage of its culture over that of corn, if it still has any, will
not probably be of long continuance.
34It is in this manner that the rent of the cultivated land, of which the produce is
human food, regulates the rent of the greater part of other cultivated land. No
particular produce can long afford less; because the land would immediately be turned
to another use: And if any particular produce commonly affords more, it is because
the quantity of land which can be fitted for it is too small to supply the effectual
demand.
35In Europe corn is the principal produce of land which serves immediately for
human food. Except in particular situations, therefore, the rent of corn land regulates
in Europe that of all other cultivated land.36 Britain need envy neither the vineyards
of France nor the olive plantations of Italy. Except in particular situations, the value of
these is regulated by that of corn, in which the fertility of Britain is not much inferior
to that of either of those two countries.
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36 If in any country the common and favourite vegetable food of the people should be
drawn from a plant of which the most common land, with the same or nearly the same
culture, produced a much greater quantity than the most fertile does of corn, the rent
of the landlord, or the surplus quantity of food which would remain to him, after
paying the labour and replacing the stock of the farmer together with its ordinary
profits, would necessarily be much greater. Whatever was the rate at which labour
was commonly maintained in that country, this greater surplus could always maintain
a greater quantity of it, and consequently enable the landlord to purchase or command
a greater quantity of it. The real value of his rent, his real power and authority, his
command of the necessaries and conveniencies of life with which the labour of other
people could supply him, would necessarily be much greater.
37A rice field produces a much greater quantity of food than the most fertile corn
field.37 Two crops in the year from thirty to sixty bushels each, are said to be the
ordinary produce of an acre. Though its cultivation, therefore, requires more labour, a
much greater surplus remains after maintaining all that labour. In those rice countries,
therefore, where rice is the common and favourite vegetable food of the people, and
where the cultivators are chiefly maintained with it, a greater share of this greater
surplus should belong to the landlord than in corn countries. In Carolina, where the
planters, as in other British colonies, are generally both farmers and landlords, and
where rent consequently is confounded with profit,38 the cultivation of rice is found
to be more profitable than that of corn, though their fields produce only one crop in
the year, and though, from the prevalence of the customs of Europe, rice is not there
the common and favourite vegetable food of the people.
38A good rice field is a bog at all seasons, and at one season a bog covered with
water. It is unfit either for corn, or pasture, or vineyard, or, indeed, for any other
vegetable produce that is very useful to men: And the lands which are fit for those
purposes, are not fit for rice. Even in the rice countries, therefore, the rent of rice
lands cannot regulate the rent of the other cultivated land which can never be turned
to that produce.
39The food produced by a field of potatoes is not inferior in quantity to that produced
by a field of rice, and much superior to what is produced by a field of wheat. Twelve
thousand weight of potatoes from an acre of land is not a greater produce than two
thousand weight of wheat. The food or solid nourishment, indeed, which can be
drawn from each of those two plants, is not altogether in proportion to their weight,
on account of the watery nature of potatoes. Allowing, however, half the weight of
this root to go to water, a very large allowance, such an acre of potatoes will still
produce six thousand weight of solid nourishment, three times the quantity produced
by the acre of wheat. An acre of potatoes is cultivated with less expence than an acre
of wheat; the fallow, which generally precedes the sowing of wheat, more than
compensating the hoeing and other extraordinary culture which is always given to
potatoes. Should this root ever become in any part of Europe, like rice in some rice
countries, the common and favourite vegetable food of the people, so as to occupy the
same proportion of the lands in tillage which wheat and other sorts of grain for human
food do at present, the same quantity of cultivated land would maintain a much
greater number of people, and the labourers being generally fed with potatoes, a
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greater surplus would remain after replacing all the stock and maintaining all the
labour employed in cultivation. A greater share of this surplus too would belong to the
landlord. Population would increase, and rents would rise much beyond what they are
at present.
40The land which is fit for potatoes, is fit for almost every other useful vegetable. If
they occupied the same proportion of cultivated land which corn does at present, they
would regulate, in the same manner, the rent of the greater part of other cultivated
land.
41In some parts of Lancashire it is pretended, I have been told, that bread of oatmeal
is a heartier food for labouring people than wheaten bread, and I have frequently
heard the same doctrine held in Scotland. I am, however, somewhat doubtful of the
truth of it. The common people in Scotland, who are fed with oatmeal, are in general
neither so strong, nor so handsome as the same rank of people in England, who are
fed with wheaten bread. They neither work, so well nor look so well; and as there is
not the same difference between the people of fashion in the two countries, experience
would seem to show, that the food of the common people in Scotland is not so
suitable to the human constitution as that of their neighbours of the same rank in
England.39 But it seems to be otherwise with potatoes. The chairmen, porters, and
coalheavers in London, and those unfortunate women who live by prostitution, the
strongest men and the most beautiful women perhaps in the British dominions, are
said to be, the greater part of them, from the lowest rank of people in Ireland, who are
generally fed with this root. No food can afford a more decisive proof of its
nourishing quality, or of its being peculiarly suitable to the health of the human
constitution.40
42It is difficult to preserve potatoes through the year, and impossible to store them,
like corn, for two or three years together. The fear of not being able to sell them
before they rot, discourages their cultivation, and is, perhaps, the chief obstacle to
their ever becoming in any great country, like bread, the principal vegetable food of
all the different ranks of the people.41
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[Back to Table of Contents]
Part Ii
Of The Produce Of Land Which Sometimes Does, And
Sometimes Does Not, Afford Rent
1Human food seems to be the only produce of land which always and necessarily
affords some rent to the landlord. Other sorts of produce sometimes may and
sometimes may not, according to different circumstances.
2After food, cloathing and lodging are the two great wants of mankind.1
3Land in its original rude state can afford the materials of cloathing and lodging to a
much greater number of people than it can feed. In its improved state it can sometimes
feed a greater number of people than it can supply with those materials; at least in the
way in which they require them, and are willing to pay for them. In the one state,
therefore, there is always a super–abundance of those materials, which are frequently,
upon that account, of little or no value. In the other there is often a scarcity, which
necessarily augments their value. In the one state a great part of them is thrown away
as useless, and the price of what is used is considered as equal only to the labour and
expence of fitting it for use, and can, therefore, afford no rent to the landlord. In the
other they are all made use of, and there is frequently a demand for more than can be
had. Somebody is always willing to give more for every part of them than what is
sufficient to pay the expence of bringing them to market. Their price, therefore, can
always afford some rent to the landlord.
4The skins of the larger animals were the original materials of cloathing. Among
nations of hunters and shepherds, therefore, whose food consists chiefly in the flesh of
those animals, every man, by providing himself with food, provides himself with the
materials of more cloathing than he can wear. If there was no foreign commerce, the
greater part of them would be thrown away as things of no value. This was probably
the case among the hunting nations of North America, before their country was
discovered by the Europeans, with whom they now exchange their surplus peltry, for
blankets, fire–arms, and brandy, which gives it some value. In the present commercial
state of the known world, the most barbarous nations, I believe, among whom land
property is established, have some foreign commerce of this kind, and find among
their wealthier neighbours such a demand for all the materials of cloathing, which
their land produces, and which can neither be wrought up nor consumed at home, as
raises their price above what it costs to send them ato those wealthier neighboursa . It
affords, therefore, some rent to the landlord. When the greater part of the highland
cattle were consumed on their own hills, the exportation of their hides made the most
considerable article of the commerce of that country, and what they were exchanged
for afforded some addition to the rent of the highland estates.2 The wool of England,
which in old times could neither be consumed nor wrought up at home, found a
market in the then wealthier and more industrious country of Flanders, and its price
afforded something to the rent of the land which produced it. In countries not better
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cultivated than England was then, or than the highlands of Scotland are now, and
which had no foreign commerce, the materials of cloathing would evidently be so
super–abundant, that a great part of them would be thrown away as useless, and no
part could afford any rent to the landlord.3
5The materials of lodging cannot always be transported to so great a distance as those
of cloathing, and do not so readily become an object of foreign commerce. When they
are super–abundant in the country which produces them, it frequently happens, even
in the present commercial state of the world, that they are of no value to the landlord.
A good stone quarry in the neighbourhood of London would afford a considerable
rent. In many parts of Scotland and Wales it affords none. Barren timber for building
is of great value in a populous and well–cultivated country, and the land which
produces it, affords a considerable rent. But in many parts of North America the
landlord would be much obliged to any body who would carry away the greater part
of his large trees.4 In some parts of the highlands of Scotland the bark is the only part
of the wood which, for want of roads and water–carriage, can be sent to market.5 The
timber is left to rot upon the ground. When the materials of lodging are so
super–abundant, the part made use of is worth only the labour and expence of fitting it
for that use.6 It affords no rent to the landlord, who generally grants the use of it to
whoever takes the trouble of asking it. The demand of wealthier nations, however,
sometimes enables him to get a rent for it. The paving of the streets of London has
enabled the owners of some barren rocks on the coast of Scotland to draw a rent from
what never afforded any before. The woods of Norway and of the coasts of the
Baltick, find a market in many parts of Great Britain which they could not find at
home, and thereby afford some rent to their proprietors.
6Countries are populous, not in proportion to the number of people whom their
produce can cloath and lodge, but in proportion to that of those whom it can feed.
When food is provided, it is easy to find the necessary cloathing and lodging. But
though these are at hand, it may often be difficult to find food. In some parts bevenb
of the British dominions what is called A House, may be built by one day’s labour of
one man. The simplest species of cloathing, the skins of animals, requires somewhat
more labour to dress and prepare them for use. They do not, however, require a great
deal. Among savage candc barbarous nations, a hundredth or little more than dad
hundredth part of the labour of the whole year, will be sufficient to provide them with
such cloathing and lodging as satisfy the greater part of the people. All the other
ninety–nine parts are frequently no more than enough to provide them with food.
7But when by the improvement and cultivation of land the labour of one family can
provide food for two, the labour of half the society becomes sufficient to provide food
for the whole. The other half, therefore, or at least the greater part of them, can be
employed in providing other things, or in satisfying the other wants and fancies of
mankind.7 Cloathing and lodging, houshold furniture, and what is called Equipage,
are the principal objects of the greater part of those wants and fancies. The rich man
consumes no more food than his poor neighbour.8 In quality it may be very different,
and to select and prepare it may require more labour and art; but in quantity it is very
nearly the same. But compare the spacious palace and great wardrobe of the one, with
the hovel and the few rags of the other, and you will be sensible that the difference
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between their cloathing, lodging and houshold furniture, is almost as great in quantity
as it is in quality. The desire of food is limited in every man by the narrow capacity of
the human stomach; but the desire of the conveniencies and ornaments of building,
dress, equipage, and houshold furniture, seems to have no limit or certain boundary.9
Those, therefore, who have the command of more food than they themselves can
consume, are always willing to exchange the surplus, or, what is the same thing, the
price of it, for gratifications of this other kind. What is over and above satisfying the
limited desire, is given for the amusement of those desires which cannot be satisfied,
but seem to be altogether endless.10 The poor, in order to obtain food, exert
themselves to gratify those fancies of the rich, and to obtain it more certainly, they vie
with one another in the cheapness and perfection of their work. The number of
workmen increases with the increasing quantity of food, or with the growing
improvement and cultivation of the lands; and as the nature of their business admits of
the utmost subdivisions of labour, the quantity of materials which they can work up,
increases in a much greater proportion than their numbers. Hence arises a demand for
every sort of material which human invention can employ, either usefully or
ornamentally, in building, dress, equipage, or houshold furniture; for the fossils and
minerals contained in the bowels of the earth; the precious metals, and the precious
stones.
8Food is in this manner, not only the original source of rent, but every other part of
the produce of land which afterwards affords rent, derives that part of its value from
the improvement of the powers of labour in producing food by means of the
improvement and cultivation of land.
9Those other parts of the produce of land, however, which afterwards afford rent, do
not afford it always. Even in improved and cultivated countries, the demand for them
is not always such as to afford a greater price than what is sufficient to pay the labour,
and replace, together with its ordinary profits, the stock which must be employed in
bringing them to market. Whether it is or is not such, depends upon different
circumstances.
10Whether a coal–mine, for example, can afford any rent, depends partly upon its
fertility, and partly upon its situation.11
11A mine of any kind may be said to be either fertile or barren, according as the
quantity of mineral which can be brought from it by a certain quantity of labour, is
greater or less than what can be brought by an equal quantity from the greater part of
other mines of the same kind.
12Some coal–mines advantageously situated, cannot be wrought on account of their
barrenness. The produce does not pay the expence. They can afford neither profit nor
rent.
13There are some of which the produce is barely sufficient to pay the elaboure , and
replace, together with its ordinary profits, the stock employed in working them. They
afford some profit to the undertaker of the work, but no rent to the landlord. They can
be wrought advantageously by nobody but the landlord, who being himself undertaker
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of the work, gets the ordinary profit of the capital which he employs in it. Many
coalmines in Scotland are wrought in this manner, and can be wrought in no other.
The landlord will allow nobody else to work them without paying some rent, and
nobody can afford to pay any.12
14 Other coal–mines in the same country sufficiently fertile, cannot be wrought on
account of their situation. A quantity of mineral sufficient to defray the expence of
working, could be brought from the mine by the ordinary, or even less than the
ordinary quantity of labour: But in an inland country, thinly inhabited, and without
either good roads or watercarriage, this quantity could not be sold.
15Coals are a less agreeable fewel than wood: they are said too to be less wholesome.
The expence of coals, therefore, at the place where they are consumed, must generally
be somewhat less than that of wood.
16The price of wood again varies with the state of agriculture, nearly in the same
manner, and exactly for the same reason, as the price of cattle. In its rude beginnings
the greater part of every country is covered with wood, which is then a mere
incumbrance of no value to the landlord, who would gladly give it to any body for the
cutting. As agriculture advances, the woods are partly cleared by the progress of
tillage, and partly go to decay in consequence of the increased number of cattle.
These, though they do not increase in the same proportion as corn, which is altogether
the acquisition of human industry, yet multiply under the care and protection of men;
who store up in the season of plenty what may maintain them in that of scarcity, who
through the whole year furnish them with a greater quantity of food than uncultivated
nature provides for them, and who by destroying and extirpating their enemies, secure
them in the free enjoyment of all that she provides. Numerous herds of cattle, when
allowed to wander through the woods, though they do not destroy the old trees, hinder
any young ones from coming up, so that in the course of a century or two the whole
forest goes to ruin. The scarcity of wood then raises its price. It affords a good rent,
and the landlord sometimes finds that he can scarce employ his best lands more
advantageously than in growing barren timber, of which the greatness of the profit
often compensates the lateness of the returns. This seems in the present times to be
nearly the state of things in several parts of Great Britain, where the profit of planting
is found to be equal to that of either corn or pasture. The advantage which the
landlord derives from planting, can no–where exceed, at least for any considerable
time, the rent which these could afford him; and in an inland country which is highly
cultivated, it will frequently not fall much short of this rent. Upon the sea–coast of a
well–improved country, indeed, if fcoalsf can conveniently gbe hadg for fewel, it may
sometimes be cheaper to bring barren timber for building from less cultivated foreign
countries, than to raise it at home. In the new town of Edinburgh, built within these
few years, there is not, perhaps, a single stick of Scotch timber.13
17Whatever may be the price of wood, if that of coals is such that the expence of a
coal–fire is nearly equal to that of a wood one, we may be assured, that at that place,
and in these circumstances, the price of coals is as high as it can be. It seems to be so
in some of the inland parts of England, particularly in Oxfordshire, where it is usual,
even in the fires of the common people, to mix coals and wood together, and where
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the difference in the expence of those two sorts of fewel cannot, therefore, be very
great.
18Coals, in the coal countries, are every–where much below this highest price. If they
were not, they could not bear the expence of a distant carriage, either by land or by
water. A small quantity only could be sold, and the coal masters and coal proprietors
find it more for their interest to sell a great quantity at a price somewhat above the
lowest, than a small quantity at the highest. The most fertile coal mine too, regulates
the price of coals at all the other mines in its neighbourhood. Both the proprietor and
the undertaker of the work find, the one that he can get a greater rent, the other that he
can get a greater profit, by somewhat underselling all their neighbours. Their
neighbours are soon obliged to sell at the same price, though they cannot so well
afford it, and though it always diminishes, and sometimes takes away altogether both
their rent and their profit. Some works are abandoned altogether; others can afford no
rent, and can be wrought only by the proprietor.
19The lowest price at which coals can be sold for any considerable time, is, like that
of all other commodities, the price which is barely sufficient to replace, together with
its ordinary profits, the stock which must be employed in bringing them to market. At
a coal–mine for which the landlord can get no rent, but which he must either work
himself or let it alone altogether, the price of coals must generally be nearly about this
price.
20Rent, even where coals afford one, has generally a smaller share in their price than
in that of most other parts of the rude produce of land. The rent of an estate above
ground, commonly amounts to what is supposed to be a third of the gross produce;
and it is generally a rent certain and independent of the occasional variations in the
crop.14 In coal–mines a fifth of the gross produce is a very great rent; a tenth the
common rent, and it is seldom a rent certain, but depends upon the occasional
variations in the produce. These are so great, that in a country where thirty years
purchase is considered as a moderate price for the property of a landed estate, ten
years purchase is regarded as a good price for that of a coalmine.
21The value of a coal–mine to the proprietor hfrequently dependsh as much upon its
situation as upon its fertility.15 That of a metallick mine depends more upon its
fertility, and less upon its situation. The coarse, and still more the precious metals,
when separated from the ore, are so valuable that they can generally bear the expence
of a very long land, and of the most distant sea carriage. Their market is not confined
to the countries in the neighbourhood of the mine, but extends to the whole world.
The copper of Japan makes an article iof commerce ini Europe; the iron of Spain in
that of Chili and Peru. The silver of Peru finds its way, not only to Europe, but from
Europe to China.
22The price of coals in Westmorland or Shropshire can have little effect on their price
at Newcastle; and their price in the Lionnois can have none at all. The productions of
such distant coal–mines can never be brought into competition with one another. But
the productions of the most distant metallick mines frequently may, and in fact
commonly are. The price, therefore, of the coarse, and still more that of the precious
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metals, at the most fertile mines in the world, must necessarily more or less affect
their price at every other in it. The price of copper in Japan must have some influence
upon its price at the copper mines in Europe. The price of silver in Peru, or the
quantity either of labour or of other goods which it will purchase there, must have
some influence on its price, not only at the silver mines of Europe, but at those of
China. After the discovery of the mines of Peru, the silver mines of Europe were, the
greater part of them, abandoned. The value of silver was so much reduced that their
produce could no longer pay the expence of working them, or replace, with a profit,
the food, cloaths, lodging and other necessaries which were consumed in that
operation. This was the case too with the mines of Cuba and St. Domingo, and even
with the antient mines of Peru, after the discovery of those of Potosi.
23The price of every metal at every mine, therefore, being regulated in some measure
by its price at the most fertile mine in the world that is actually wrought, it can at the
greater part of mines do very little more than pay the expence of working, and can
seldom afford a very high rent of the landlord. Rent, accordingly, seems at the greater
part of mines to have but a small share in the price of the coarse, and a still smaller in
that of the precious metals. Labour and profit make up the greater part of both.
24A sixth part of the gross produce may be reckoned the average rent of the tin mines
of Cornwall, the most fertile that are known in the world, as we are told by the
Reverend Mr. Borlace, vice–warden of the stannaries. Some, he says, afford more,
and some do not afford so much.16 A sixth part of the gross produce is the rent too of
several very fertile lead mines in Scotland.17
25In the silver mines of Peru, we are told by Frezier and Ulloa,18 the proprietor
frequently exacts no other acknowldgement from the undertaker of the mine, but that
he will grind the ore at his mill, paying him the ordinary multure or price of grinding.
j
Till 1736, indeed, the tax of the king of Spain amountedj to one–fifth of the standard
silver, which ktill then mightk be considered as the real rent of the greater part of the
silver mines of Peru, the richest which lhave beenl known in the world. If there mhad
beenm no tax this fifth would naturally nhave belongedn to the landlord, and many
mines might ohave beeno wrought which pcould not then be wroughtp because they
q
could notq afford this tax. The tax of the duke of Cornwall upon tin is supposed to
amount to more than five per cent. or one–twentieth part of the value;19 and whatever
may be his proportion, it would naturally too belong to the proprietor of the mine, if
tin was duty free. But if you add one–twentieth to one–sixth, you will find that the
whole average rent of the tin mines of Cornwall, rwasr to the whole average rent of
the silver mines of Peru, as thirteen to twelve. sBut the silver mines of Peru are not
now able to pay even this low rent, and the tax upon silver was, in 1736, reduced from
one–fifth to one–tenth.20 Even this tax upon silver too gives more temptation to
smuggling than the tax of one–twentieth upon tin;s and smuggling must be much
easier in the precious than in the bulky commodity. The tax of the king of Spain
accordingly is said to be very ill paid, and that of the duke of Cornwall very well.
Rent, therefore, it is probable, makes a greater part of the price of tin at the most
fertile tin mines, than it does of silver at the most fertile silver mines in the world.
After replacing the stock employed in working those different mines, together with its
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ordinary profits, the residue which remains to the proprietor, is greater it seems in the
coarse, than in the precious metal.
26Neither are the profits of the undertakers of silver mines commonly very great in
Peru. The same most respectable and well informed authors acquaint us, that when
any person undertakes to work a new mine in Peru, he is universally looked upon as a
man destined to bankruptcy and ruin, and is upon that account shunned and avoided
by every body. Mining, it seems, is considered there in the same light as here, as a
lottery, in which the prizes do not compensate the blanks, though the greatness of
some tempts many adventurers to throw away their fortunes in such unprosperous
projects.21
27As the sovereign, however, derives a considerable part of his revenue from the
produce of silver mines, the law in Peru gives every possible encouragement to the
discovery and working of new ones. Whoever discovers a new mine, is entitled to
measure off two hundred and forty–six feet in length, according to what he supposes
to be the direction of the vein, and half as much in breadth. He becomes proprietor of
this portion of the mine, and can work it without paying any acknowledgement to the
landlord. The interest of the duke of Cornwall has given occasion to a regulation
nearly of the same kind in that antient dutchy. In waste and uninclosed lands any
person who discovers a tin mine, may mark out its limits to a certain extent, which is
called bounding a mine. The bounder becomes the real proprietor of the mine, and
may either work it himself, or give it in lease to another, without the consent of the
owner of the land, to whom, however, a very small acknowledgement must be paid
upon working it.22 In both regulations the sacred rights of private property are
sacrificed to the supposed interests of publick revenue.
28The same encouragement is given in Peru to the discovery and working of new
gold mines; and in gold the king’s tax amounts only to a twentieth part of the standard
metal. It was once a fifth, tand afterwards a tenth,t as in silver; but it was found that
the work could not bear ueven the lowest of these two taxesu . If it is rare, however,
say the same authors, Frezier and Ulloa, to find a person who has made his fortune by
a silver, it is still much rarer to find one who has done so by a gold mine.23 This
twentieth part seems to be the whole rent which is paid by the greater part of the gold
mines in Chili and Peru. Gold too is much more liable to be smuggled than even
silver; not only on account of the superior value of the metal in proportion to its bulk,
but on account of the peculiar way in which nature produces it. Silver is very seldom
found virgin, but, like most other metals, is generally mineralized with some other
body, from which it is impossible to separate it in such quantities as will pay for the
expence, but by a very laborious and tedious operation, which cannot well be carried
on but in workhouses erected for the purpose, and therefore exposed to the inspection
of the king’s officers. Gold, on the contrary, is almost always found virgin. It is
sometimes found in pieces of some bulk; and even when mixed in small and almost
insensible particles with sand, earth, and other extraneous bodies, it can be separated
from them by a very short and simple operation, which can be carried on in any
private house by any body who is possessed of a small quantity of mercury. If the
king’s tax, therefore, is but ill paid upon silver, it is likely to be much worse paid upon
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gold; and rent must make a much smaller part of the price of gold, than even of that of
silver.
29The lowest price at which the precious metals can be sold, or the smallest quantity
of other goods for which they can be exchanged during any considerable time, is
regulated by the same principles which fix the lowest ordinary price of all other
goods. The stock which must commonly be employed, the food, cloaths and lodging
which must commonly be consumed in bringing them from the mine to the market,
determine it. It must at least be sufficient to replace that stock, with the ordinary
profits.
30Their highest price, however, seems not to be necessarily determined by any thing
but the actual scarcity or plenty of those metals themselves. It is not determined by
that of any other commodity, in the same manner as the price of coals is by that of
wood, beyond which no scarcity can ever raise it. Increase the scarcity of gold to a
certain degree, and the smallest bit of it may become more precious than a diamond,
and exchange for a greater quantity of other goods.24
31The demand for those metals arises partly from their utility, and partly from their
beauty.25 If you except iron, they are more useful than, perhaps, any other metal. As
they are less liable to rust and impurity, they can more easily be kept clean; and the
utensils either of the table or the kitchen are often upon that account more agreeable
when made of them. A silver boiler is more cleanly than a lead, copper, or tin one;
and the same quality would render a gold boiler still better than a silver one.26 Their
principal merit, however, arises from their beauty, which renders them peculiarly fit
for the ornaments of dress and furniture. No paint or dye can give so splendid a colour
as gilding. The merit of their beauty is greatly enhanced by their scarcity.27 With the
greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of
riches, which in their veyesv is never so compleat as when they appear to possess
those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.28 In
their eyes the merit of an object which is in any degree either useful or beautiful, is
greatly enhanced by its scarcity, or by the great labour which it requires to collect any
considerable quantity of it, a labour which nobody can afford to pay but
themselves.29 Such objects they are willing to purchase at a higher price than things
much more beautiful and useful, but more common. These qualities of utility, beauty,
and scarcity, are the original foundation of the high price of those metals, or of the
great quantity of other goods for which they can every where be exchanged. This
value was antecedent to and independent of their being employed as coin, and was the
quality which fitted them for that employment. That employment, however, by
occasioning a new demand, and by diminishing the quantity which could be employed
in any other way, may have afterwards contributed to keep up or increase their value.
32The demand for the precious stones arises altogether from their beauty. They are of
no use, but as ornaments; and the merit of their beauty is greatly enhanced by their
scarcity, or by the difficulty and expence of getting them from the mine.30 Wages and
profit accordingly make up, upon most occasions, almost the whole of their high
price. Rent comes in but for a very small share; frequently for no share; and the most
fertile mines only afford any considerable rent. When Tavernier, a jeweller, visited
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the diamond mines of Golconda and Visiapour, he was informed that the sovereign of
the country, for whose benefit they were wrought, had ordered all of them to be shut
up, except those which wyieldedw the largest and finest stones.31 The others, it seems,
were to the proprietor not worth the working.
33As the price both of the precious metals and of the precious stones is regulated all
over the world by their price at the most fertile mine in it, the rent which a mine of
either can afford to its proprietor is in proportion, not to its absolute, but to what may
x x
be called its relative fertility, or to its superiority over other mines of the same kind.
If new mines were discovered as much superior to those of Potosi as they were
superior to those of Europe, the value of silver might be so much degraded as to
render even the mines of Potosi not worth the working. Before the discovery of the
Spanish West Indies, the most fertile mines in Europe may have afforded as great a
rent to their proprietor as the richest mines in Peru do at present. Though the quantity
of silver was much less, it might have exchanged for an equal quantity of other goods,
and the proprietor’s share might have enabled him to purchase or command an equal
quantity either of labour or of commodities. The value both of the produce and of the
rent, the real revenue which they afforded both to the publick and to the proprietor,
might have been the same.
34The most abundant mines either of the precious metals or of the precious stones
could add little to the wealth of the world. A produce of which the value is principally
derived from its scarcity, is necessarily degraded by its abundance. A service of plate,
and the other frivolous ornaments of dress and furniture, could be purchased for a
smaller quantity of labour, or for a smaller quantity of commodities; and in this would
consist the sole advantage which the world could derive from that abundance.
35It is otherwise in estates above ground. The value both of their produce and of their
rent is in proportion to their absolute, and not to their relative fertility. The land which
produces a certain quantity of food, cloaths, and lodging, can always feed, cloath, and
lodge a certain number of people; and whatever may be the proportion of the landlord,
it will always give him a proportionable command of the labour of those people, and
of the commodities with which that labour can supply him. The value of the most
barren lands is not diminished by the neighbourhood of the most fertile. On the
contrary, it is generally increased by it. The great number of people maintained by the
fertile lands afford a market to many parts of the produce of the barren, which they
could never have found among those whom their own produce could maintain.
36Whatever increases the fertility of land in producing food, increases not only the
value of the lands upon which the improvement is bestowed, but contributes likewise
to increase that of many other lands, by creating a new demand for their produce. That
abundance of food, of which, in consequence of the improvement of land, many
people have the disposal beyond what they themselves can consume, is the great
cause of the demand both for the precious metals and the precious stones, as well as
for every other conveniency and ornament of dress, lodging, houshold furniture, and
equipage.32 Food not only constitutes the principal part of the riches of the world, but
it is the abundance of food which gives the principal part of their value to many other
sorts of riches. The poor inhabitants of Cuba and St. Domingo, when they were first
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discovered by the Spaniards, used to wear little bits of gold as ornaments in their hair
and other parts of their dress. They seemed to value them as we would do any little
pebbles of somewhat more than ordinary beauty, and to consider them as just worth
the picking up, but not worth the refusing to any body who asked them. They gave
them to their new guests at the first request, without seeming to think that they had
made them any very valuable present.33 They were astonished to observe the rage of
the Spaniards to obtain them; and had no notion that there could any where be a
country in which many people had the disposal of so great a superfluity of food, so
scanty always among themselves, that for a very small quantity of those glittering
baubles they would willingly give as much as might maintain a whole family for
many years. Could they have been made to understand this, the passion of the
Spaniards would not have surprised them.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
Part Iii
Of The Variations In The Proportion Between The Respective
Values Of That Sort Of Produce Which Always Affords Rent,
And Of That Which Sometimes Does, And Sometimes Does
Not, Afford Rent
3The great market for silver is the commercial and civilized part of the world.
4If by the general progress of improvement the demand of this market should
increase, while at the same time the supply did not increase in the same proportion,
the value of silver would gradually rise in proportion to that of corn. Any given
quantity of silver would exchange for a greater and a greater quantity of corn; or, in
other words, the average money price of corn would gradually become cheaper and
cheaper.
5If, on the contrary, the supply by some accident should increase for many years
together in a greater proportion than the demand, that metal would gradually become
cheaper and cheaper; or, in other words, the average money price of corn would, in
spite of all improvements, gradually become dearer and dearer.1
6But if, on the other hand, the supply of the metal should increase nearly in the same
proportion as the demand, it would continue to purchase or exchange for nearly the
same quantity of corn, and the average money price of corn would, in spite of all
improvements, continue very nearly the same.
7These three seem to exhaust all the possible combinations of events which can
happen in the progress of improvement; and during the course of the four centuries
preceding the present, if we may judge by what has happened both in France and
Great Britain, each of those three different combinations seem to have taken place in
the European market, and nearly in the same order too in which I have here set them
down.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
Digression Concerning The Variations In The Value Of Silver
During The Course Of The Four Last Centuries
First Period
1In 1350, and for some time before, the average price of the quarter of wheat in
England seems not to have been estimated lower than four ounces of silver,
Tower–weight, equal to about twenty shillings of our present money. From this price
it seems to have fallen gradually to two ounces of silver, equal to about ten shillings
of our present money, the price at which we find it estimated in the beginning of the
sixteenth century, and at which it seems to have continued to be estimated till about
1570.
2In 1350, being the 25th of Edward III, was enacted what is called, The statute of
labourers.1 In the preamble it complains much of the insolence of servants, who
endeavoured to raise their wages upon their masters.2 It therefore ordains, that all
servants and labourers should for the future be contented with the same wages and
liveries (liveries in those times signified, not only cloaths, but provisions) which they
had been accustomed to receive in the 20th year of the king, and the four preceding
years; that upon this account their livery wheat should no where be estimated higher
than ten–pence a bushel, and that it should always be in the option of the master to
deliver them either the wheat or the money. Ten–pence a bushel, therefore, had in the
25th of Edward III, been reckoned a very moderate price of wheat, since it required a
particular statute to oblige servants to accept of it in exchange for their usual livery of
provisions; and it had been reckoned a reasonable price ten years before that, or in the
16th year of the king, the term to which the statute refers. But in the 16th year of
Edward III, ten–pence contained about half an ounce of silver, Tower–weight, and
was nearly equal to half a crown of our present money.3 Four ounces of silver,
Tower–weight, therefore, equal to six shillings and eight–pence of the money of those
times, and to near twenty shillings of that of the present, must have been reckoned a
moderate price for the quarter of eight bushels.
3This statute is surely a better evidence of what was reckoned in those times a
moderate price of grain, than the prices of some particular years which have generally
been recorded by historians and other writers on account of their extraordinary
dearness or cheapness, and from which, therefore, it is difficult to form any judgment
concerning what may have been the ordinary price.4 There are, besides, other reasons
for believing that in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and for some time before,
the common price of wheat was not less than four ounces of silver the quarter, and
that of other grain in proportion.
4In 1309, Ralph de Born, prior of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, gave a feast upon his
installation–day, of which William Thorn has preserved, not only the bill of fare, but
the prices of many particulars. In that feast were consumed, 1st, fifty–three quarters of
wheat, which cost nineteen pounds, or seven shillings and two–pence a quarter, equal
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to about one–and–twenty shillings and six–pence of our present money: 2dly,
Fifty–eight quarters of malt, which cost seventeen pounds ten shillings, or six
shillings a quarter, equal to about eighteen shillings of our present money: 3dly,
Twenty quarters of oats, which cost four pounds, or four shillings a quarter, equal to
about twelve shillings of our present money.5 The prices of malt and oats seem here
to be higher than their ordinary proportion to the price of wheat.
5These prices are not recorded on account of their extraordinary dearness or
cheapness, but are mentioned accidentally as the prices actually paid for large
quantities of grain consumed at a feast which was famous for its magnificence.
6In 1262, being the 51st of Henry III, was revived an ancient statute called, The
Assize of Bread and Ale,6 which, the king says in the preamble, had been made in the
times of his progenitors sometime kings of England. It is probably, therefore, as old at
least as the time of his grandfather Henry II, and may have been as old as the
conquest. It regulates the price of bread according as the prices of wheat may happen
to be, from one shilling to twenty shillings the quarter of the money of those times.
But statutes of this kind are generally presumed to provide with equal care for all
deviations from the middle price, for those below it as well as for those above it. Ten
shillings, therefore, containing six ounces of silver, Tower–weight, and equal to about
thirty shillings of our present money, must, upon this supposition, have been reckoned
the middle price of the quarter of wheat when this statute was first enacted, and must
have continued to be so in the 51st of Henry III. We cannot therefore be very a wrong
in supposing that the middle price was not less than one–third of the highest price at
which this statute regulates the price of bread, or than six shillings and eight–pence of
the money of those times, containing four ounces of silver, Tower–weight.
7From these different facts, therefore, we seem to have some reason to conclude, that
about the middle of the fourteenth century, and for a considerable time before, the
average or ordinary price of the quarter of wheat was not supposed to be less than four
ounces of silver, Towerweight.7
8From about the middle of the fourteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century,
what was reckoned the reasonable and moderate, that is the ordinary or average price
of wheat, seems to have sunk gradually to about one–half of this price; so as at last to
have fallen to about two ounces of silver, Tower–weight, equal to about ten shillings
of our present money. It continued to be estimated at this price till about 1570.
9In the houshold book of Henry, the fifth earl of Northumberland, drawn up in 1512,
there are two different estimations of wheat. In one of them it is computed at
six–shillings and eight–pence the quarter, in the other at five shillings and
eight–pence only.8 In 1512, six shillings and eight–pence contained only two ounces
of silver Tower–weight, and were equal to about ten shillings of our present money.
10From the 25th of Edward III, to the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, during the
space of more than two hundred years, six shillings and eight–pence, it appears from
several different statutes, had continued to be considered as what is called the
moderate and reasonable, that is the ordinary or average price of wheat. The quantity
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of silver, however, contained in that nominal sum was, during the course of this
period, continually diminishing, in consequence of some alterations which were made
in the coin. But the increase of the value of silver had, it seems, so far compensated
the diminution of the quantity of it contained in the same nominal sum, that the
legislature did not think it worth while to attend to this circumstance.
11Thus in 1436 it was enacted, that wheat might be exported without a licence when
the price was so low as six shillings and eight–pence:9 And in 1463 it was enacted,
that no wheat should be imported if the price was not above six shillings and
eight–pence the quarter.10 The legislature had imagined, that when the price was so
low, there could be no inconveniency in exportation, but that when it rose higher, it
became prudent to allow of importation. Six shillings and eight–pence, therefore,
containing about the same quantity of silver as thirteen shillings and four–pence of
our present money (one third part less than the same nominal sum contained in the
time of Edward III.), had in those times been considered as what is called the
moderate and reasonable price of wheat.
12In 1554, by the 1st and 2d of Philip and Mary;11 and in 1558, by the 1st of
Elizabeth, the exportation of wheat was in the same manner prohibited, whenever the
price of the quarter should exceed six shillings and eight–pence,12 which did not then
contain two penny worth more silver than the same nominal sum does at present. But
it had soon been found that to restrain the exportation of wheat till the price was so
very low, was, in reality, to prohibit it altogether. In 1562, therefore, by the 5th of
Elizabeth, the exportation of wheat was allowed from certain ports whenever the price
of the quarter should not exceed ten shillings,13 containing nearly the same quantity
of silver as the like nominal sum does at present. This price had at this time, therefore,
been considered as what is called the moderate and reasonable price of wheat. It
agrees nearly with the estimation of the Northumberland book in 1512.
13That in France the average price of grain was, in the same manner, much lower in
the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, than in the two
centuries preceding, has been observed both by Mr. Duprè de St. Maur,14 and by the
elegant author of the Essay on the police of grain.15 Its price, during the same period,
had probably sunk in the same manner through the greater part of Europe.
14This rise in the value of silver in proportion to that of corn, may either have been
owing altogether to the increase of the demand for that metal, in consequence of
increasing improvement and cultivation, the supply in the mean time continuing the
same as before: Or, the demand continuing the same as before, it may have been
owing altogether to the gradual diminution of the supply; the greater part of the mines
which were then known in the world, being much exhausted, and consequently the
expence of working them much increased: Or it may have been owing partly to the
one and partly to the other of those two circumstances. In the end of the fifteenth and
beginning of the sixteenth centuries, the greater part of Europe was approaching
towards a more settled form of government than it had enjoyed for several ages
before. The increase of security would naturally increase industry and improvement;
and the demand for the precious metals, as well as for every other luxury and
ornament, would naturally increase with the increase of riches. A greater annual
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produce would require a greater quantity of coin to circulate it; and a greater number
of rich people would require a greater quantity of plate and other ornaments of silver.
It is natural to suppose too, that the greater part of the mines which then supplied the
European market with silver, might be a good deal exhausted, and have become more
expensive in the working. They had been wrought many of them from the time of the
Romans.
15It has been the opinion, however, of the greater part of those who have written upon
the prices of commodities in antient times, that, from the Conquest, perhaps from the
invasion of Julius Caesar till the discovery of the mines of America, the value of
silver was continually diminishing.16 This opinion they seem to have been led into,
partly by the observations which they had occasion to make upon the prices both of
corn and of some other parts of the rude produce of land; and partly by the popular
notion, that as the quantity of silver naturally increases in every country with the
increase of wealth, so its value diminishes as its quantity increases.
16In their observations upon the prices of corn, three different circumstances seem
frequently to have misled them.
17First, In antient times almost all rents were paid in kind; in a certain quantity of
corn, cattle, poultry, &c. It sometimes happened, however, that the landlord would
stipulateb , that he should be at liberty to demand cof the tenant,c either the annual
payment in kind, or a certain sum of money instead of it. The price at which the
payment in kind was in this manner exchanged for a certain sum of money, is in
Scotland called the conversion price. As the option is always in the landlord to take
either the substance or the price, it is necessary for the safety of the tenant, that the
conversion price should rather be below than above the average market price. In many
places, accordingly, it is not much above one–half of this price. Through the greater
part of Scotland this custom still continues with regard to poultry, and in some places
with regard to cattle. It might probably have continued to take place too with regard to
corn, had not the institution of the publick fiars put an end to it. These are annual
valuations, according to the judgment of an assize, of the average price of all the
different sorts of grain, and of all the different qualities of each, according to the
actual market price in every different county.17 This institution rendered it
sufficiently safe for the tenant, and much more convenient for the landlord, to convert,
as they call it, the corn rentd, rather at what should happen to bed the price of the fiars
of each year,e than at any certain fixed price.18 But the writers who have collected the
prices of corn in antient times, seem frequently to have mistaken what is called in
Scotland the conversion price for the actual market price.19 Fleetwood acknowledges,
upon one occasion, that he had made this mistake. As he wrote his book, however, for
a particular purpose, he does not think proper to make this acknowledgment till after
transcribing this conversion price fifteen times.20 The price is eight shillings the
quarter of wheat. This sum in 1423, the year at which he begins with it, contained the
same quantity of silver as sixteen shillings of our present money. But in 1562, the
year at which he ends with it, it contained no more than the same nominal sum does at
present.
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18Secondly, They have been misled by the slovenly manner in which some antient
statutes of assize had been sometimes transcribed by lazy copiers; and sometimes
perhaps actually composed by the legislature.
19The antient statutes of assize seem to have begun always with determining what
ought to be the price of bread and ale when the price of wheat and barley were at the
lowest, and to have proceeded gradually to determine what it ought to be, according
as the prices of those two sorts of grain should gradually rise above this lowest price.
But the transcribers of those statutes seem frequently to have thought it sufficient, to
copy the regulation as far as the three or four first and lowest prices; saving in this
manner their own labour, and judging, I suppose, that this was enough to show what
proportion ought to be observed in all higher prices.
20Thus in the assize of bread and ale, of the 51st of Henry III. the price of bread was
regulated according to the different prices of wheat, from one shilling to twenty
shillings the quarter, of the money of those times. But in the manuscripts from which
all the different editions of the statutes, preceding that of Mr. Ruffhead, were printed,
the copiers had never transcribed this regulation beyond the price of twelve
shillings.21 Several writers, therefore, being misled by this faulty transcription, very
naturally concluded that the middle price, or six shillings the quarter, equal to about
eighteen shillings of our present money, was the ordinary or average price of wheat at
that time.
21In the statute of Tumbrel and Pillory, enacted nearly about the same time,22 the
price of ale is regulated according to every sixpence rise in the price of barley, from
two shillings to four shillings the quarter. That four shillings, however, was not
considered as the highest price to which barley might frequently rise in those times,
and that these prices were only given as an example of the proportion which ought to
be observed in all other prices, whether higher or lower, we may infer from the last
words of the statute; “et sic deinceps crescetur vel diminuetur per sex denarios”. The
expression is very slovenly, but the meaning is plain enough; “That the price of ale is
in this manner to be increased or diminished according to every six–pence rise or fall
in the price of barley”. In the composition of this statute the legislature itself seems to
have been as negligent as the copiers were in the transcription of the other.23
22In an antient manuscript of the Regiam Majestatem,24 an old Scotch law book,
there is a statute of assize, in which the price of bread is regulated according to all the
different prices of wheat, from ten–pence to three shillings the Scotch boll, equal to
about half an English quarter. Three shillings Scotch, at the time when this assize is
supposed to have been enacted, were equal to about nine shillings sterling of our
present money. Mr. Ruddiman seems* to conclude from this, that three shillings was
the highest price to which wheat ever rose in those times, and that ten–pence, a
shilling, or at most two shillings, were the ordinary prices. Upon consulting the
manuscript, however, it appears evidently, that all these prices are only set down as
examples of the proportion which ought to be observed between the respective prices
of wheat and bread. The last words of the statute are, “reliqua judicabis secundum
praescripta habendo respectum ad pretium bladi.” “You shall judge of the remaining
cases according to what is above written having a respect to the price of corn.”
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23Thirdly, They seem to have been misled too by the very low price at which wheat
was sometimes sold in very antient times; and to have imagined, that as its lowest
price was then much lower than in later times, its ordinary price must likewise have
been much lower. They might have found, however, that in those antient times, its
highest price was fully as much above, as its lowest price was below any thing that
had ever been known in later times. Thus in 1270, Fleetwood gives us two prices of
the quarter of wheat.25 The one is four pounds sixteen shillings of the money of those
times, equal to fourteen pounds eight shillings of that of the present; the other is six
pounds eight shillings, equal to nineteen pounds four shillings of our present money.
No price can be found in the end of the fifteenth, or beginning of the sixteenth
century, which approaches to the extravagance of these. The price of corn, though at
all times liable to gvariationsg varies most in those turbulent and disorderly societies,
in which the interruption of all commerce and communication hinders the plenty of
one part of the country from relieving the scarcity of another.26 In the disorderly state
of England under the Plantagenets, who governed it from about the middle of the
twelfth, till towards the end of the fifteenth century, one district might be in plenty,
while another at no great distance, by having its crop destroyed either by some
accident of the seasons, or by the incursion of some neighbouring baron, might be
suffering all the horrors of a famine; and yet if the lands of some hostile lord were
interposed between them, the one might not be able to give the least assistance to the
other. Under the vigorous administration of the Tudors, who governed England during
the latter part of the fifteenth, and through the whole of the sixteenth century, no
baron was powerful enough to dare to disturb the publick security.27
24The reader will find at the end of this chapter all the prices of wheat which have
been collected by Fleetwood from 1202 to 1597, both inclusive, reduced to the money
of the present times, and digested according to the order of time, into seven divisions
of twelve years each. At the end of each division too, he will find the average price of
the twelve years of which it consists. In that long period of time, Fleetwood has been
able to collect the prices of no more than eighty years, so that four years are wanting
to make out the last twelve years. I have added, therefore, from the accounts of Eton
college, the prices of 1598, 1599, 1600, and 1601. It is the only addition which I have
made. The reader will see that from the beginning of the thirteenth, till after the
middle of the sixteenth century, the average price of each twelve years grows
gradually lower and lower; and that towards the end of the sixteenth century it begins
to rise again. The prices, indeed, which Fleetwood has been able to collect, seem to
have been those chiefly which were remarkable for extraordinary dearness or
cheapness; and I do not pretend that any very certain conclusion can be drawn from
them. So far, however, as they prove any thing at all, they confirm the account which
I have been endeavouring to give. Fleetwood himself, however, seems, with most
other writers, to have believed, that during all this period the value of silver, in
consequence of its increasing abundance, was continually diminishing. The prices of
corn which he himself has collected, certainly do not agree with this opinion. They
agree perfectly with that of Mr. Duprè de St. Maur, and with that which I have been
endeavouring to explain. Bishop Fleetwood and Mr. Duprè de St. Maur are the two
authors who seem to have collected, with the greatest diligence and fidelity, the prices
of things in antient times. It is somewhat curious that, though their opinions are so
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very different, their facts, so far as they relate to the price of corn at least, should
coincide so very exactly.28
25It is not, however, so much from the low price of corn, as from that of some other
parts of the rude produce of land, that the most judicious writers have inferred the
great value of silver in those very antient times. Corn, it has been said, being a sort of
manufacture, was, in those rude ages, much dearer in proportion than the greater part
of other commodities; it is meant, I suppose, than the greater part of unmanufactured
commodities; such as cattle, poultry, game of all kinds, &c. That in those times of
poverty and barbarism these were proportionably much cheaper than corn, is
undoubtedly true. But this cheapness was not the effect of the high value of silver, but
of the low value of those commodities. It was not hbecauseh silver would in such
times purchase or represent a greater quantity of labour, but ibecausei such
commodities would purchase or represent a much smaller quantity than in times of
more opulence and improvement. Silver must certainly be cheaper in Spanish
America than in Europe; in the country where it is produced, than in the country to
which it is brought, at the expence of a long carriage both by land and by sea, of a
freight and an insurance. One–and–twenty pence halfpenny sterling, however, we are
told by Ulloa, was, not many years ago, at Buenos Ayres, the price of an ox chosen
from a herd of three or four hundred. Sixteen shillings sterling, we are told by Mr.
Byron, was the price of a good horse in the capital of Chili.29 In a country naturally
fertile, but of which the far greater part is altogether uncultivated, cattle, poultry,
game of all kinds, &c. as they can be acquired with a very small quantity of labour, so
they will purchase or command but a very small quantity.30 The low money price for
which they may be sold, is no proof that the real value of silver is there very high, but
that the real value of those commodities is very low.
26Labour, it must always be remembered, and not any particular commodity or sett of
commodities, is the real measure of the value both of silver and of all other
commodities.31
27 But in countries almost waste, or but thinly inhabited, cattle, poultry, game of all
kinds, &c. as they are the spontaneous productions of nature, so she frequently
produces them in much greater quantities than the consumption of the inhabitants
requires. In such a state of things the supply commonly exceeds the demand. In
different states of society, in different stages of improvement, therefore, such
commodities will represent, or be equivalent to, very different quantities of labour.
28In every state of society, in every stage of improvement, corn is the production of
human industry. But the average produce of every sort of industry is always suited,
more or less exactly, to the average consumption; the average supply to the average
demand. In every different stage of improvement, besides, the raising of equal
quantities of corn in the same soil and climate, will, at an average, require nearly
equal quantities of labour; or what comes to the same thing, the price of nearly equal
quantities; the continual increase of the productive powers of labour in an jimprovingj
state of cultivation, being more or less counter–balanced by the continually increasing
price of cattle, the principal instruments of agriculture.32 Upon all these accounts,
therefore, we may rest assured, that equal quantities of corn will, in every state of
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society, in every stage of improvement, more nearly represent, or be equivalent to,
equal quantities of labour, than equal quantities of any other part of the rude produce
of land. Corn, accordingly, it has already been observed,33 is, in all the different
stages of wealth and improvement, a more accurate measure of value than any other
commodity or sett of commodities. In all those different stages, therefore, we can
judge better of the real value of silver, by comparing it with corn, than by comparing
it with any other commodity, or sett of commodities.
29Corn, besides, or whatever else is the common and favourite vegetable food of the
people, constitutes, in every civilised country, the principal part of the subsistence of
the labourer. In consequence of the extension of agriculture, the land of every country
produces a much greater quantity of vegetable than of animal food, and the labourer
every where lives chiefly upon the wholesome food that is cheapest and most
abundant. Butcher’s–meat, except in the most thriving countries, or where labour is
most highly rewarded, makes but an insignificant part of his subsistence:34 poultry
makes a still smaller part of it, and game no part of it. In France, and even in Scotland,
where labour is somewhat better rewarded than in France, the labouring poor seldom
eat butcher’s–meat, except upon holidays, and other extraordinary occasions. The
money price of labour, therefore, depends much more upon the average money price
of corn, the subsistence of the labourer, than upon that of butcher’s–meat, or of any
other part of the rude produce of land. The real value of gold and silver, therefore, the
real quantity of labour which they can purchase or command, depends much more
upon the quantity of corn which they can purchase or command, than upon that of
butcher’s–meat, or any other part of the rude produce of land.
30Such slight observations, however, upon the prices either of corn or of other
commodities, would not probably have misled so many intelligent authors, had they
not been kinfluenced, at the same time, byk the popular notion, that as the quantity of
silver naturally increases in every country with the increase of wealth, so its value
diminishes as its quantity increases. This notion, however, seems to be altogether
groundless.
31The quantity of the precious metals may increase in any country from two different
causes: either, first, from the increased abundance of the mines which supply it; or,
secondly, from the increased wealth of the people, from the increased produce of their
annual labour. The first of these causes is no doubt necessarily connected with the
diminution of the value of the precious metals; but the second is not.
32When more abundant mines are discovered, a greater quantity of the precious
metals is brought to market, and the quantity of the necessaries and conveniencies of
life for which they must be exchanged being the same as before, equal quantities of
the metals must be exchanged for smaller quantities of commodities. So far, therefore,
as the increase of the quantity of the precious metals in any country arises from the
increased abundance of the mines, it is necessarily connected with some diminution of
their value.35
33When, on the contrary, the wealth of any country increases, when the annual
produce of its labour becomes gradually greater and greater, a greater quantity of coin
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becomes necessary in order to circulate a greater quantity of commodities; and the
people, as they can afford it, as they have more commodities to give for it, will
naturally purchase a greater and a greater quantity of plate. The quantity of their coin
will increase from necessity; the quantity of their plate from vanity and ostentation, or
from the same reason that the quantity of fine statues, pictures, and of every other
luxury and curiosity, is likely to increase among them. But as statuaries and painters
are not likely to be worse rewarded in times of wealth and prosperity, than in times of
poverty and depression, so gold and silver are not likely to be worse paid for.
34The price of gold and silver, when the accidental discovery of more abundant mines
does not keep it down, as it naturally rises with the wealth of every country, so,
whatever be the state of the mines, it is at all times naturally higher in a rich than in a
poor country. Gold and silver, like all other commodities, naturally seek the market
where the best price is given for them, and the best price is commonly given for every
thing in the country which can best afford it. Labour, it must be remembered, is the
ultimate price which is paid for every thing,36 and in countries where labour is
equally well rewarded, the money price of labour will be in proportion to that of the
subsistence of the labourer. But gold and silver will naturally exchange for a greater
quantity of subsistence in a rich than in a poor country, in a country which abounds
with subsistence, than in one which is but indifferently supplied with it. If the two
countries are at a great distance, the difference may be very great; because though the
metals naturally fly from the worse to the better market, yet it may be difficult to
transport them in such quantities as to bring their price nearly to a level in both. If the
countries are near, the difference will be smaller, and may sometimes be scarce
perceptible; because in this case the transportation will be easy. China is a much
richer country than any part of Europe,37 and the difference between the price of
subsistence in China and in Europe is very great. Rice in China is much cheaper than
wheat is any where in Europe. England is a much richer country than Scotland; but
the difference between the money–price of corn in those two countries is much
smaller, and is but just perceptible. In proportion to the quantity or measure, Scotch
corn generally appears to be a good deal cheaper than English; but in proportion to its
quality, it is certainly somewhat dearer. Scotland receives almost every year very
large supplies from England, and every commodity must commonly be somewhat
dearer in the country to which it is brought than in that from which it comes. English
corn, therefore, must be dearer in Scotland than in England, and yet in proportion to
its quality, or to the quantity and goodness of the flour or meal which can be made
from it, it cannot commonly be sold higher there than the Scotch corn which comes to
market in competition with it.38
35The difference between the money price of labour in China and in Europe, is still
greater than that between the money price of subsistence; because the real
recompence of labour is higher in Europe, than in China, the greater part of Europe
being in an improving state, while China seems to be standing still. The money price
of labour is lower in Scotland than in England because the real recompence of labour
is much lower; Scotland, though advancing to greater wealth, ladvancesl much more
slowly than England.39mThe frequency of emigration from Scotland, and the rarity of
it from England, sufficiently prove that the demand for labour is very different in the
two countries.m The proportion between the real recompence of labour in different
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countries, it must be remembered, is naturally regulated, not by their actual wealth or
poverty, but by their advancing, stationary, or declining condition.40
36Gold and silver, as they are naturally of the greatest value among the richest, so
they are naturally of nthen least value among the poorest nations. Among savages, the
poorest of all nations, they are of scarce any value.
37In great towns corn is always dearer than in remote parts of the country. This,
however, is the effect, not of the real cheapness of silver, but of the real dearness of
corn. It does not cost less labour to bring silver to the great town than to the remote
parts of the country; but it costs a great deal more to bring corn.
38 In some very rich and commercial countries, such as Holland and the territory of
Genoa, corn is dear for the same reason that it is dear in great towns.41 They do not
produce enough to maintain their inhabitants. They are rich in the industry and skill of
their artificers and manufacturers; in every sort of machinery which can facilitate and
abridge labour; in shipping, and in all the other instruments and means of carriage and
commerce: but they are poor in corn, which, as it must be brought to them from
distant countries, must, by an addition to its price, pay for the carriage from those
countries. It does not cost less labour to bring silver to Amsterdam than to Dantzick;
but it costs a great deal more to bring corn. The real cost of silver must be nearly the
same in both places; but that of corn must be very different. Diminish the real
opulence either of Holland or of the territory of Genoa, while the number of their
inhabitants oremainso the same: diminish their power of supplying themselves from
distant countries; and the price of corn, instead of sinking with that diminution in the
quantity of their silver, which must necessarily accompany this declension either as its
cause or as its effect, will rise to the price of a famine. When we are in want of
necessaries we must part with all superfluities, of which the value, as it rises in times
of opulence and prosperity, so it sinks in times of poverty and distress. It is otherwise
with necessaries. Their real price, the quantity of labour which they can purchase or
command, rises in times of poverty and distress, and sinks in times of opulence and
prosperity, which are always times of great abundance; for they could not otherwise
be times of opulence and prosperity. Corn is a necessary, silver is only a superfluity.
39Whatever, therefore, may have been the increase in the quantity of the precious
metals, which, during the period between the middle of the fourteenth and that of the
sixteenth century, arose from the increase of wealth and improvement, it could have
no tendency to diminish their value either in Great Britain, or in any other part of
Europe. If those who have collected the prices of things in ancient times, therefore,
had, during this period, no reason to infer the diminution of the value of silver, from
any observations which they had made upon the prices either of corn or of other
commodities, they had still less reason to infer it from any supposed increase of
wealth and improvement.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
Second Period
1But how various soever may have been the opinions of the learned concerning the
progress of the value of silver during athisa first period, they are unanimous
concerning it during the second.1
2From about 1570 to about 1640, during a period of about seventy years, the variation
in the proportion between the value of silver and that of corn, held a quite opposite
course. Silver sunk in its real value, or would exchange for a smaller quantity of
labour than before; and corn rose in its nominal price, and instead of being commonly
sold for about two ounces of silver the quarter, or about ten shillings of our present
money, came to be sold for six and eight ounces of silver the quarter, or about thirty
and forty shillings of our present money.
3The discovery of the abundant mines of America, seems to have been the sole cause
of this diminution in the value of silver in proportion to that of corn.2 It is accounted
for accordingly in the same manner by every body; and there never has been any
dispute either about the fact, or about the cause of it. The greater part of Europe was,
during this period, advancing in industry and improvement, and the demand for silver
must consequently have been increasing. But the increase of the supply had, it seems,
so far exceeded that of the demand, that the value of that metal sunk considerably.
The discovery of the mines of America, it is to be observed, does not seem to have
had any very sensible effect upon the prices of things in England till after 1570;
though even the mines of Potosi had been discovered more than btwentyb years
before.3
4From 1595 to 1620, both inclusive, the average price of the quarter of nine bushels
of the best wheat at Windsor market, appears from the accounts of Eton College, to
have been 2l. 1s. 6d. 9/13. From which sum, neglecting the fraction, and deducting a
ninth,4 or 4s. 7d. ?, the price of the quarter of eight bushels comes out to have been 1l.
16s. 10d.?. And from this sum, neglecting likewise the fraction, and deducting a ninth,
or 4s. 1d. 1/9, for the difference between the price of the best wheat and that of the
middle wheat, the price of the middle wheat comes out to have been about 1l. 12s. 8d.
8/9, or about six ounces and one–third of an ounce of silver.
5From 1621 to 1636, both inclusive, the average price of the same measure of the best
wheat at the same market, appears, from the same accounts, to have been 2l. 10s.;
from which making the like deductions as in the foregoing case, the average price of
the quarter of eight bushels of middle wheat comes out to have been 1l. 19s. 6d. or
about seven ounces and two–thirds of an ounce of silver.
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Third Period
1Between 1630 and 1640, or about 1636, the effect of the discovery of the mines of
America in reducing the value of silver, appears to have been compleated, and the
value of that metal seems never to have sunk lower in proportion to that of corn than
it was about that time. It seems to have risen somewhat in the course of the present
century, and it had probably begun to do so even some time before the end of the last.
2From 1637 to 1700, both inclusive, being the sixty–four last years of the last century,
the average price of the quarter of nine bushels of the best wheat at Windsor market,
appears, from the same accounts, to have been 2l. 11s. 0d. ?; which is only 1s. 0d. ?
dearer than it had been during the sixteen years before. But in the course of these
sixty–four years there happened two events which must have produced a much greater
scarcity of corn than what the course of the seasons would otherwise have occasioned,
and which, therefore, without supposing any further reduction in the value of silver,
will much more than account for this very small enhancement of price.
3The first of these events was the civil war, which, by discouraging tillage and
interrupting commerce, must have raised the price of corn much above what the
course of the seasons would otherwise have occasioned. It must have had this effect
more or less at all the different markets in the kingdom, but particularly at those in the
neighbourhood of London, which require to be supplied from the greatest distance. In
1648, accordingly, the price of the best wheat at Windsor market, appears, from the
same accounts, to have been 4l. 5s. and in 1649 to have been 4l. the quarter of nine
bushels. The excess of those two years above 2l. 10s. (the average price of the sixteen
years preceding 1637) is 3l. 5s.; which divided among the sixty–four last years of the
last century, will alone very nearly account for that small enhancement of price which
seems to have taken place in them. These, however, though the highest, are by no
means the only high prices which seem to have been occasioned by the civil wars.
4The second event was the bounty upon the exportation of corn, granted in 1688.1
The bounty, it has been thought by many people, by encouraging tillage,2 may, in a
long course of years, have occasioned a greater abundance, and consequently a greater
cheapness of corn in the home–market, than what would otherwise have taken place
there. aHow far the bounty could produce this effect at any time,3 I shall examine
hereafter;4 I shall only observe at present, thata between 1688 and 1700, it had bnotb
time to produce cany suchc effect. During this short period its only effect must have
been, by encouraging the exportation of the surplus produce of every year, and
thereby hindering the abundance of one year from compensating the scarcity of
another, to raise the price in the home–market. The scarcity which prevailed in
England from 1693 to 1699, both inclusive, though no doubt principally owing to the
badness of the seasons, and, therefore, extending through a considerable part of
Europe, must have been somewhat enhanced by the bounty. In 1699, accordingly, the
further exportation of corn was prohibited for nine months.5
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5There was a third event which occurred in the course of the same period, and which,
though it could not occasion any scarcity of corn, nor, perhaps, any augmentation in
the real quantity of silver which was usually paid for it, must necessarily have
occasioned some augmentation in the nominal sum. This event was the great
d
debasementd of the silver coin, by clipping and wearing. This evil had begun in the
reign of Charles II. and had gone on continually increasing till 1695;6 at which time,
as we may learn from Mr. Lowndes, the current silver coin was, at an average, near
five–and–twenty per cent. below its standard value.7 But the nominal sum which
constitutes the market–price of every commodity is necessarily regulated, not so much
by the quantity of silver, which, according to the standard, ought to be contained in it,
as by that which, it is found by experience, actually is contained in it. This nominal
sum, therefore, is necessarily higher when the coin is much edebasede by clipping and
wearing, than when near to its standard value.
6In the course of the present century, the silver coin has not at any time been more
below its standard weight than it is at present. But though very much defaced, its
value has been kept up by that of the gold coin for which it is exchanged. For though
before the late re–coinage,8 the gold coin was a good deal defaced too, it was less so
than the silver. In 1695, on the contrary, the value of the silver coin was not kept up
by the gold coin; a guinea then commonly exchanging for thirty shillings of the worn
and clipt silver.9 Before the late re–coinage of the gold, the price of silver bullion was
seldom higher than five shillings and seven–pence an ounce, which is but five–pence
above the mint price. But in 1695, the common price of silver bullion was six
shillings and five–pence an ounce* , which is fifteen–pence above the mint price.
Even before the late recoinage of the gold, therefore, the coin, gold and silver
together, when compared with silver bullion, was not supposed to be more than eight
per cent. below its standard value. In 1695, on the contrary, it had been supposed to be
near five–and–twenty per cent. below that value. But in the beginning of the present
century, that is, immediately after the great recoinage in King William’s time, the
greater part of the current silver coin must have been still nearer to its standard weight
than it is at present. In the course of the present century too there has been no great
publick calamity, such as the civil war, which could either discourage tillage, or
interrupt the interior commerce of the country. And though the bounty, which has
taken place through the greater part of this century, must always raise the price of
corn somewhat higher than it otherwise would be in the actual state of tillage; yet as,
in the course of this century, the bounty has had full time to produce all the good
effects commonly imputed to it, to encourage tillage, and thereby to increase the
quantity of corn in the home market, it mayg, upon the principles of a system which I
shall explain and examine hereafter,g10 be supposed to have done something to lower
the price of that commodity the one way, as well as to raise it the other. It is by many
people supposed to have done more. h In the sixty–four ifirsti years of the present
century accordingly, the average price of the quarter of nine bushels of the best wheat
at Windsor market, appears, by the accounts of Eton College, to have been 2l. 0s.
6d19/32,11 which is about ten shillings and sixpence, or more than five–and–twenty
per cent.12 cheaper than it had been during the sixty–four last years of the last
century; and about nine shillings and six–pence cheaper than it had been during the
sixteen years preceding 1636, when the discovery of the abundant mines of America
may be supposed to have produced its full effect; and about one shilling cheaper than
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it had been in the twenty–six years preceding 1620, before that discovery can well be
supposed to have produced its full effect. According to this account, the average price
of middle wheat, during these sixty–four first years of the present century, comes out
to have been about thirty–two shillings the quarter of eight bushels.
7The value of silver, therefore, seems to have risen somewhat in proportion to that of
corn during the course of the present century, and it had probably begun to do so even
some time before the end of the last.
8In 1687, the price of the quarter of nine bushels of the best wheat at Windsor market
was 1l. 5s. 2d. the lowest price at which it had ever been from 1595.
9In 1688, Mr. Gregory King, a man famous for his knowledge in matters of this kind,
estimated the average price of wheat in years of moderate plenty to be to the grower
3s. 6d. the bushel, or eight–and–twenty shillings the quarter.13 The grower’s price I
understand to be the same with what is sometimes called the contract price, or the
price at which a farmer contracts for a certain number of years to deliver a certain
quantity of corn to a dealer. As a contract of this kind saves the farmer the expence
and trouble of marketing, the contract price is generally lower than what is supposed
to be the average market price. Mr. King had judged eight–and–twenty shillings the
quarter to be at that time the ordinary contract price in years of moderate plenty.
Before the scarcity occasioned by the late extraordinary course of bad seasons, it was j,
I have been assured,j the ordinary contract price in all common years.
10In 1688 was granted the parliamentary bounty upon the exportation of corn.14 The
country gentlemen, who then composed a still greater proportion of the legislature
than they do at present,15 had felt that the money price of corn was falling. The
bounty was an expedient to raise it artificially to the high price at which it had
frequently been sold in the times of Charles I. and II. It was to take place, therefore,
till wheat was so high as forty–eight shillings the quarter; that is twenty shillings, or
5/7ths dearer than Mr. King had in that very year estimated the grower’s price to be in
times of moderate plenty. If his calculations deserve any part of the reputation which
they have obtained very universally, eight–and–forty shillings the quarter, was a price
which, without some such expedient as the bounty, could not at that time be expected,
except in years of extraordinary scarcity. But the government of King William was
not then fully settled. It was in no condition to refuse any thing to the country
gentlemen, from whom it was at that very time soliciting the first establishment of the
annual land–tax.16
11The value of silver, therefore, in proportion to that of corn, had probably risen
somewhat before the end of the last century; and it seems to have continued to do so
during the course of the greater part of the present;17 though the necessary operation
of the bounty must have hindered that rise from being so sensible as it otherwise
would have been in the actual state of tillage.
12In plentiful years the bounty, by occasioning an extraordinary exportation,
necessarily raises the price of corn above what it otherwise would be in those years.
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To encourage tillage, by keeping up the price of corn even in the most plentiful years,
was the avowed end of the institution.
13In years of great scarcity, indeed, the bounty has generally been suspended. It must,
however, have had some effect kevenk upon the prices of many of those years. By the
extraordinary exportation which it occasions in years of plenty, it must frequently
hinder the plenty of one year from compensating the scarcity of another.
14Both in years of plenty and in years of scarcity, therefore, the bounty raises the
price of corn above what it naturally would be in the actual state of tillage. If, during
the sixty–four first years of the present century, therefore, the average price has been
lower than during the sixty–four last years of the last century, it must, in the same
state of tillage, have been much more so, had it not been for this operation of the
bounty.18
15But without the bounty, it may be said, the state of tillage would not have been the
same. What may have been the effects of this institution upon the agriculture of the
country, I shall endeavour to explain hereafter, when I come to treat particularly of
bounties. I shall only observe at present, that this rise in the value of silver, in
proportion to that of corn, has not been peculiar to England. It has been observed to
have taken place in France during the same period, and nearly in the same proportion
too, by three very faithful, diligent, and laborious collectors of the prices of corn, Mr.
Duprè de St. Maur, Mr. Messance, and the author of the Essay on the police of
grain.19 But in France, till 1764, the exportation of grain was by law prohibited;20
and it is somewhat difficult to suppose, that nearly the same diminution of price
which took place in one country, notwithstanding this prohibition, should in another
be owing to the extraordinary encouragement given to exportation.
16It would be more proper, perhaps, to consider this variation in the average money
price of corn as the effect rather of some gradual rise in the real value of silver in the
European market, than of any fall in the real average value of corn. Corn, it has
already been observed,21 is at distant periods of time a more accurate measure of
value than either silver, or perhaps any other commodity. When, after the discovery of
the abundant mines of America, corn rose to three and four times its former money
price, this change was universally ascribed, not to any rise in the real value of corn,
but to a fall in the real value of silver. If during the sixty–four first years of the present
century, therefore, the average money price of corn has fallen somewhat below what
it had been during the greater part of the last century, we should in the same manner
impute this change, not to any fall in the real value of corn, but to some rise in the real
value of silver in the European market.
17The high price of corn during these ten or twelve years past, indeed, has occasioned
a suspicion that the real value of silver still continues to fall in the European market.
This high price of corn, however, seems evidently to have been the effect of the
extraordinary unfavourableness of the seasons, and ought therefore to be regarded, not
as a permanent, but as a transitory and occasional event. The seasons for these ten or
twelve years past have been unfavourable through the greater part of Europe;22 and
the disorders of Poland have very much increased the scarcity in all those countries,
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which, in dear years, used to be supplied from that market.23 So long a course of bad
seasons, though not a very common event, is by no means a singular one; and
whoever has enquired much into the history of the prices of corn in former times, will
be at no loss to recollect several other examples of the same kind. Ten years of
extraordinary scarcity, besides, are not more wonderful than ten years of
extraordinary plenty. The low price of corn from 1741 to 1750, both inclusive, may
very well be set in opposition to its high price during these last eight or ten years.
From 1741 to 1750, the average price of the quarter of nine bushels of the best wheat
at Windsor market, it appears from the accounts of Eton College, was only 1l. 13s.
9d.?, which is nearly 6s. 3d. below the average price of the sixty–four first years of
the present century. The average price of the quarter of eight bushels of middle wheat,
comes out, according to this account, to have been, during these ten years, only 1l. 6s.
8d.24
18Between 1741 and 1750, however, the bounty must have hindered the price of corn
from falling so low in the home market as it naturally would have done. During these
ten years the quantity of all sorts of grain exported, it appears from the custom–house
books, amounted to no less than eight millions twenty–nine thousand one hundred and
fifty–six quarters one bushel. The bounty paid for this amounted to 1,514,962l. 17s.
4d.½.25 In 1749 accordingly, Mr. Pelham, at that time prime minister, observed to the
House of Commons,26 that for the three years preceding, a very extraordinary sum
had been paid as bounty for the exportation of corn. He had good reason to make this
observation, and in the following year he might have had still better. In that single
year the bounty paid amounted to no less than 324,176l. 10s. 6d.*27 It is unnecessary
to observe how much this forced exportation must have raised the price of corn above
what it otherwise would have been in the home market.
19At the end of the accounts annexed to this chapter the reader will find the particular
account of those ten years separated from the rest. He will find there too the particular
account of the preceding ten years, of which the average is likewise below, though not
so much below, the general average of the sixty–four first years of the century. The
year 1740, however, was a year of extraordinary scarcity. These twenty years
preceding 1750, may very well be set in opposition to the twenty preceding 1770. As
the former were a good deal below the general average of the century,
notwithstanding the intervention of one or two dear years; so the latter have been a
good deal above it, notwithstanding the intervention of one or two cheap ones, of
1759, for example.28 If the former have not been as much below the general average,
as the latter have been above it, we ought probably to impute it to the bounty. The
change has evidently been too sudden to be ascribed to any change in the value of
silver, which is always slow and gradual. The suddenness of the effect can be
accounted for only by a cause which can operate suddenly, the accidental variation of
the seasons.
20The money price of labour in Great Britain has, indeed, risen during the course of
the present century.29 This, however, seems to be the effect, not so much of any
diminution in the value of silver in the European market, as of an increase in the
demand for labour in Great Britain, arising from the great, and almost universal
prosperity of the country. In France, a country not altogether so prosperous, the
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money price of labour has, since the middle of the last century, been observed to sink
gradually with the average money price of corn. Both in the last century and in the
present, the day–wages of common labour are there said to have been pretty
uniformly about the twentieth part of the average price of the septier of wheat, a
measure which contains a little more than four Winchester bushels. In Great Britain
the real recompence of labour, it has already been shown,30 the real mquantitiesm of
the necessaries and conveniencies of life which are given to the labourer, has
increased considerably during the course of the present century. The rise in its money
price seems to have been the effect, not of any diminution of the value of silver in the
general market of Europe, but of a rise in the real price of labour in the particular
market of Great Britain, owing to the peculiarly happy circumstances of the country.
21For some time after the first discovery of America, silver would continue to sell at
its former, or not much below its former price. The profits of mining would for some
time be very great, and much above their natural rate. Those who imported that metal
into Europe, however, would soon find that the whole annual importation could not be
disposed of at this high price. Silver would gradually exchange for a smaller and a
smaller quantity of goods. Its price would sink gradually lower and lower till it fell to
its natural price; or to what was just sufficient to pay, according to their natural rates,
the wages of the labour, the profits of the stock, and the rent of the land, which must
be paid in order to bring it from the mine to the market. In the greater part of the silver
mines of Peru, the tax of the king of Spain, amounting to a ntenthn of the gross
produce, eats up, it has already been observed,31 the whole rent of the land. This tax
was originally a half; it soon afterwards fell to a third,o then to a fifth, pand at last to a
tenth,p at which rate it still continues. In the greater part of the silver mines of Peru
this, it seems, is all that remains after replacing the stock of the undertaker of the
work, together with its ordinary profits; and it seems to be universally acknowledged
that these profits, which were once very high, are now as low as they can well be,
consistently with carrying on qtheq works.
22The tax of the king of Spain was reduced to a fifth rpartr of the registered silver in
1504* , one and–tfortyt years before u1545u the date of the discovery of the mines of
Potosi.32 In the course of vninety yearsv or before 1636, these mines, the most fertile
in all America, had time sufficient to produce their full effect, or to reduce the value
of silver in the European market as low as it could well fall, while it continued to pay
this tax to the king of Spain. wNinetyw years is time sufficient to reduce any
commodity, of which there is no monopoly, to its natural price, or to the lowest price
at which, while it pays a particular tax, it can continue to be sold for any considerable
time together.33
23The price of silver in the European market might perhaps have fallen still lower,
and it might have become necessary either to xreducex the tax upon it, ynot only to
one tenth, as in 1736, but to one twentieth,y in the same manner as that upon gold, or
to give up working the greater part of the American mines which are now wrought.
The gradual increase of the demand for silver, or the gradual enlargement of the
market for the produce of the silver mines of America, is probably the cause which
has prevented this from happening, and which has not only kept up the value of silver
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in the European market, but has perhaps even raised it somewhat higher than it was
about the middle of the last century.
24Since the first discovery of America, the market for the produce of its silver mines
has been growing gradually more and more extensive.
25 First, The market of Europe has become gradually more and more extensive. Since
the discovery of America, the greater part of Europe has been much improved.
England, Holland, France, and Germany; even Sweden, Denmark, and Russia, have
all advanced considerably both in agriculture and in manufactures. Italy seems not to
have gone backwards. The fall of Italy preceded the conquest of Peru. Since that time
it seems rather to have recovered a little. Spain and Portugal, indeed, are supposed to
have gone backwards. Portugal, however, is but a very small part of Europe, and the
declension of Spain is not, perhaps, so great as is commonly imagined. In the
beginning of the sixteenth century, Spain was a very poor country, even in
comparison with France, which has been so much improved since that time. It was the
well–known remark of the Emperor Charles V. who had travelled so frequently
through both countries, that every thing abounded in France, but that every thing was
wanting in Spain. The increasing produce of the agriculture and manufactures of
Europe must necessarily have required a gradual increase in the quantity of silver coin
to circulate it; and the increasing number of wealthy individuals must have required
the like increase in the quantity of their plate and other ornaments of silver.
26Secondly, America is itself a new market for the produce of its own silver mines;
and as its advances in agriculture, industry, and population, are much more rapid than
those of the most thriving countries in Europe, its demand must increase much more
rapidly. The English colonies are altogether a new market, which, partly for coin and
partly for plate, requires a continually augmenting supply of silver through a great
continent where there never was any demand before. The greater part too of the
Spanish and Portuguese colonies are altogether new markets. New Granada, the
Yucatan, Paraguay, and the Brazils were, before discovered by the Europeans,
inhabited by savage nations, who had neither arts nor agriculture. A considerable
degree of both has now been introduced into all of them. Even Mexico and Peru,
though they cannot be considered as altogether new markets, are certainly much more
extensive ones than they ever were before. After all the wonderful tales which have
been published concerning the splendid state of those countries in antient times,
whoever reads, with any degree of sober judgment, the history of their first discovery
and conquest, will evidently discern that, in arts, agriculture, and commerce, their
inhabitants were much more ignorant than the Tartars of the Ukraine are at present.
Even the Peruvians, the more civilized nation of the two, though they made use of
gold and silver as ornaments, had no coined money of any kind. Their whole
commerce was carried on by barter, and there was accordingly scarce any division of
labour among them.34 Those who cultivated the ground were obliged to build their
own houses, to make their own houshold furniture, their own clothes, shoes, and
instruments of agriculture. The few artificers among them are said to have been all
maintained by the sovereign, the nobles, and the priests, and were probably their
servants or slaves. All the ancient arts of Mexico and Peru have never furnished one
single manufacture to Europe. The Spanish armies, though they scarce ever exceeded
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five hundred men, and frequently did not amount to half that number, found almost
every where great difficulty in procuring subsistence. The famines which they are said
to have occasioned almost wherever they went, in countries too which at the same
time are represented as very populous and well–cultivated, sufficiently demonstrate
that the story of this populousness and high cultivation is in a great measure fabulous.
The Spanish colonies are under a government in many respects less favourable to
agriculture, improvement and population, than that of the English colonies.35 They
seem, however, to be advancing in all these much more rapidly than any country in
Europe. In a fertile soil and happy climate, the great abundance and cheapness of
land, a circumstance common to all new colonies,36 is, it seems, so great an
advantage as to compensate many defects in civil government. Frezier, who visited
Peru in 1713, represents Lima as containing between twenty–five and twenty–eight
thousand inhabitants.37 Ulloa, who resided in the same country between 1740 and
1746, represents it as containing more than fifty thousand.38 The difference in their
accounts of the populousness of several other principal towns in Chili and Peru is
nearly the same;39 and as there seems to be no reason to doubt of the good
information of either, it marks an increase which is scarce inferior to that of the
English colonies. America, therefore, is a new market for the produce of its own silver
mines, of which the demand must increase much more rapidly than that of the most
thriving country in Europe.
27Thirdly, The East Indies is another market for the produce of the silver mines of
America, and a market which, from the time of the first discovery of those mines, has
been continually taking off a greater and a greater quantity of silver. Since that time,
the direct trade between America and the East Indies, which is carried on by means of
the Acapulco ships,40 has been continually augmenting, and the indirect intercourse
by the way of Europe has been augmenting in a still greater proportion. During the
sixteenth century, the Portuguese were the only European nation who carried on any
regular trade to the East Indies. In the last years of that century the Dutch began to
encroach upon this monopoly, and in a few years expelled them from their principal
settlements in India. During the greater part of the last century those two nations
divided the most considerable part of the East India trade between them; the trade of
the Dutch continually augmenting in a still greater proportion than that of the
Portuguese declined. The English and French carried on some trade with India in the
last century, but it has been greatly augmented in the course of the present. The East
India trade of the Swedes and Danes began in the course of the present century. Even
the Muscovites now trade regularly with China by a sort of caravans which go over
land through Siberia and Tartary to Pekin. The East India trade of all these nations, if
we except that of the French, which the last war had well nigh annihilated, has been
almost continually augmenting. The increasing consumption of East India goods in
Europe is, it seems, so great, as to afford a gradual increase of employment to them
all. Tea, for example, was a drug very little used in Europe before the middle of the
last century. At present the value of the tea annually imported by the English East
India Company, for the use of their own countrymen, amounts to more than a million
and a half a year; and even this is not enough; a great deal more being constantly
smuggled into the country from the ports of Holland, from Gottenburg in Sweden, and
from the coast of France too, as long as the French East India Company was in
prosperity. The consumption of the porcelain of China, of the spiceries of the
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Moluccas, of the piece goods of Bengal, and of innumerable other articles, has
increased very nearly in a like proportion. The tonnage accordingly of all the
European shipping employed in the East India trade, at any one time during the last
century, was not, perhaps, much greater than that of the English East India Company
before the late reduction of their shipping.41
28But in the East Indies, particularly in China and Indostan, the value of the precious
metals, when the Europeans first began to trade to those countries, was much higher
than in Europe; and it still continues to be so. In rice countries, which generally yield
two, sometimes three crops in the year, each of them more plentiful than any common
crop of corn, the abundance of food must be much greater than in any corn country of
equal extent.42 Such countries are accordingly much more populous. In them too the
rich, having a greater super–abundance of food to dispose of beyond what they
themselves can consume, have the means of purchasing a much greater quantity of the
labour of other people. The retinue of a grandee in China or Indostan accordingly is,
by all accounts, much more numerous and splendid than that of the richest subjects in
Europe. The same super–abundance of food, of which they have the disposal, enables
them to give a greater quantity of it for all those singular and rare productions which
nature furnishes but in very small quantities; such as the precious metals and the
precious stones, the great objects of the competition of the rich.43 Though the mines,
therefore, which supplied the Indian market had been as abundant as those which
supplied the European, such commodities would naturally exchange for a greater
quantity of food in India than in Europe. But the mines which supplied the Indian
market with the precious metals seem to have been a good deal less abundant, and
those which supplied it with the precious stones a good deal more so, than the mines
which supplied the European. The precious metals, therefore, would naturally
exchange zin Indiaz for somewhat a greater quantity of the precious stones, and for a
much greater quantity of food a than in Europe.44 The money price of diamonds, the
greatest of all superfluities, would be somewhat lower, and that of food, the first of all
necessaries, a great deal lower in the one country than in the other. But the real price
of labour, the real quantity of the necessaries of life which is given to the labourer, it
has already been observed,45 is lower both in China and Indostan, the two great
markets of India, than it is through the greater part of Europe. The wages of the
labourer will there purchase a smaller quantity of food; and as the money price of
food is much lower in India than in Europe, the money price of labour is there lower
upon a double account; upon account both of the small quantity of food which it will
purchase, and of the low price of that food. But in countries of equal art and industry,
the money price of the greater part of manufactures will be in proportion to the money
price of labour; and in manufacturing art and industry, China and Indostan, though
inferior, seem not to be much inferior to any part of Europe. The money price of the
greater part of manufactures, therefore, will naturally be much lower in those great
empires than it is any–where in Europe. Through the greater part of Europe too the
expence of land–carriage increases very much both the real and nominal price of most
manufactures. It costs more labour, and therefore more money, to bring first the
materials, and afterwards the compleat manufacture to market. In China and Indostan
the extent and variety of inland navigations46 save the greater part of this labour, and
consequently of this money, and thereby reduce still lower both the real and the
nominal price of the greater part of their manufactures. Upon all these accounts, the
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precious metals are a commodity which it always has been, and still continues to be,
extremely advantageous to carry from Europe to India. There is scarce any
commodity which brings a better price there; or which, in proportion to the quantity
of labour and commodities which it costs in Europe, will purchase or command a
greater quantity of labour and commodities in India. It is more advantageous too to
carry silver thither than gold; because in China, and the greater part of the other
markets of India, the proportion between fine silver and fine gold is but as tenb, or at
most as twelve,b to one; whereas in Europe it is as fourteen or fifteen to one.47 In
China, and the greater part of the other markets of India, tenc, or at most twelve,c
ounces of silver will purchase an ounce of gold: in Europe it requires from fourteen to
fifteen ounces. In the cargoes, therefore, of the greater part of European ships which
sail to India, silver has generally been one of the most valuable articles. It is the most
valuable article in the Acapulco ships which sail to Manilla. The silver of the new
continent seems in this manner to be done of the principal commoditiesd by which the
commerce between the two extremities of the old one is carried on, and it is by means
of ite, in a great measure,e that those distant parts of the world are connected with one
another.
29In order to supply so very widely extended a market, the quantity of silver annually
brought from the mines must not only be sufficient to support that continual increase
both of coin and of plate which is required in all thriving countries; but to repair that
continual waste and consumption of silver which takes place in all countries where
that metal is used.
30The continual consumption of the precious metals in coin by wearing, and in plate
both by wearing and cleaning, is very sensible; and in commodities of which the use
is so very widely extended, would alone require a very great annual supply. The
consumption of those metals in some particular manufactures, though it may not
perhaps be greater upon the whole than this gradual consumption, is, however, much
more sensible, as it is much more rapid. In the manufactures of Birmingham alone,
the quantity of gold and siver annually employed in gilding and plating, and thereby
disqualified from ever afterwards appearing in the shape of those metals, is said to
amount to more than fifty thousand pounds sterling. We may from thence form some
notion how great must be the annual consumption in all the different parts of the
world, either in manufactures of the same kind with those of Birmingham, or in laces,
embroideries, gold and silver stuffs, the gilding of books, furniture, &c. A
considerable quantity too must be annually lost in transporting those metals from one
place to another both by sea and by land. In the greater part of the governments of
Asia, besides, the almost universal custom of concealing treasures in the bowels of the
earth, of which the knowledge frequently dies with the person who makes the
concealment, must occasion the loss of a still greater quantity.
31The quantity of gold and silver imported at both Cadiz and Lisbon (including not
only what comes under register, but what may be supposed to be smuggled) amounts,
according to the best accounts, to about six millions sterling a year.
32According to Mr. Meggens* the annual importation of the precious metals into
Spain, at an average of six years; viz. from 1748 to 1753, both inclusive; and into
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Portugal, at an average of seven years; viz. from 1747 to 1753, both inclusive;
amounted in silver to 1,101,107 pounds weight; and in gold to 49,940 pounds weight.
The silver, at sixty–two shillings the pound Troy, amounts to 3,413,431l. 10s. sterling.
The gold, at forty–four guineas and a half the pound Troy, amounts to 2,333,446l.
14s. sterling.48 Both together amount to 5,746,878l. 4s. sterling. The account of what
was imported under register, he assures us is exact. He gives us the detail of the
particular places from which the gold and silver were brought, and of the particular
quantity of each metal, which, according to the register, each of them afforded. He
makes an allowance too for the quantity of each metal which he supposes may have
been smuggled. The great experience of this judicious merchant renders his opinion of
considerable weight.
33According to the eloquent and, sometimes, well–informed Author of the
Philosophical and Political History of the establishment of the Europeans in the two
Indies, the annual importation of registered gold and silver into Spain, at an average
of eleven years; viz. from 1754 to 1764, both inclusive; amounted to 13,984,185 g?g
piastres of ten reals. On account of what may have been smuggled, however, the
whole annual importation, he supposes, may have amounted to seventeen millions of
piastres; which, at 4s. 6d. the piastre, is equal to 3,825,000 l. sterling. He gives the
detail too of the particular places from which the gold and silver were brought, and of
the particular quantities of each metal which, according to the register, each of them
afforded.49 He informs us too, that if we were to judge of the quantity of gold
annually imported from the Brazils into Lisbon by the amount of the tax paid to the
king of Portugal, which it seems is one–fifth of the standard metal, we might value it
at eighteen millions of cruzadoes, or forty–five millions of French livres, equal to
about two millions sterling. On account of what may have been smuggled, however,
we may safely, he says, add to this sum an eighth more, or 250,000 l. sterling, so that
the whole will amount to 2,250,000 l. sterling. According to this account, therefore,
the whole annual importation of the precious metals into both Spain and Portugal,
amounts to about 6,075,000 l. sterling.50
34Several other very well authenticatedh, though manuscript,h accounts, I have been
assured, agree, in making this whole annual importation amount at an average to
about six millions sterling, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.
35The annual importation of the precious metals into Cadiz and Lisbon, indeed, is not
equal to the whole annual produce of the mines of America. Some part is sent
annually by the Acapulco ships to Manilla; some part is employed in the contraband
trade which the Spanish colonies carry on with those of other European nations; and
some part, no doubt, remains in the country. The mines of America, besides, are by no
means the only gold and silver mines in the world. They are, however, by far the most
abundant. The produce of all the other mines which are known, is insignificant, it is
acknowledged, in comparison with theirs; and the far greater part of their produce, it
is likewise acknowledged, is annually imported into Cadiz and Lisbon. But the
consumption of Birmingham alone, at the rate of fifty thousand pounds a year, is
equal to the hundred–and–twentieth part of this annual importation at the rate of six
millions a year. The whole annual consumption of gold and silver, therefore, in all the
different countries of the world where those metals are used, may perhaps be nearly
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equal to the whole annual produce. The remainder may be no more than sufficient to
supply the increasing demand of all thriving countries. It may even have fallen so far
short of this demand as somewhat to raise the price of those metals in the European
market.
36The quantity of brass and iron annually brought from the mine to the market is out
of all proportion greater than that of gold and silver. We do not, however, upon this
account, imagine that those coarse metals are likely to multiply beyond the demand,
or to become gradually cheaper and cheaper. Why should we imagine that the
precious metals are likely to do so? The coarse metals, indeed, though harder, are put
to much harder uses, and, as they are of less value, less care is employed in their
preservation. The precious metals, however, are not necessarily immortal any more
than they, but are liable too to be lost, wasted, and consumed in a great variety of
ways.
37The price of all metals, though liable to slow and gradual variations, varies less
from year to year than that of almost any other part of the rude produce of land;51 and
the price of the precious metals is even less liable to sudden variations than that of the
coarse ones. The durableness of metals is the foundation of this extraordinary
steadiness of price. The corn which was brought to market last year, will be all or
almost all consumed long before the end of this year. But some part of the iron which
was brought from the mine two or three hundred years ago, may be still in use, and
perhaps some part of the gold which was brought from it two or three thousand years
ago. The different masses of corn which in different years must supply the
consumption of the world, will always be nearly in proportion to the respective
produce of those different years. But the proportion between the different masses of
iron which may be in use in two different years, will be very little affected by any
accidental difference in the produce of the iron mines of those two years; and the
proportion between the masses of gold will be still less affected by any such
difference in the produce of the gold mines. Though the produce of the greater part of
metallick mines, therefore, varies, perhaps, still more from year to year than that of
the greater part of cornfields, those variations have not the same effect upon the price
of the one species of commodities, as upon that of the other.
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Variations In The Proportion Between The Respective Values
Of Gold And Silver
1Before the discovery of the mines of America, the value of fine gold to fine silver
was regulated in the different mints of Europe, between the proportions of one to ten
and one to twelve; that is, an ounce of fine gold was supposed to be worth from ten to
twelve ounces of fine silver. About the middle of the last century it came to be
regulated, between the proportions of one to fourteen and one to fifteen; that is, an
ounce of fine gold came to be supposed worth between fourteen and fifteen ounces of
fine silver. Gold rose in its nominal value, or in the quantity of silver which was given
for it. Both metals sunk in their real value, or in the quantity of labour which they
could purchase; but silver sunk more than gold. Though both the gold and silver
mines of America exceeded in fertility all those which had ever been known before,
the fertility of the silver mines had, it seems, been proportionably still greater than
that of the gold ones.
2The great quantities of silver carried annually from Europe to India, have, in some of
the English settlements, gradually reduced the value of that metal in proportion to
gold. In the mint of Calcutta, an ounce of fine gold is supposed to be worth fifteen
ounces of fine silver, in the same manner as in Europe. It is in the mint perhaps rated
too high for the value which it bears in the market of Bengal. In China, the proportion
of gold to silver still continues as one to tena, or one to twelvea . In Japan, it is said to
be as one to eight.
3The proportion between the quantities of gold and silver annually imported into
Europe, according to Mr. Meggens’s account, is as one to twenty–two nearly; that is,
for one ounce of gold there are imported a little more than twenty–two ounces of
silver. The great quantity of silver sent annually to the East Indies, reduces, he
supposes, the quantities of those metals which remain in Europe to the proportion of
one to fourteen or fifteen, the proportion of their values. The proportion between their
values, he seems to think, must necessarily be the same as that between their
quantities, and would therefore be as one to twenty–two, were it not for this greater
exportation of silver.1
4But the ordinary proportion between the respective values of two commodities is not
necessarily the same as that between the quantities of them which are commonly in
the market. The price of an ox, reckoned at ten guineas, is about threescore times the
price of a lamb, reckoned at 3s. 6d. It would be absurd, however, to infer from thence,
that there are commonly in the market threescore lambs for one ox: and it would be
just as absurd to infer, because an ounce of gold will commonly purchase from
fourteen to fifteen ounces of silver, that there are commonly in the market only
fourteen or fifteen ounces of silver for one ounce of gold.
5 The quantity of silver commonly in the market, it is probable, is much greater in
proportion to that of gold, than the value of a certain quantity of gold is to that of an
equal quantity of silver. The whole quantity of a cheap commodity brought to market,
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is commonly not only greater, but of greater value, than the whole quantity of a dear
one. The whole quantity of bread annually brought to market, is not only greater, but
of greater value than the whole quantity of butcher’s–meat; the whole quantity of
butcher’s–meat, than the whole quantity of poultry; and the whole quantity of poultry,
than the whole quantity of wild fowl. There are so many more purchasers for the
cheap than for the dear commodity, that, not only a greater quantity of it, but a greater
value can commonly be disposed of. The whole quantity, therefore, of the cheap
commodity must commonly be greater in proportion to the whole quantity of the dear
one, than the value of a certain quantity of the dear one, is to the value of an equal
quantity of the cheap one. When we compare the precious metals with one another,
silver is a cheap, and gold a dear commodity. We ought naturally to expect, therefore,
that there should always be in the market, not only a greater quantity, but a greater
value of silver than of gold. Let any man, who has a little of both, compare his own
silver with his gold plate, and he will probably find, that, not only the quantity, but the
value of the former greatly exceeds that of the latter. Many people, besides, have a
good deal of silver who have no gold plate, which, even with those who have it, is
generally confined to watch–cases, snuff–boxes, and such like trinkets, of which the
whole amount is seldom of great value. In the British coin, indeed, the value of the
gold preponderates greatly, but it is not so in that of all countries. In the coin of some
countries the value of the two metals is nearly equal. In the Scotch coin, before the
union with England, the gold preponderated very little, though it did somewhat* , as it
appears by the accounts of the mint. In the coin of many countries the silver
preponderates. In France, the largest sums are commonly paid in that metal, and it is
there difficult to get more gold than whatc is necessary to carry about in your pocket.
The superior value, however, of the silver plate above that of the gold, which takes
place in all countries, will much more than compensate the preponderancy of the gold
coin above the silver, which takes place only in some countries.
6Though, in one sense of the word, silver always has been, and probably always will
be, much cheaper than gold; yet in another sense, gold may, perhaps, in the present
state of the dSpanishd market, be said to be somewhat cheaper than silver. A
commodity may be said to be dear or cheap, not only according to the absolute
greatness or smallness of its usual price, but according as that price is more or less
above the lowest for which it is possible to bring it to market for any considerable
time together. This lowest price is that which barely replaces, with a moderate profit,
the stock which must be employed in bringing the commodity thither. It is the price
which affords nothing to the landlord, of which rent makes not any component part,
but which resolves itself altogether into wages and profit. But, in the present state of
the eSpanishe market, gold is certainly somewhat nearer to this lowest price than
silver. The tax of the King of Spain upon gold is only one–twentieth part of the
standard metal, or five per cent.; whereas his tax upon silver amounts to fone–tenthf
part of it, or to gteng per cent. In these taxes too, it has already been observed,2
consists the whole rent of the greater part of the gold and silver mines of Spanish
America; and that upon gold is still worse paid than that upon silver. The profits of
the undertakers of gold mines too, as they more rarely make a fortune, must, in
general, be still more moderate than those of the undertakers of silver mines.3 The
price of Spanish gold, therefore, as it affords both less rent and less profit, must, in the
h
Spanishh market, be somewhat nearer to the lowest price for which it is possible to
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bring it thither, than the price of Spanish silver. iWhen all expences are computed, the
whole quantity of the one metal, it would seem, cannot, in the Spanish market, be
disposed of so advantageously as the whole quantity of the other. The tax, indeed, of
the King of Portugal upon the gold of the Brazils, is the same with the ancient tax of
the King of Spain upon the silver of Mexico and Peru ; or one–fifth part of the
standard metal.4 It may, therefore, be uncertain whether to the general market of
Europe the whole mass of American gold comes at a price nearer to the lowest for
which it is possible to bring it thither, than the whole mass of American silver.i
7The price of diamonds and other precious stones may, perhaps, be still nearer to the
lowest price at which it is possible to bring them to market, than even the price of
gold.
8jThough it is not very probable, that any part of a tax, which is not only imposed
upon one of the most proper subjects of taxation, a mere luxury and superfluity, but
which affords so very important a revenue, as the tax upon silver, will ever be given
up as long as it is possible to pay it; yet the same impossibility of paying it, which in
1736 made it necessary to reduce it from one–fifth to one–tenth, may in time make it
necessary to reduce it still further; in the same manner as it made it necessary to
reduce the tax upon gold to one–twentiethj5 That the silver mines of Spanish
America, like all other mines, become gradually more expensive in the working, on
account of the greater depths at which it is necessary to carry on the works, and of the
greater expence of drawing out the water and of supplying them with fresh air at those
depths, is acknowledged by every body who has enquired into the state of those
mines.
9 These causes, which are equivalent to a growing scarcity of silver (for a commodity
may be said to grow scarcer when it becomes more difficult and expensive to collect a
certain quantity of it) must, in time, produce one or other of the three following
events. The increase of the expence must either, first, be compensated altogether by a
proportionable increase in the price of the metal; or, secondly, it must be compensated
altogether by a proportionable diminution of the tax upon silver; or, thirdly, it must be
compensated partly by the one, and partly by the other of those two expedients. This
third event is very possible. As gold rose in its price in proportion to silver,
notwithstanding a great diminution of the tax upon gold; so silver might rise in its
price in proportion to labour and commodities, notwithstanding an equal diminution
of the tax upon silver.
10kSuch successive reductions of the tax, however, though they may not prevent
altogether, must certainly retard, more or less, the rise of the value of silver in the
European market. In consequence of such reductions, many mines may be wrought
which could not be wrought before, because they could not afford to pay the old tax;
and the quantity of silver annually brought to market must always be somewhat
greater, and, therefore, the value of any given quantity somewhat less, than it
otherwise would have been. In consequence of the reduction in 1736, the value of
silver in the European market, though it may not at this day be lower than before that
reduction, is, probably, at least ten per cent. lower than it would have been, had the
Court of Spain continued to exact the old tax.k
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11lThat, notwithstanding this reduction, the value of silver has, during the course of
the present century, begun to rise somewhat in the European market, the facts and
arguments which have been alleged above, dispose me to believe, or more properly to
suspect and conjecture; for the best opinion which I can form upon this subject scarce,
perhaps, deserves the name of belief.l The rise, indeed, msupposing there has been
any,m has hitherto been so very small, that after all that has been said, it may, perhaps,
appear to many people uncertain, not only whether this event has actually taken place;
but whether the contrary may not have taken place, or whether the value of silver may
not still continue to fall in the European market.6
12n It must be observed, however, that whatever may be the supposed annual
importation of gold and silver, there must be a certain period, at which the annual
consumption of those metals will be equal to that annual importation. Their
consumption must increase as their mass increases, or rather in a much greater
proportion. As their mass increases, their value diminishes. They are more used, and
less cared for, and their consumption consequently increases in a greater proportion
than their mass. After a certain period, therefore, the annual consumption of those
metals must, in this manner become equal to their annual importation, provided that
importation is not continually increasing; which, in the present times, is not supposed
to be the case.
13If, when the annual consumption has become equal to the annual importation, the
annual importation should gradually diminish, the annual consumption, may, for some
time, exceed the annual importation. The mass of those metals may gradually and
insensibly diminish, and their value gradually and insensibly rise, till the annual
importation becoming again stationary, the annual consumption will gradually and
insensibly accommodate itself to what that annual importation can maintain. n7
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Grounds Of The Suspicion That The Value Of Silver Still
Continues To Decrease
1The increase of the wealth of Europe, and the popular notion that, as the quantity of
the precious metals naturally increases with the increase of wealth, so their value
diminishes as their quantity increases, may, aperhapsa dispose many people to believe
that their value still continues to fall in the European market; and the still gradually
increasing price of many parts of the rude produce of land mayb confirm them still
further in this opinion.
2That that increase cinc the quantity of the precious metalsd , which arises ein any
countrye from the increase of wealth, has no tendency to diminish their value, I have
endeavoured to show already.1 Gold and silver naturally resort to a rich country, for
the same reason that all sorts of luxuries and curiosities resort to it; not because they
are cheaper there than in poorer countries, but because they are dearer, or because a
better price is given for them. It is the superiority of price which attracts them, and as
soon as that superiority ceases, they necessarily cease to go thither.
3If you except corn and such other vegetables as are raised altogether by human
industry, that all other sorts of rude produce, cattle, poultry, game of all kinds, the
useful fossils and minerals of the earth, &c. naturally grow dearer as the society
advances in wealth and improvement, I have endeavoured to show already.2 Though
such commodities, therefore, come to exchange for a greater quantity of silver than
before, it will not from thence follow that silver has become really cheaper, or will
purchase less labour than before, but that such commodities have become really
dearer, or will purchase more labour than before. It is not their nominal price only, but
their real price which rises in the progress of improvement. The rise of their nominal
price is the effect, not of any degradation of the value of silver, but of the rise in their
real price.
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Different Effects Of The Progress Of Improvement Upon The
Real Price Of Three Different Sorts Of Rude Produce
1These different sorts of rude produce may be divided into three classes. The first
comprehends those which it is scarce in the power of human industry to multiply at
all. The second, those which it can multiply in proportion to the demand. The third,
those in which the efficacy of industry is either limited or uncertain. In the progress of
wealth and improvement, the real price of the first may rise to any degree of
extravagance, and seems not to be limited by any certain boundary. That of the
second, though it may rise greatly, has, however, a certain boundary beyond which it
cannot well pass for any considerable time together. That of the third, though its
natural tendency is to rise in the progress of improvement, yet in the same degree of
improvement it may sometimes happen even to fall, sometimes to continue the same,
and sometimes to rise more or less, according as different accidents render the efforts
of human industry, in multiplying this sort of rude produce, more or less successful.
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First Sort
1The first sort of rude produce of which the price rises in the progress of
improvement, is that which it is scarce in the power of human industry to multiply at
all. It consists in those things which nature produces only in certain quantities, and
which being of a very perishable nature, it is impossible to accumulate together the
produce of many different seasons. Such are the greater part of rare and singular birds
and fishes, many different sorts of game, almost all wild–fowl, all birds of passage in
particular, as well as many other things. When wealth and the luxury which
accompanies it increase, the demand for these is likely to increase with them, and no
effort of human industry may be able to increase the supply much beyond what it was
before this increase of the demand. The quantity of such commodities, therefore,
remaining the same, or nearly the same, while the competition to purchase them is
continually increasing, their price may rise to any degree of extravagance, and seems
not to be limited by any certain boundary. If woodcocks should become so
fashionable as to sell for twenty guineas a–piece, no effort of human industry could
increase the number of those brought to market, much beyond what it is at present.
The high price paid by the Romans, in the time of their greatest grandeur, for rare
birds and fishes, may in this manner easily be accounted for. These prices were not
the effects of the low value of silver in those times, but of the high value of such
rarities and curiosities as human industry could not multiply at pleasure. The real
value of silver was higher at Rome, for some time before and after the fall of the
republick, than it is through the greater part of Europe at present. Three sestertii, equal
to about sixpence sterling, was the price which the republick paid for the modius or
peck of the tithe wheat of Sicily.1 This price, however, was probably below the
average market price, the obligation to deliver their wheat at this rate being
considered as a tax upon the Sicilian farmers. When the Romans, therefore, had
occasion to order more corn than the tithe of wheat amounted to, they were bound by
capitulation to pay for the surplus at the rate of four sestertii, or eight–pence sterling
the peck;2 and this had probably been reckoned the moderate and reasonable, that is,
the ordinary or average contract price of those times; it is equal to about
one–and–twenty shillings the quarter. Eight–and–twenty shillings the quarter was,
before the late years of scarcity,3 the ordinary contract price of English wheat, which
in quality is inferior to the Sicilian, and generally sells for a lower price in the
European market. The value of silver, therefore, in those antient times, must have
been to its value in the present, as three to four inversely, that is, three ounces of silver
would then have purchased the same quantity of labour and commodities which four
ounces will do at present.4 When we read in Pliny, therefore, that Seius*5 bought a
white nightingale, as a present for the empress Agrippina, at the price of six thousand
sestertii, equal to about fifty pounds of our present money; and that Asinius Celer†6
purchased a surmullet at the price of eight thousand sestertii equal to about sixty–six
pounds thirteen shillings and four–pence of our present money; the extravagance of
those prices, how much soever it may surprise us, is apt, notwithstanding, to appear to
us about one–third less than it really was. Their real price, the quantity of labour and
subsistence which was given away for them, was about one–third more than their
nominal price is apt to express to us in the present times. Seius gave for the
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nightingale the command of a quantity of labour and subsistence, equal to what 66l.
13s. 4d. would purchase in the present times; and Asinius Celer gave for the surmullet
the command of a quantity equal to what 88l. 17s. 9?d. would purchase. What
occasioned the extravagance of those high prices was, not so much the abundance of
silver, as the abundance of labour and subsistence, of which those Romans had the
disposal, beyond what was necessary for their own use. The quantity of silver, of
which they had the disposal, was a good deal less than what the command of the same
quantity of labour and subsistence would have procured to them in the present times.
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Second Sort
1The second sort of rude produce of which the price rises in the progress of
improvement, is that which human industry can multiply in proportion to the demand.
It consists in those useful plants and animals, which, in uncultivated countries, nature
produces with such profuse abundance,1 that they are of little or no value, and which,
as cultivation advances, are therefore forced to give place to some more profitable
produce.2 During a long period in the progress of improvement, the quantity of these
is continually diminishing, while at the same time the demand for them is continually
increasing. Their real value, therefore, the real quantity of labour which they will
purchase or command, gradually rises, till at last it gets so high as to render them as
profitable a produce as any thing else which human industry can raise upon the most
fertile and best cultivated land. When it has got so high it cannot well go higher. If it
did, more land and more industry would soon be employed to increase their quantity.
2When the price of cattle, for example, rises so high that it is as profitable to cultivate
land in order to raise food for them, as in order to raise food for man, it cannot well go
higher. If it did, more corn land would soon be turned into pasture. The extension of
tillage, by diminishing the quantity of wild pasture, diminishes the quantity of
butcher’s–meat which the country naturally produces without labour or cultivation,
and by increasing the number of those who have either corn, or, what comes to the
same thing, the price of corn, to give in exchange for it, increases the demand. The
price of butcher’s meat, therefore, and consequently of cattle, must gradually rise till
it gets so high, that it becomes as profitable to employ the most fertile and best
cultivated lands in raising food for them as in raising corn.3 But it must always be late
in the progress of improvement before tillage can be so far extended as to raise the
price of cattle to this height; and till it has got to this height, if the country is
advancing at all, their price must be continually rising. There are, perhaps, some parts
of Europe in which the price of cattle has not yet got to this height. It had not got to
this height in any part of Scotland before the union.4 Had the Scotch cattle been
always confined to the market of Scotland, in a country in which the quantity of land,
which can be applied to no other purpose but the feeding of cattle, is so great in
proportion to what can be applied to other purposes, it is scarce possible, perhaps, that
their price could ever have risen so high as to render it profitable to cultivate land for
the sake of feeding them. In England, the price of cattle, it has already been
observed,5 seems, in the neighbourhood of London, to have got to this height about
the beginning of the last century; but it was much later probably before it got to it
through the greater part of the remoter counties; in some of which, perhaps, it may
scarce yet have got to it. Of all the different substances, however, which compose this
second sort of rude produce, cattle is, perhaps, that of which the price, in the progress
of improvement, afirst risesa to this height.
3Till the price of cattle, indeed, has got to this height, it seems scarce possible that the
greater part, even of those lands which are capable of the highest cultivation, can be
completely cultivated. In all farms too distant from any town to carry manure from it,
that is, in the far greater part of those of every extensive country, the quantity of
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well–cultivated land must be in proportion to the quantity of manure which the farm
itself produces; and this again must be in proportion to the stock of cattle which are
maintained upon it. The land is manured either by pasturing the cattle upon it, or by
feeding them in the stable, and from thence carrying out their dung to it. But unless
the price of the cattle be sufficient to pay both the rent and profit of cultivated land,
the farmer cannot afford to pasture them upon it; and he can still less afford to feed
them in the stable. It is with the produce of improved and cultivated land only, that
cattle can be fed in the stable; because to collect the scanty and scattered produce of
waste and unimproved lands would require too much labour and be too expensive. If
the price of the cattle, therefore, is not sufficient to pay for the produce of improved
and cultivated land, when they are allowed to pasture it, that price will be still less
sufficient to pay for that produce when it must be collected with a good deal of
additional labour, and brought into the stable to them. In these circumstances,
therefore, no more cattle can, with profit, be fed in the stable than what are necessary
for tillage. But these can never afford manure enough for keeping constantly in good
condition, all the lands which they are capable of cultivating. What they afford being
insufficient for the whole farm, will naturally be reserved for the lands to which it can
be most advantageously or conveniently applied; the most fertile, or those, perhaps, in
the neighbourhood of the farm–yard. These, therefore, will be kept constantly in good
condition and fit for tillage. The rest will, the greater part of them, be allowed to lie
waste, producing scarce any thing but some miserable pasture, just sufficient to keep
alive a few straggling, half–starved cattle; the farm, though much understocked in
proportion to what would be necessary for its complete cultivation, being very
frequently overstocked in proportion to its actual produce. A portion of this waste
land, however, after having been pastured in this wretched manner for six or seven
years together, may be ploughed up, when it will yield, perhaps, a poor crop or two of
bad oats, or of some other coarse grain, and then, being entirely exhausted, it must be
rested and pastured again as before and another portion ploughed up to be in the same
manner exhausted and rested again in its turn. Such accordingly was the general
system of management all over the low country of Scotland before the union. The
lands which were kept constantly well manured and in good condition, seldom
exceeded a third or a fourth part of the whole farm, and sometimes did not amount to
a fifth or a sixth part of it. The rest were never manured, but a certain portion of them
was in its turn, notwithstanding, regularly cultivated and exhausted. Under this system
of management, it is evident, even that part of the lands of Scotland which is capable
of good cultivation, could produce but little in comparison of what it may be capable
of producing. But how disadvantageous soever this system may appear, yet before the
union the low price of cattle seems to have rendered it almost unavoidable. If,
notwithstanding a great rise in their price, it still continues to prevail through a
considerable part of the country, it is owing, in many places, no doubt, to ignorance
and attachment to old customs, but in most places to the unavoidable obstructions
which the natural course of things opposes to the immediate or speedy establishment
of a better system: first, to the poverty of the tenants, to their not having yet had time
to acquire a stock of cattle sufficient to cultivate their lands more compleatly, the
same rise of price which would render it advantageous for them to maintain a greater
stock, rendering it more difficult for them to acquire it; and, secondly, to their not
having yet had time to put their lands in condition to maintain this greater stock
properly, supposing they were capable of acquiring it. The increase of stock and the
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improvement of land are two events which must go hand in hand, and of which the
one can no where much out–run the other. Without some increase of stock, there can
be scarce any improvement of land, but there can be no considerable increase of stock
but in consequence of a considerable improvement of land; because otherwise the
land could not maintain it. These natural obstructions to the establishment of a better
system, cannot be removed but by a long course of frugality and industry; and half a
century or a century more, perhaps, must pass away before the old system, which is
wearing out gradually, can be compleatly abolished through all the different parts of
the country. Of all btheb commercial advantages, however, which Scotland has
derived from the union with England, this rise in the price of cattle is, perhaps, the
greatest.6 It has not only raised the value of all highland estates, but it has, perhaps,
been the principal cause of the improvement of the low country.
4In all new colonies the great quantity of waste land, which can for many years be
applied to no other purpose but the feeding of cattle, soon renders them extremely
abundant, and in every thing great cheapness is the necessary consequence of great
abundance. Though all the cattle of the European colonies in America were originally
carried from Europe, they soon multiplied so much there, and became of so little
value, that even horses were allowed to run wild in the woods without any owner
thinking it worth while to claim them.7 It must be a long time after the first
establishment of such colonies, before it can become profitable to feed cattle upon the
produce of cultivated land. The same causes, therefore, the want of manure, and the
disproportion between the stock employed in cultivation, and the land which it is
destined to cultivate, are likely to introduce there a system of husbandry not unlike
that which still continues to take place in so many parts of Scotland. Mr. Kalm, the
Swedish traveller, when he gives an account of the husbandry of some of the English
colonies in North America, as he found it in 1749, observes, accordingly, that he can
with difficulty discover there the character of the English nation, so well skilled in all
the different branches of agriculture.8 They make scarce any manure for their corn
fields, he says; but when one piece of ground has been exhausted by continual
cropping, they clear and cultivate another piece of fresh land; and when that is
exhausted, proceed to a third. Their cattle are allowed to wander through the woods
and other uncultivated grounds, where they are half–starved; having long ago
extirpated almost all the annual grasses by cropping them too early in the spring,
before they had time to form their flowers, or to shed their seeds* . The annual grasses
were, it seems, the best natural grasses in that part of North America; and when the
Europeans first settled there, they used to grow very thick, and to rise three or four
feet high. A piece of ground which, when he wrote, could not maintain one cow,
would in former times, he was assured, have maintained four, each of which would
have given four times the quantity of milk, which that one was capable of giving. The
poorness of the pasture had, in his opinion, occasioned the degradation of their cattle,
which degenerated sensibly from one generation to another. They were probably not
unlike that stunted breed which was common all over Scotland thirty or forty years
ago, and which is now so much mended through the greater part of the low country,
not so much by a change of the breed, though that expedient has been employed in
some places, as by a more plentiful method of feeding them.
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5Though it is late, therefore, in the progress of improvement before cattle can bring
such a price as to render it profitable to cultivate land for the sake of feeding them; yet
of all the different parts which compose this second sort of rude produce, they are
perhaps the first which bring this price; because till they bring it, it seems impossible
that improvement can be brought near even to that degree of perfection to which it has
arrived in many parts of Europe.
6As cattle are among the first, so perhaps venison is among the last parts of this sort
of rude produce which bring this price. The price of venison in Great Britain; how
extravagant soever it may appear, is not near sufficient to compensate the expence of
a deer park, as is well known to all those who have had any experience in the feeding
of deer. If it was otherwise, the feeding of deer would soon become an article of
common farming; in the same manner as the feeding of those small birds called Turdi
was among the antient Romans. Varro and Columella assure us that it was a most
profitable article.9 The fattening of Ortolans, birds of passage which arrive lean in the
country, is said to be so in some parts of France. If venison continues in fashion, and
the wealth and luxury of Great Britain increase as they have done for some time past,
its price may very probably rise still higher than it is at present.
7Between that period in the progress of improvement which brings to its height the
price of so necessary an article as cattle, and that which brings to it the price of such a
superfluity as venison, there is a very long interval, in the course of which many other
sorts of rude produce gradually arrive at their highest price, some sooner and some
later, according to different circumstances.
8Thus in every farm the offals of the barn and stables will maintain a certain number
of poultry. These, as they are fed with what would otherwise be lost, are a mere
save–all; and as they cost the farmer scarce any thing, so he can afford to sell them for
very little. Almost all that he gets is pure gain, and their price can scarce be so low as
to discourage him from feeding this number. But in countries ill cultivated, and,
therefore, but thinly inhabited, the poultry, which are thus raised without expence, are
often fully sufficient to supply the whole demand. In this state of things, therefore,
they are often as cheap as butcher’s–meat, or any other sort of animal food. But the
whole quantity of poultry, which the farm in this manner produces without expence,
must always be much smaller than the whole quantity of butcher’s–meat which is
reared upon it; and in times of wealth and luxury what is rare, with only nearly equal
merit, is always preferred to what is common.10 As wealth and luxury increase,
therefore, in consequence of improvement and cultivation, the price of poultry
gradually rises above that of butcher’s–meat, till at last it gets so high that it becomes
profitable to cultivate land for the sake of feeding them. When it has got to this height,
it cannot well go higher. If it did, more land would soon be turned to this purpose. In
several provinces of France, the feeding of poultry is considered as a very important
article in rural œconomy, and sufficiently profitable to encourage the farmer to raise a
considerable quantity of Indian corn and buck–wheat for this purpose. A middling
farmer will there sometimes have four hundred fowls in his yard. The feeding of
poultry seems scarce yet to be generally considered as a matter of so much importance
in England. They are certainly, however, dearer in England than in France, as England
receives considerable supplies from France. In the progress of improvement, the
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period at which every particular sort of animal food is dearest, must naturally be that
which immediately precedes the general practice of cultivating land for the sake of
raising it. For some time before this practice becomes general, the scarcity must
necessarily raise the price. After it has become general, new methods of feeding are
commonly fallen upon, which enable the farmer to raise upon the same quantity of
ground a much greater quantity of that particular sort of animal food. The plenty not
only obliges him to sell cheaper, but in consequence of these improvements he can
afford to sell cheaper; for if he could not afford it, the plenty would not be of long
continuance. It has been probably in this manner that the introduction of clover,
turnips, carrots, cabbages, &c. has contributed to sink the common price of
butcher’s–meat in the London market somewhat below what it was about the
beginning of the last century.11
9 The hog, that finds his food among ordure, and greedily devours many things
rejected by every other useful animal, is, like poultry, originally kept as a save–all. As
long as the number of such animals, which can thus be reared at little or no expence,
is fully sufficient to supply the demand, this sort of butcher’s–meat comes to market
at a much lower price than any other. But when the demand rises beyond what this
quantity can supply, when it becomes necessary to raise food on purpose for feeding
and fattening hogs, in the same manner as for feeding and fattening other cattle, the
price necessarily rises, and becomes proportionably either higher or lower than that of
other butcher’s–meat, according as the nature of the country, and the state of its
agriculture, happen to render the feeding of hogs more or less expensive than that of
other cattle. In France, according to Mr. Buffon,12 the price of pork is nearly equal to
that of beef. In most parts of Great Britain it is at present somewhat higher.
10The great rise in the price both of hogs and poultry has in Great Britain been
frequently imputed to the diminution of the number of cottagers and other small
occupiers of land; an event which has in every part of Europe been the immediate
fore–runner of improvement and better cultivation, but which at the same time may
have contributed to raise the price of those articles, both somewhat sooner and
somewhat faster than it would otherwise have risen.13 As the poorest family can often
maintain a cat or a dog, without any expence; so the poorest occupiers of land can
commonly maintain a few poultry, or a sow and a few pigs, at very little. The little
offals of their own table, their whey, skimmed milk, and butter–milk, supply those
animals with a part of their food, and they find the rest in the neighbouring fields
without doing any sensible damage to any body. By diminishing the number of those
small occupiers, therefore, the quantity of this sort of provisions which is thus
produced at little or no expence, must certainly have been a good deal diminished, and
their price must consequently have been raised both sooner and faster than it would
otherwise have risen. Sooner or later, however, in the progress of improvement, it
must at any rate have risen to the utmost height to which it is capable of rising; or to
the price which pays the labour and expence of cultivating the land which furnishes
them with food as well as these are paid upon the greater part of dotherd cultivated
land.
11The business of the dairy, like the feeding of hogs and poultry, is originally carried
on as a save–all. The cattle necessarily kept upon the farm, produce more milk than
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either the rearing of their own young, or the consumption of the farmer’s family
requires; and they produce most at one particular season. But of all the productions of
land, milk is perhaps the most perishable. In the warm season, when it is most
abundant, it will scarce keep four–and–twenty hours. The farmer, by making it into
fresh butter, stores a small part of it for a week: by making it into salt butter, for a
year: and by making it into cheese, he stores a much greater part of it for several
years. Part of all these is reserved for the use of his own family. The rest goes to
market, in order to find the best price which is to be had, and which can scarce be so
low as to discourage him from sending thither whatever is over and above the use of
his own family. If it is very low, indeed, he will be likely to manage his dairy in a
very slovenly and dirty manner, and will scarce perhaps think it worth while to have a
particular room or building on purpose for it, but will suffer the business to be carried
on amidst the smoke, filth, and nastiness of his own kitchen; as was the case of almost
all the farmers dairies in Scotland thirty or forty years ago, and as is the case of many
of them still. The same causes which gradually raise the price of butcher’s–meat, the
increase of the demand, and, in consequence of the improvement of the country, the
diminution of the quantity which can be fed at little or no expence, raise, in the same
manner, that of the produce of the dairy, of which the price naturally connects with
that of butcher’s–meat, or with the expence of feeding cattle. The increase of price
pays for more labour, care, and cleanliness. The dairy becomes more worthy of the
farmer’s attention, and the quality of its produce gradually improves. The price at last
gets so high that it becomes worth while to employ some of the most fertile and best
cultivated lands in feeding cattle merely for the purpose of the dairy; and when it has
got to this height, it cannot well go higher. If it did, more land would soon be turned
to this purpose. It seems to have got to this height through the greater part of England,
where much good land is commonly employed in this manner. If you except the
neighbourhood of a few considerable towns, it seems not yet to have got to this height
any where in Scotland, where common farmers seldom employ much good land in
raising food for cattle merely for the purpose of the dairy. The price of the produce,
though it has risen very considerably within these few years, is probably still too low
to admit of it. The inferiority of the quality, indeed, compared with that of the produce
of English dairies, is fully equal to that of the price. But this inferiority of quality is,
perhaps, rather the effect of this lowness of price than the cause of it. Though the
quality was much better, the greater part of what is brought to market could not, I
apprehend, in the present circumstances of the country, be disposed of at a much
better price; and the present price, it is probable, would not pay the expence of the
land and labour necessary for producing a much better quality. Through the greater
part of England, notwithstanding the superiority of price, the dairy is not reckoned a
more profitable employment of land than the raising of corn, or the fattening of cattle,
the two great objects of agriculture. Through the greater part of Scotland, therefore, it
cannot yet be eeven soe profitable.
12 The lands of no country, it is evident, can ever be compleatly cultivated and
improved, till once the price of every produce, which human industry is obliged to
raise upon them, has got so high as to pay for the expence of compleat improvement
and cultivation. In order to do this, the price of each particular produce must be
sufficient, first, to pay the rent of good corn land, as it is that which regulates the rent
of the greater part of other cultivated land;14 and, secondly, to pay the labour and
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expence of the farmer as well as they are commonly paid upon good corn–land; or, in
other words, to replace with the ordinary profits the stock which he employs about it.
This rise in the price of each particular produce, must evidently be previous to the
improvement and cultivation of the land which is destined for raising it. Gain is the
end of all improvement, and nothing could deserve that name of which loss was to be
the necessary consequence. But loss must be the necessary consequence of improving
land for the sake of a produce of which the price could never bring back the expence.
If the compleat improvement and cultivation of the country be, as it most certainly is,
the greatest of all publick advantages, this rise in the price of all those different sorts
of rude produce, instead of being considered as a publick calamity, ought to be
regarded as the necessary forerunner and attendant of the greatest of all publick
advantages.
13This rise too in the nominal or money–price of all those different sorts of rude
produce has been the effect, not of any degradation in the value of silver, but of a rise
in their real price. They have become worth, not only a greater quantity of silver, but a
greater quantity of labour and subsistence than before. As it costs a greater quantity of
labour and subsistence to bring them to market, so when they are brought thither, they
represent or are equivalent to a greater quantity.
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Third Sort
1The third and last sort of rude produce, of which the price naturally rises in the
progress of improvement, is that in which the efficacy of human industry, in
augmenting the quantity, is either limited or uncertain. Though the real price of this
sort of rude produce, therefore, naturally tends to rise in the progress of improvement,
yet, according as different accidents happen to render the efforts of human industry
more or less successful in augmenting the quantity, it may happen sometimes even to
fall, sometimes to continue the same in very different periods of improvement, and
sometimes to rise more or less in the same period.
2There are some sorts of rude produce which nature has rendered a kind of
appendages to other sorts; so that the quantity of the one which any country can
afford, is necessarily limited by that of the other. The quantity of wool or of raw
hides, for example, which any country can afford, is necessarily limited by the
number of great and small cattle that are kept in it. The state of its improvement, and
the nature of its agriculture, again necessarily determine this number.
3The same causes, which, in the progress of improvement, gradually raise the price of
butcher’s–meat, should have the same effect, it may be thought, upon the prices of
wool and raw hides, and raise them too nearly in the same proportion. It probably
would be so, if in the rude beginnings of improvement the market for the latter
commodities was confined within as narrow bounds as that for the former. But the
extent of their respective markets is commonly extremely different.
4The market for butcher’s–meat is almost every–where confined to the country which
produces it. Ireland, and some part of British America indeed, carry on a considerable
trade in salt provisions; but they are, I believe, the only countries in the commercial
world which do so, or which export to other countries any considerable part of their
butcher’s–meat.
5The market for wool and raw hides, on the contrary, is in the rude beginnings of
improvement very seldom confined to the country which produces them. They can
easily be transported to distant countries, wool without any preparation, and raw hides
with very little: and as they are the materials of many manufactures, the industry of
other countries may occasion a demand for them, though that of the country which
produces them might not occasion any.
6In countries ill cultivated, and therefore but thinly inhabited, the price of the wool
and the hide bears always a much greater proportion to that of the whole beast, than in
countries where, improvement and population being further advanced, there is more
demand for butcher’s–meat. Mr. Hume observes, that in the Saxon times, the fleece
was estimated at two–fifths of the value of the whole sheep, and that this was much
above the proportion of its present estimation.1 In some provinces of Spain, I have
been assured, the sheep is frequently killed merely for the sake of the fleece and the
tallow. The carcase is often left to rot upon the ground, or to be devoured by beasts
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and birds of prey. If this sometimes happens even in Spain, it happens almost
constantly in Chili, at Buenos Ayres, and in many other parts of Spanish America,
where the horned cattle are almost constantly killed merely for the sake of the hide
and the tallow.2 This too used to happen almost constantly in Hispaniola, while it was
infested by the Buccaneers, and before the settlement, improvement, and
populousness of the French plantations (which now extend round the coast of almost
the whole western half of the island) had given some value to the cattle of the
Spaniards, who still continue to possess, not only the eastern part of the coast, but the
whole inland and mountainous part of the country.
7 Though in the progress of improvement and population, the price of the whole beast
necessarily rises, yet the price of the carcase is likely to be much more affected by this
rise than that of the wool and the hide. The market for the carcase, being in the rude
state of society confined always to the country which produces it, must necessarily be
extended in proportion to the improvement and population of that country. But the
market for the wool and the hides even of a barbarous country often extending to the
whole commercial world, it can very seldom be enlarged in the same proportion. The
state of the whole commercial world can seldom be much affected by the
improvement of any particular country; and the market for such commodities may
remain the same or very nearly the same, after such improvements, as before. It
should, however, in the natural course of things rather upon the whole be somewhat
extended in consequence of them. If the manufactures, especially, of which those
commodities are the materials, should ever come to flourish in the country, the
market, though it might not be much enlarged, would at least be brought much nearer
to the place of growth than before; and the price of those materials might at least be
increased by what had usually been the expence of transporting them to distant
countries. Though it might not rise therefore in the same proportion as that of
butcher’s–meat, it ought naturally to rise somewhat, and it ought certainly not to fall.
8 In England, however, notwithstanding the flourishing state of its woollen
manufacture, the price of English wool has fallen very considerably since the time of
Edward III. There are many authentick records which demonstrate that during the
reign of that prince (towards the middle of the fourteenth century, or about 1339)
what was reckoned the moderate and reasonable price of the tod or twenty–eight
pounds of English wool was not less than ten shillings of the money of those times* ,3
containing, at the rate of twenty–pence the ounce, six ounces of silver Tower–weight,
equal to about thirty shillings of our present money. In the present times,
one–and–twenty shillings the tod may be reckoned a good price for very good English
wool. The money–price of wool, therefore, in the time of Edward III, was to its
money–price in the present times as ten to seven. The superiority of its real price was
still greater. At the rate of six shillings and eight–pence the quarter, ten shillings was
in those antient times the price of twelve bushels of wheat. At the rate of twenty–eight
shillings the quarter, one–and–twenty shillings is in the present times the price of six
bushels only. The proportion between the real prices of antient and modern times,
therefore, is as twelve to six, or as two to one. In those antient times a tod of wool
would have purchased twice the quantity of subsistence which it will purchase at
present; and consequently twice the quantity of labour, if the real recompence of
labour had been the same in both periods.
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9This degradation both in the real and nominal value of wool, could never have
happened in consequence of the natural course of things. It has accordingly been the
effect of violence and artifice: First, of the absolute prohibition of exporting wool
from England;4 Secondly, of the permission of importing it from bSpainb duty free;5
Thirdly, of the prohibition of exporting it from Ireland to any other country but
England.6 In consequence of these regulations, the market for English wool, instead
of being somewhat extended in consequence of the improvement of England, has
been confined to the home market, where the wool of cseveralc other countries is
allowed to come into competition with it, and where that of Ireland is forced into
competition with it. As the woollen manufactures too of Ireland are fully as much
discouraged as is consistent with justice and fair dealing, the Irish can work up but a
small part of their own wool at home, and are, therefore, obliged to send a greater
proportion of it to Great Britain, the only market they are allowed.7
10I have not been able to find any such authentick records concerning the price of raw
hides in antient times. Wool was commonly paid as a subsidy to the king, and its
valuation in that subsidy ascertains, at least in some degree, what was its ordinary
price. But this seems not to have been the case with raw hides. Fleetwood, however,
from an account in 1425, between the prior of Burcester Oxford and one of his
canons, gives us their price, at least as it was stated, upon that particular occasion; viz.
five ox hides at twelve shillings; five cow hides at seven shillings and three pence;
thirty–six dsheepd skins of two years old at nine shillings; sixteen ecalvese skins at
two shillings.8 In 1425, twelve shillings contained about the same quantity of silver as
four–and–twenty shillings of our present money. An ox hide, therefore, was in this
account valued at the same quantity of silver as 4s. ?ths of our present money. Its
nominal price was a good deal lower than at present. But at the rate of six shillings
and eight–pence the quarter, twelve shillings would in those times have purchased
fourteen bushels and four–fifths of a bushel of wheat, which, at three and six–pence
the bushel, would in the present times cost 51s. 4d. An ox hide, therefore, would in
those times have purchased as much corn as ten shillings and three–pence would
purchase at present. Its real value was equal to ten shillings and three–pence of our
present money. In those antient times, when the cattle were half starved during the
greater part of the winter, we cannot suppose that they were of a very large size. An
ox hide which weighs four stone of sixteen pounds averdupois, is not in the present
times reckoned a bad one; and in those antient times would probably have been
reckoned a very good one. But at half a crown the stone, which at this moment
(February, 1773) I understand to be the common price, such a hide would at present
cost only ten shillings. Though its nominal price, therefore, is higher in the present
than it was in those antient times, its real price, the real quantity of subsistence which
it will purchase or command, is rather somewhat lower. The price of cow hides, as
stated in the above account, is nearly in the common proportion to that of ox hides.
That of sheep skins is a good deal above it. They had probably been sold with the
wool. That of calves skins, on the contrary, is greatly below it. In countries where the
price of cattle is very low, the calves, which are not intended to be reared in order to
keep up the stock, are generally killed very young; as was the case in Scotland twenty
or thirty years ago. It saves the milk, which their price would not pay for. Their skins,
therefore, are commonly good for little.
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11The price of raw hides is a good deal lower at present than it was a few years ago;
owing probably to the taking off the duty upon seal skins, and to the allowing, for a
limited time, the importation of raw hides from Ireland and from the plantations duty
free, which was done in 1769.9 Take the whole of the present century at an average,
their real price has probably been somewhat higher than it was in those antient times.
The nature of the commodity renders it not quite so proper for being transported to
distant markets as wool. It suffers more by keeping. A salted hide is reckoned inferior
to a fresh one, and sells for a lower price. This circumstance must necessarily have
some tendency to sink the price of raw hides produced in a country which does not
manufacture them, but is obliged to export them; and comparatively to raise that of
those produced in a country which does manufacture them. It must have some
tendency to sink their price in a barbarous, and to raise it in an improved and
manufacturing country. It must have had some tendency therefore to sink it in antient,
and to raise it in modern times. Our tanners besides have not been quite so successful
as our clothiers, in convincing the wisdom of the nation, that the safety of the
commonwealth depends upon the prosperity of their particular manufacture.10 They
have accordingly been much less favoured. The exportation of raw hides has, indeed,
been prohibited, and declared a nuisance:11 but their importation from foreign
countries has been subjected to a duty;12 and though this duty has been taken off
from those of Ireland and the plantations (for the limited time of five years only), yet
Ireland has not been confined to the market of Great Britain for the sale of its surplus
hides, or of those which are not manufactured at home. The hides of common cattle
have but within these few years been put among the enumerated commodities which
the plantations can send nowhere but to the mother country; neither has the commerce
of Ireland been in this case oppressed hitherto, in order to support the manufactures of
Great Britain.
12Whatever regulations tend to sink the price either of wool or of raw hides below
what it naturally would be, must, in an improved and cultivated country, have some
tendency to raise the price of butcher’s–meat. The price both of the great and small
cattle, which are fed on improved and cultivated land, must be sufficient to pay the
rent which the landlord, and the profit which the farmer has reason to expect from
improved and cultivated land. If it is not, they will soon cease to feed them. Whatever
part of this price, therefore, is not paid by the wool and the hide, must be paid by the
carcase. The less there is paid for the one, the more must be paid for the other. In what
manner this price is to be divided upon the different parts of the beast, is indifferent to
the landlords and farmers, provided it is all paid to them. In an improved and
cultivated country, therefore, their interest as landlords and farmers cannot be much
affected by such regulations, though their interest as consumers may, by the rise in the
price of provisions.13 It would be quite otherwise, however, in an unimproved and
uncultivated country, where the greater part of the lands could be applied to no other
purpose but the feeding of cattle, and where the wool and the hide made the principal
part of the value of those cattle. Their interest as landlords and farmers would in this
case be very deeply affected by such regulations, and their interest as consumers very
little. The fall in the price of the wool and the hide, would not in this case raise the
price of the carcase; because the greater part of the lands of the country being
applicable to no other purpose but the feeding of cattle, the same number would still
continue to be fed. The same quantity of butcher’s–meat would still come to market.
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The demand for it would be no greater than before. Its price, therefore, would be the
same as before. The whole price of cattle would fall, and along with it both the rent
and the profit of all those lands of which cattle was the principal produce, that is, of
the greater part of the lands of the country. The perpetual prohibition of the
exportation of wool, which is commonly, but very falsely, ascribed to Edward III,14
would, in the then circumstances of the country, have been the most destructive
regulation which could well have been thought of. It would not only have reduced the
actual value of the greater part of the lands of the kingdom, but by reducing the price
of the most important species of small cattle, it would have retarded very much its
subsequent improvement.
13The wool of Scotland fell very considerably in its price in consequence of the union
with England, by which it was excluded from the great market of Europe, and
confined to the narrow one of Great Britain.15 The value of the greater part of the
lands in the southern counties of Scotland, which are chiefly a sheep country, would
have been very deeply affected by this event, had not the rise in the price of
butcher’s–meat fully compensated the fall in the price of wool.
14As the efficacy of human industry, in increasing the quantity either of wool or of
raw hides, is limited, so far as it depends upon the produce of the country where it is
exerted; so it is uncertain so far as it depends upon the produce of other countries. It
so far depends, not so much upon the quantity which they produce, as upon that which
they do not manufacture; and upon the restraints which they may or may not think
proper to impose upon the exportation of this sort of rude produce. These
circumstances, as they are altogether independent of domestick industry, so they
necessarily render the efficacy of its efforts more or less uncertain. In multiplying this
sort of rude produce, therefore, the efficacy of human industry is not only limited, but
uncertain.
15In multiplying another very important sort of rude produce, the quantity of fish that
is brought to market, it is likewise both limited and uncertain. It is limited by the local
situation of the country, by the proximity or distance of its different provinces from
the sea, by the number of its lakes and rivers, and by what may be called the fertility
or barrenness of those seas, lakes and rivers, as to this sort of rude produce. As
population increases, as the annual produce of the land and labour of the country
grows greater and greater, there come to be more buyers of fish, and those buyers too
have a greater quantity and variety of other goods, or, what is the same thing, the
price of a greater quantity and variety of other goods, to buy with. But it will
generally be impossible to supply the great and extended market without employing a
quantity of labour greater than in proportion to what had been requisite for supplying
the narrow and confined one. A market which, from requiring only one thousand,
comes to require annually ten thousand ton of fish, can seldom be supplied without
employing more than ten times the quantity of labour which had before been
sufficient to supply it. The fish must generally be sought for at a greater distance,
larger vessels must be employed, and more expensive machinery of every kind made
use of. The real price of this commodity, therefore, naturally rises in the progress of
improvement. It has accordingly done so, I believe, more or less in every country.
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16Though the success of a particular day’s fishing may be a very uncertain matter,
yet, the local situation of the country being supposed, the general efficacy of industry
in bringing a certain quantity of fish to market, taking the course of a year, or of
several years together, it may perhaps be thought, is certain enough; and it, no doubt,
is so. As it depends more, however, upon the local situation of the country, than upon
the state of its wealth and industry; as upon this account it may in different countries
be the same in very different periods of improvement, and very different in the same
period; its connection with the state of improvement is uncertain, and it is of this sort
of uncertainty that I am here speaking.
17In increasing the quantity of the different minerals and metals which are drawn
from the bowels of the earth, that of the more precious ones particularly, the efficacy
of human industry seems not to be limited, but to be altogether uncertain.
18The quantity of the precious metals which is to be found in any country is not
limited by any thing in its local situation, such as the fertility or barrenness of its own
mines. Those metals frequently abound in countries which possess no mines. Their
quantity in every particular country seems to depend upon two different
circumstances; first, upon its power of purchasing, upon the state of its industry, upon
the annual produce of its land and labour, in consequence of which it can afford to
employ a greater or a smaller quantity of labour and subsistence in bringing or
purchasing such superfluities as gold and silver, either from its own mines or from
those of other countries; and, secondly, upon the fertility or barrenness of the mines
which may happen at any particular time to supply the commercial world with those
metals. The quantity of those metals in the countries most remote from the mines,
must be more or less affected by this fertility or barrenness, on account of the easy
and cheap transportation of those metals, of their small bulk and great value. Their
quantity in China and Indostan must have been more or less affected by the
abundance of the mines of America.
19So far as their quantity in any particular country depends upon the former of those
two circumstances (the power of purchasing), their real price, like that of all other
luxuries and superfluities, is likely to rise with the wealth and improvement of the
country, and to fall with its poverty and depression. Countries which have a great
quantity of labour and subsistence to spare, can afford to purchase any particular
quantity of those metals at the expence of a greater quantity of labour and subsistence,
than countries which have less to spare.
20So far as their quantity in any particular country depends upon the latter of those
two circumstances (the fertility or barrenness of the mines which happen to supply the
commercial world) their real price, the real quantity of labour and subsistence which
they will purchase or exchange for, will, no doubt, sink more or less in proportion to
the fertility, and rise in proportion to the barrenness of those mines.
21The fertility or barrenness of the mines, however, which may happen at any
particular time to supply the commercial world, is a circumstance which, it is evident,
may have no sort of connection with the state of industry in a particular country. It
seems even to have no very necessary connection with that of the world in general. As
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arts and commerce, indeed, gradually spread themselves over a greater and a greater
part of the earth, the search for new mines, being extended over a wider surface, may
have somewhat a better chance for being successful, than when confined within
narrower bounds. The discovery of new mines, however, as the old ones come to be
gradually exhausted, is a matter of the greatest uncertainty, and such as no human
skill or industry can ensure. All indications, it is acknowledged, are doubtful, and the
actual discovery and successful working of a new mine can alone ascertain the reality
of its value, or even of its existence. In this search there seem to be no certain limits
either to the possible success, or to the possible disappointment of human industry. In
the course of a century or two, it is possible that new mines may be discovered more
fertile than any that have ever yet been known; and it is just equally possible that the
most fertile mine then known may be more barren than any that was wrought before
the discovery of the mines of America. Whether the one or the other of those two
events may happen to take place, is of very little importance to the real wealth and
prosperity of the world, to the real value of the annual produce of the land and labour
of mankind. Its nominal value, the quantity of gold and silver by which this annual
produce could be expressed or represented, would, no doubt, be very different; but its
real value, the real quantity of labour which it could purchase or command, would be
precisely the same. A shilling might in the one case represent no more labour than a
penny does at present; and a penny in the other might represent as much as a shilling
does now. But in the one case he who had a shilling in his pocket, would be no richer
than he who has a penny at present; and in the other he who had a penny would be
just as rich as he who has a shilling now. The cheapness and abundance of gold and
silver plate, would be the sole advantage which the world could derive from the one
event, and the dearness and scarcity of those trifling superfluities the only
inconveniency it could suffer from the other.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
Conclusion Of The Digression Concerning The Variations In
The Value Of Silver
1The greater part of the writers who have collected the money prices of things in
antient times, seem to have considered the low money price of corn, and of goods in
general, or, in other words, the high value of gold and silver, as a proof, not only of
the scarcity of those metals, but of the poverty and barbarism of the country at the
time when it took place. This notion is connected with the system of political
œconomy which represents national wealth as consisting in the abundance, and
national poverty in the scarcity of gold and silver; a system which I shall endeavour to
explain and examine at great length in the fourth book of this enquiry. I shall only
observe at present, that the high value of the precious metals can be no proof of the
poverty or barbarism of any particular country at the time when it took place. It is a
proof only of the barrenness of the mines which happened at that time to supply the
commercial world. A poor country, as it cannot afford to buy more, so it can as little
afford to pay dearer for gold and silver than a rich one; and the value of those metals,
therefore, is not likely to be higher in the former than in the latter. In China, a country
much richer than any part of Europe,1 the value of the precious metals is much higher
than in any part of Europe. As the wealth of Europe, indeed, has increased greatly
since the discovery of the mines of America, so the value of gold and silver has
gradually diminished. This diminution of their value, however, has not been owing to
the increase of the real wealth of Europe, of the annual produce of its land and labour,
but to the accidental discovery of more abundant mines than any that were known
before. The increase of the quantity of gold and silver in Europe, and the increase of
its manufactures and agriculture, are two events which, though they have happened
nearly about the same time, yet have arisen from very different causes, and have
scarce any natural connection with one another. The one has arisen from a mere
accident, in which neither prudence nor policy either had or could have any share:
The other from the fall of the feudal system, and from the establishment of a
government which afforded to industry, the only encouragement which it requires,
some tolerable security that it shall enjoy the fruits of its own labour.2 Poland, where
the feudal system still continues to take place, is at this day as beggarly a country as it
was before the discovery of America.3 The money price of corn, however, has risen;
the real value of the precious metals has fallen in Poland, in the same manner as in
other parts of Europe. Their quantity, therefore, must have increased there as in other
places, and nearly in the same proportion to the annual produce of its land and labour.
This increase of the quantity of those metals, however, has not, it seems, increased
that annual produce, has neither improved the manufactures and agriculture of the
country, nor mended the circumstances of its inhabitants. Spain and Portugal, the
countries which possess the mines, are, after Poland, perhaps, the two most beggarly
countries in Europe. The value of the precious metals, however, must be lower in
Spain and Portugal than in any other part of Europe; as they come from those
countries to all other parts of Europe, loaded, not only with a freight and an insurance,
but with the expence of smuggling, their exportation being either prohibited, or
subjected to a duty. In proportion to the annual produce of the land and labour,
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therefore, their quantity must be greater in those countries than in any other part of
Europe: Those countries, however, are poorer than the greater part of Europe. Though
the feudal system has been abolished in Spain and Portugal, it has not been succeeded
by a much better.4
2As the low value of gold and silver, therefore, is no proof of the wealth and
flourishing state of the country where it takes place; so neither is their high value, or
the low money price either of goods in general, or of corn in particular, any proof of
its poverty and barbarism.5
3But though the low money price either of goods in general, or of corn in particular,
be no proof of the poverty or barbarism of the times, the low money price of some
particular sorts of goods, such as cattle, poultry, game of all kinds, a&c.a in proportion
to that of corn, is a most decisive one. It clearly demonstrates, first, their great
abundance in proportion to that of corn, and consequently the great extent of the land
which they occupied in proportion to what was occupied by corn; and, secondly, the
low value of this land in proportion to that of corn land, and consequently the
uncultivated and unimproved state of the far greater part of the lands of the country. It
clearly demonstrates that the stock and population of the country did not bear the
same proportion to the extent of its territory, which they commonly do in civilized
countries, and that society was at that time, and in that country, but in its infancy.
From the high or low money price either of goods in general, or of corn in particular,
we can infer only that the mines which at that time happened to supply the
commercial world with gold and silver, were fertile or barren, not that the country was
rich or poor. But from the high or low money–price of some sorts of goods in
proportion to that of others, we can infer with a degree of probability that approaches
almost to certainty, that it was rich or poor, that the greater part of its lands were
improved or unimproved, and that it was either in a more or less barbarous state, or in
a more or less civilized one.
4Any rise in the money price of goods which proceeded altogether from the
degradation of the value of silver, would affect all sorts of goods equally, and raise
their price universally a third, or a fourth, or a fifth part higher, according as silver
happened to lose a third, or a fourth, or a fifth part of its former value.6 But the rise in
the price of provisions, which has been the subject of so much reasoning and
conversation, does not affect all sorts of provisions equally. Taking the course of the
present century at an average, the price of corn, it is acknowledged, even by those
who account for this rise by the degradation of the value of silver, has risen much less
than that of some other sorts of provisions. The rise in the price of those other sorts of
provisions, therefore, cannot be owing altogether to the degradation of the value of
silver. Some other causes must be taken into the account, and those which have been
above assigned, will, perhaps, without having recourse to the supposed degradation of
the value of silver, sufficiently explain this rise in those particular sorts of provisions
of which the price has actually risen in proportion to that of corn.
5As to the price of corn itself, it has, during the sixty–four first years of the present
century, and before the late extraordinary course of bad seasons, been somewhat
lower than it was during the sixty–four last years of the preceding century. This fact is
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attested, not only by the accounts of Windsor market, but by the publick fiars7 of all
the different counties of Scotland, and by the accounts of several different markets in
France, which have been collected with great diligence and fidelity by Mr. Messance,
and by Mr. Dupré de St. Maur.8 The evidence is more compleat than could well have
been expected in a matter which is naturally so very difficult to be ascertained.
6As to the high price of corn during these last ten or twelve years, it can be
sufficiently accounted for from the badness of the seasons, without supposing any
degradation in the value of silver.
7The opinion, therefore, that silver is continually sinking in its value, seems not to be
founded upon any good observations, either upon the prices of corn, or upon those of
other provisions.
8The same quantity of silver, it may, perhaps, be said, will in the present times, even
according to the account which has been here given, purchase a much smaller quantity
of several sorts of provisions than it would have done during some part of the last
century; and to ascertain whether this change be owing to a rise in the value of those
goods, or to a fall in the value of silver, is only to establish a vain and useless
distinction, which can be of no sort of service to the man who has only a certain
quantity of silver to go to market with, or a certain fixed revenue in money. I certainly
do not pretend that the knowledge of this distinction will enable him to buy cheaper. It
may not, however, upon that account be altogether useless.
9It may be of some use to the publick by affording an easy proof of the prosperous
condition of the country. If the rise in the price of some sorts of provisions be owing
altogether to a fall in the value of silver, it is owing to a circumstance from which
nothing can be inferred but the fertility of the American mines. The real wealth of the
country, the annual produce of its land and labour, may, notwithstanding this
circumstance, be either gradually declining, as in Portugal and Poland; or gradually
advancing, as in most other parts of Europe. But if this rise in the price of some sorts
of provisions be owing to a rise in the real value of the land which produces them, to
its increased fertility; or, in consequence of more extended improvement and good
cultivation, to its having been rendered fit for producing corn; it is owing to a
circumstance which indicates in the clearest manner the prosperous and advancing
state of the country. The land constitutes by far the greatest, the most important, and
the most durable part of the wealth of every extensive country. It may surely be of
some use, or, at least, it may give some satisfaction to the Publick, to have so decisive
a proof of the increasing value of by far the greatest, the most important, and the most
durable part of its wealth.
10It may too be of some use to the Publick in regulating the pecuniary reward of some
of its inferior servants. If this rise in the price of some sorts of provisions be owing to
a fall in the value of silver, their pecuniary reward, provided it was not too large
before, ought certainly to be augmented in proportion to the extent of this fall. If it is
not augmented, their real recompence will evidently be so much diminished. But if
this rise of price is owing to the increased value, in consequence of the improved
fertility of the land which produces such provisions, it becomes a much nicer matter
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to judge either in what proportion any pecuniary reward ought to be augmented, or
whether it ought to be augmented at all. The extension of improvement and
cultivation, as it necessarily raises more or less, in proportion to the price of corn, that
of every sort of animal food, so it as necessarily lowers that of, I believe, every sort of
vegetable food. It raises the price of animal food; because a great part of the land
which produces it, being rendered fit for producing corn, must afford to the landlord
and farmer the rent and profit of corn–land. It lowers the price of vegetable food;
because, by increasing the fertility of the land, it increases its abundance. The
improvements of agriculture too introduce many sorts of vegetable food, which,
requiring less land and not more labour than corn, come much cheaper to market.
Such are potatoes9 and maize, or what is called Indian corn, the two most important
improvements which the agriculture of Europe, perhaps, which Europe itself, has
received from the great extension of its commerce and navigation. Many sorts of
vegetable food, besides, which in the rude state of agriculture are confined to the
kitchen–garden, and raised only by the spade, come in its improved state to be
introduced into common fields, and to be raised by the plough: such as turnips,
carrots, cabbages, &c. If in the progress of improvement, therefore, the real price of
one species of food necessarily rises, that of another as necessarily falls, and it
becomes a matter of more nicety to judge how far the rise in the one may be
compensated by the fall in the other.10 When the real price of butcher’s–meat has
once got to its height (which, with regard to every sort, except, perhaps, that of hogs
flesh, it seems to have done through a great part of England, more than a century ago),
any rise which can afterwards happen in that of any other sort of animal food, cannot
much affect the circumstances of the inferior ranks of people. The circumstances of
the poor through a great part of England cannot surely be so much distressed by any
rise in the price of poultry, fish, wild–fowl, or venison, as they must be relieved by the
fall in that of potatoes.
11In the present season of scarcity the high price of corn no doubt distresses the poor.
But in times of moderate plenty, when corn is at its ordinary or average price, the
natural rise in the price of any other sort of rude produce cannot much affect them.
They suffer more, perhaps, by the artificial rise which has been occasioned by taxes in
the price of some manufactured commodities; as of salt, soap, leather, candles, malt,
beer, and ale, &c.11
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Effects Of The Progress Of Improvement Upon The Real Price
Of Manufactures
1It is the natural effect of improvement, however, to diminish gradually the real price
of almost all manufactures. That of the manufacturing workmanship diminishes,
perhaps, in all of them without exception. In consequence of better machinery, of
greater dexterity, and of a more proper division and distribution of work, all of which
are the natural effects of improvement, a much smaller quantity of labour becomes
requisite for executing any particular piece of work; and though, in consequence of
the flourishing circumstances of the society, the real price of labour should rise very
considerably, yet the great diminution of the quantity will generally much more than
compensate the greatest rise which can happen in the price.1
2There are, indeed, a few manufactures, in which the necessary rise in the real price
of the rude materials will more than compensate all the advantages which
improvement can introduce into the execution of the work. In carpenters and joiners
work, and in the coarser sort of cabinet work, the necessary rise in the real price of
barren timber, in consequence of the improvement of land, will more than compensate
all the advantages which can be derived from the best machinery, the greatest
dexterity, and the most proper division and distribution of work.
3 But in all cases in which the real price of the rude materials either does not rise at
all, or does not rise very much, that of the manufactured commodity sinks very
considerably.
4This diminution of price has, in the course of the present and preceding century,
been most remarkable in those manufactures of which the materials are the coarser
metals. A better movement of a watch, than about the middle of the last century could
have been bought for twenty pounds, may now perhaps be had for twenty shillings. In
the work of cutlers and locksmiths, in all the toys2 which are made of the coarser
metals, and in all those goods which are commonly known by the name of
Birmingham and Sheffield ware, there has been, during the same period, a very great
reduction of price, though not altogether so great as in watch–work. It has, however,
been sufficient to astonish the workmen of every other part of Europe, who in many
cases acknowledge that they can produce no work of equal goodness for double, or
even for triple the price. There are perhaps no manufactures in which the division of
labour can be carried further, or in which the machinery employed admits of a greater
variety of improvements, than those of which the materials are the coarser metals.
5In the clothing manufacture there has, during the same period, been no such sensible
reduction of price. The price of superfine cloth, I have been assured, on the contrary,
has, within these five–and–twenty or thirty years, risen somewhat in proportion to its
quality; owing, it was said, to a considerable rise in the price of material, which
consists altogether of Spanish wool. That of the Yorkshire cloth, which is made
altogether of English wool, is said indeed, during the course of the present century, to
have fallen a good deal in proportion to its quality. Quality, however, is so very
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disputable a matter, that I look upon all ainformationa of this kind as somewhat
uncertain. In the clothing manufacture, the division of labour is nearly the same now
as it was a century ago, and the machinery employed is not very different. There may,
however, have been some small improvements in both, which may have occasioned
some reduction of price.3
6bBut the reductionb will appear much more sensible and undeniable, if we compare
the price of this manufacture in the present times with what it was in a much remoter
period, towards the end of the fifteenth century, when the labour was probably much
less subdivided, and the machinery employed much more imperfect than it is at
present.
7In 1487, being the 4th of Henry VII.4 it was enacted, that “whosoever shall sell by
retail a broad yard of the finest scarlet grained, or of other grained cloth of the finest
making, above sixteen shillings, shall forfeit forty shillings for every yard so sold.”
Sixteen shillings, therefore, containing about the same quantity of silver as
four–and–twenty shillings of our present money, was, at that time, reckoned not an
unreasonable price for a yard of the finest cloth; and as this is a sumptuary law, such
cloth, it is probable, had usually been sold somewhat dearer. A guinea may be
reckoned the highest price in the present times. Even though the quality of the cloths,
therefore, should be supposed equal, and that of the present times is most probably
much superior, yet, even upon this supposition, the money price of the finest cloth
appears to have been considerably reduced since the end of the fifteenth century. But
its real price has been much more reduced. Six shillings and eight–pence was then,
and long afterwards, reckoned the average price of a quarter of wheat. Sixteen
shillings, therefore, was the price of two quarters and more than three bushels of
wheat. Valuing a quarter of wheat in the present times at eight–and–twenty shillings,
the real price of a yard of fine cloth must, in those times, have been equal to at least
three pounds six shillings and sixpence of our present money. The man who bought it
must have parted with the command of a quantity of labour and subsistence equal to
what that sum would purchase in the present times.
8The reduction in the real price of the coarse manufacture, though considerable, has
not been so great as in that of the fine.
9In 1463, being the 3d of Edward IV.5 it was enacted, that “no servant in husbandry,
nor common labourer, nor servant to any artificer inhabiting out of a city or burgh,
shall use or wear in their cloathing any cloth above two shillings the broad yard.” In
the 3d of Edward IV. two shillings contained very nearly the same quantity of silver
as four of our present money. But the Yorkshire cloth which is now sold at four
shillings the yard, is probably much superior to any that was then made for the
wearing of the very poorest order of common servants. Even the money price of their
cloathing, therefore, may, in proportion to the quality, be somewhat cheaper in the
present than it was in those antient times. The real price is certainly a good deal
cheaper. Ten pence was then reckoned what is called the moderate and reasonable
price of a bushel of wheat. Two shillings, therefore, was the price of two bushels and
near two pecks of wheat, which in the present times, at three shillings and sixpence
the bushel, would be worth eight shillings and nine–pence. For a yard of this cloth the
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poor servant must have parted with the power of purchasing a quantity of subsistence
equal to what eight shillings and nine–pence would purchase in the present times.
This is a sumptuary law too, restraining the luxury and extravagance of the poor.
Their cloathing, therefore, had commonly been much more expensive.
10The same order of people are, by the same law, prohibited from wearing hose, of
which the price should exceed fourteen–pence the pair, equal to about
eight–and–twenty pence of our present money. But fourteen–pence was in those times
the price of a bushel and near two pecks of wheat; which, in the present times, at three
and sixpence the bushel, would cost five shillings and three–pence. We should in the
present times consider this as a very high price for a pair of stockings to a servant of
the poorest and lowest order. He must, however, in those times have paid what was
really equivalent to this price for them.
11In the time of Edward IV. the art of knitting stockings was probably not known in
any part of Europe. Their hose were made of common cloth, which may have been
one of the causes of their dearness. The first person that wore stockings in England is
said to have been Queen Elizabeth. She received them as a present from the Spanish
ambassador.
12Both in the coarse and in the fine woollen manufacture, the machinery employed
was much more imperfect in those antient, than it is in the present times.6 It has since
received three very capital improvements, besides, probably, many smaller ones of
which it may be difficult to ascertain either the number or the importance. The three
capital improvements are; first, The exchange of the rock and spindle for the
spinning–wheel, which, with the same quantity of labour, will perform more than
double the quantity of work. Secondly, the use of several very cveryc ngenious
machines which facilitate and abridge in a still greater proportion the winding of the
worsted and woollen yarn, or the proper arrangement of the warp and woof before
they are put into the loom; an operation which, previous to the invention of those
machines, must have been extremely tedious and troublesome. Thirdly, The
employment of the fulling mill for thickening the cloth, instead of treading it in water.
Neither wind nor water mills of any kind were known in England so early as the
beginning of the sixteenth century, nor, so far as I know, in any other part of Europe
north of the Alps.7 They have been introduced into Italy some time before.
13The consideration of these circumstances may, perhaps, in some measure explain to
us why the real price both of the coarse and of the fine manufacture, was so much
higher in those antient, than it is in the present times. It cost a greater quantity of
labour to bring the goods to market. When they were brought thither, therefore, they
must have purchased or exchanged for the price of a greater quantity.
14The coarse manufacture probably was, in those antient times, carried on in
England, in the same manner as it always has been in countries where arts and
manufactures are in their infancy. It was probably a household manufacture, in which
every different part of the work was occasionally performed by all the different
members of almost every private family; but so as to be their work only when they
had nothing else to do, and not to be the principal business from which any of them
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derived the greater part of their subsistence. The work which is performed in this
manner, it has already been observed,8 comes always much cheaper to market than
that which is the principal or sole fund of the workman’s subsistence. The fine
manufacture, on the other hand, was not in those times carried on in England, but in
the rich and commercial country of Flanders; and it was probably conducted then, in
the same manner as now, by people who derived the whole, or the principal part of
their subsistence from it. It was besides a foreign manufacture, and must have paid
some duty, the antient custom of tonnage and poundage at least, to the king. This
duty, indeed, would not probably be very great. It was not then the policy of Europe
to restrain, by high duties, the importation of foreign manufactures, but rather to
encourage it, in order that merchants might be enabled to supply, at as easy a rate as
possible, the great men with the conveniences and luxuries which they wanted, and
which the industry of their own country could not afford them.9
15The consideration of these circumstances may perhaps in some measure explain to
us why, in those antient times, the real price of the coarse manufacture was, in
proportion to that of the fine, so much lower than in the present times.
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ConclusionOf TheChapter
1I shall conclude this very long chapter with observing1 that every improvement in
the circumstances of the society tends either directly or indirectly to raise the real rent
of land, to increase the real wealth of the landlord, his power of purchasing the labour,
or the produce of the labour of other people.
2The extension of improvement and cultivation tends to raise it directly. The
landlord’s share of the produce necessarily increases with the increase of the
produce.2
3That rise in the real price of those parts of the rude produce of land, which is first the
effect of extended improvement and cultivation, and afterwards the cause of their
being still further extended, the rise in the price of cattle, for example, tends too to
raise the rent of land directly, and in a still greater proportion. The real value of the
landlord’s share, his real command of the labour of other people, not only rises with
the real value of the produce, but the proportion of his share to the whole produce
rises with it. That produce, after the rise in its real price, requires no more labour to
collect it than before. A smaller proportion of it will, therefore, be sufficient to
replace, with the ordinary profit, the stock which employs that labour. A greater
proportion of it must, consequently, belong to the landlord.
4 All those improvements in the productive powers of labour, which tend directly to
reduce the real price of manufactures, tend indirectly to raise the real rent of land. The
landlord exchanges that part of his rude produce, which is over and above his own
consumption, or what comes to the same thing, the price of that part of it, for
manufactured produce. Whatever reduces the real price of the latter, raises that of the
former. An equal quantity of the former becomes thereby equivalent to a greater
quantity of the latter; and the landlord is enabled to purchase a greater quantity of the
conveniences, ornaments, or luxuries, which he has occasion for.
5Every increase in the real wealth of the society, every increase in the quantity of
useful labour employed within it, tends indirectly to raise the real rent of land. A
certain proportion of this labour naturally goes to the land. A greater number of men
and cattle are employed in its cultivation, the produce increases with the increase of
the stock which is thus employed in raising it, and the rent increases with the produce.
6The contrary circumstances, the neglect of cultivation and improvement, the fall in
the real price of any part of the rude produce of land, the rise in the real price of
manufactures from the decay of manufacturing art and industry, the declension of the
real wealth of the society, all tend, on the other hand, to lower the real rent of land, to
reduce the real wealth of the landlord, to diminish his power of purchasing either the
labour, or the produce of the labour of other people.
7The whole annual produce of the land and labour of every country, or what comes to
the same thing, the whole price of that annual produce, naturally divides itself, it has
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already been observed,3 into three parts; the rent of land, the wages of labour, and the
profits of stock; and constitutes a revenue to three different orders of people; to those
who live by rent, to those who live by wages, and to those who live by profit. These
are the three great, original and constituent orders of every civilized society, from
whose revenue that of every other order is ultimately derived.
8The interest of the first of those three great orders, it appears from what has been just
now said, is strictly and inseparably connected with the general interest of the society.
Whatever either promotes or obstructs the one, necessarily promotes or obstructs the
other. When the publick deliberates concerning any regulation of commerce or police,
the proprietors of land never can mislead it, with a view to promote the interest of
their own particular order; at least, if they have any tolerable knowledge of that
interest.4 They are, indeed, too often defective in this tolerable knowledge. They are
the only one of the three orders whose revenue costs them neither labour nor care, but
comes to them, as it were, of its own accord, and independent of any plan or project of
their own.5 That indolence, which is the natural effect of the ease and security of their
situation, renders them too often, not only ignorant, but incapable of that application
of mind which is necessary in order to foresee and understand the consequences of
any publick regulation.6
9The interest of the second order, that of those who live by wages, is as strictly
connected with the interest of the society as that of the first. The wages of the
labourer, it has already been shewn,7 are never so high as when the demand for labour
is continually rising, or when the quantity employed is every year increasing
considerably. When this real wealth of the society becomes stationary, his wages are
soon reduced to what is barely enough to enable him to bring up a family, or to
continue the race of labourers.8 When the society declines, they fall even below this.
The order of proprietors may, perhaps, gain more by the prosperity of the society,
than that of labourers: but there is no order that suffers so cruelly from its decline. But
though the interest of the labourer is strictly connected with that of the society, he is
incapable either of comprehending that interest, or of understanding its connection
with his own. His condition leaves him no time to receive the necessary information,
and his education and habits are commonly such as to render him unfit to judge even
though he was fully informed.9 In the publick deliberations, therefore, his voice is
little heard and less regarded, except upon some particular occasions, when his
clamour is animated, set on, and supported by his employers, not for his, but their
own particular purposes.
10His employers constitute the third order, that of those who live by profit. It is the
stock that is employed for the sake of profit, which puts into motion the greater part of
the useful labour of every society. The plans and projects of the employers of stock
regulate and direct all the most important operations of labour, and profit is the end
proposed by all those plans and projects. But the rate of profit does not, like rent and
wages, rise with the prosperity, and fall with the declension of the society. On the
contrary, it is naturally low in rich, and high in poor countries, and it is always highest
in the countries which are going fastest to ruin. The interest of this third order,
therefore, has not the same connection with the general interest of the society as that
of the other two.10 Merchants and master manufacturers are, in this order, the two
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classes of people who commonly employ the largest capitals, and who by their wealth
draw to themselves the greatest share of the publick consideration. As during their
whole lives they are engaged in plans and projects, they have frequently more
acuteness of understanding than the greater part of country gentlemen. As their
thoughts, however, are commonly exercised rather about the interest of their own
particular branch of business, than about that of the society, their judgment, even
when given with the greatest candour (which it has not been upon every occasion) is
much more to be depended upon with regard to the former of those two objects, than
with regard to the latter. Their superiority over the country gentleman is, not so much
in their knowledge of the publick interest, as in their having a better knowledge of
their own interest than he has of his. It is by this superior knowledge of their own
interest that they have frequently imposed upon his generosity, and persuaded him to
give up both his own interest and that of the publick, from a very simple but honest
conviction, that their interest, and not his, was the interest of the publick.11 The
interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is
always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the publick. To
widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers.
To widen the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the
publick; but to narrow the competition must always be against it, and can serve only
to enable the dealers, by raising their profits above what they naturally would be, to
levy, for their own benefit, an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow–citizens. The
proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order,
ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till
after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but
with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is
never exactly the same with that of the publick, who have generally an interest to
deceive and even to oppress the publick, and who accordingly have, upon many
occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.12
13
14
15
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16
17
18
19
20
21
22
a
23
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b
c
d
e
f
24
25
Prices of the Quarter of nine Bushels of the best or highest priced Wheat at Windsor
Market, on Lady–Day and Michaelmas, from 1595 to 1764, both inclusive; the Price
of each Year being the medium between the highest Prices of those Two Market
Days.26
27
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BOOK II
Of The Nature, Accumulation, And Employment Of Stock
Introduction
1In that rude state of society in which there is no division of labour, in which
exchanges are seldom made, and in which every man provides every thing for
himself, it is not necessary that any stock should be accumulated or stored up
beforehand in order to carry on the business of the society. Every man endeavours to
supply by his own industry his own occasional wants as they occur. When he is
hungry, he goes to the forest to hunt; when his coat is worn out, he cloaths himself
with the skin of the first large animal he kills: and when his hut begins to go to ruin,
he repairs it, as well as he can, with the trees and the turf that are nearest it.
2But when the division of labour has once been thoroughly introduced, the produce of
a man’s own labour can supply but a very small part of his occasional wants.1 The far
greater part of them are supplied by the produce of other mens labour, which he
purchases with the produce, or, what is the same thing, with the price of the produce
of his own. But this purchase cannot be made till such time as the produce of his own
labour has not only been compleated, but sold. A stock of goods of different kinds,
therefore, must be stored up somewhere sufficient to maintain him, and to supply him
with the materials and tools of his work till such time, at least, as both these events
can be brought about.2 A weaver cannot apply himself entirely to his peculiar
business, unless there is beforehand stored up somewhere, either in his own
possession or in that of some other person, a stock sufficient to maintain him, and to
supply him with the materials and tools of his work, till he has not only compleated,
but sold his web. This accumulation must, evidently, be previous to his applying his
industry for so long a time to such a peculiar business.
3As the accumulation of stock must, in the nature of things, be previous to the
division of labour, so labour can be more and more subdivided ain proportion onlya as
stock is previously more and more accumulated. The quantity of materials which the
same number of people can work up, increases in a great proportion as labour comes
to be more and more subdivided; and as the operations of each workman are gradually
reduced to a greater degree of simplicity, a variety of new machines come to be
invented for facilitating and abridging those operations. As the division of labour
advances, therefore, in order to give constant employment to an equal number of
workmen, an equal stock of provisions, and a greater stock of materials and tools than
what would have been necessary in a ruder state of things, must be accumulated
beforehand. But the number of workmen in every branch of business generally
increases with the division of labour in that branch, or rather it is the increase of their
number which enables them to class and subdivide themselves in this manner.
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4As the accumulation of stock is previously necessary for carrying on this great
improvement in the productive powers of labour, so that accumulation naturally leads
to this improvement. The person who employs his stock in maintaining labour,
necessarily wishes to employ it in such a manner as to produce as great a quantity of
work as possible. He endeavours, therefore, both to make among his workmen the
most proper distribution of employment, and to furnish them with the best machines
which he can either invent or afford to purchase.3 His abilities in both these respects
are generally in proportion to the extent of his stock, or to the number of people
whom it can employ. The quantity of industry, therefore, not only increases in every
country with the increase of the stock which employs it, but, in consequence of that
increase, the same quantity of industry produces a much greater quantity of work.
5Such are in general the effects of the increase of stock upon industry and its
productive powers.
6In the following book I have endeavoured to explain the nature of stock, the effects
of its accumulation into capitals of different kinds, and the effects of the different
employments of those capitals. This book is divided into five chapters. In the first
chapter, I have endeavoured to show what are the different parts or branches into
which the stock, either of an individual, or of a great society, naturally divides itself.
In the second, I have endeavoured to explain the nature and operation of money
considered as a particular branch of the general stock of the society. The stock which
is accumulated into a capital, may either be employed by the person to whom it
belongs, or it may be lent to some other person. In the third and fourth chapters, I
have endeavoured to examine the manner in which it operates in both these situations.
The fifth and last chapter treats of the different effects which the different
employments of capital immediately produce upon the quantity both of national
industry, and of the annual produce of land and labour.
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CHAPTER I
Of The Division Of Stock
1When the stock which a man possesses is no more than sufficient to maintain him
for a few days or a few weeks, he seldom thinks of deriving any revenue from it. He
consumes it as sparingly as he can, and endeavours by his labour to acquire something
which may supply its place before it be consumed altogether. His revenue is, in this
case, derived from his labour only. This is the state of the greater part of the labouring
poor in all countries.
2But when he possesses stock sufficient to maintain him for months or years, he
naturally endeavours to derive a revenue from the greater part of it; reserving only so
much for his immediate consumption as may maintain him till this revenue begins to
come in. His whole stock, therefore, is distinguished into two parts. That part which,
he expects, is to afford him this revenue, is called his capital. The other is that which
supplies his immediate consumption; and which consists either, first, in that portion of
his whole stock which was originally reserved for this purpose; or, secondly, in his
revenue, from whatever source derived, as it gradually comes in; or, thirdly, in such
things as had been purchased by either of these in former years, and which are not yet
entirely consumed; such as a stock of cloaths, household furniture, and the like. In
one, or other, or all of these three articles, consists the stock which men commonly
reserve for their own immediate consumption.
3There are two different ways in which a capital may be employed so as to yield a
revenue or profit to its employer.
4First, it may be employed in raising, manufacturing, or purchasing goods, and selling
them again with a profit. The capital employed in this manner yields no revenue or
profit to its employer, while it either remains in his possession, or continues in the
same shape. The goods of the merchant yield him no revenue or profit till he sells
them for money, and the money yields him as little till it is again exchanged for
goods. His capital is continually going from him in one shape, and returning to him in
another, and it is only by means of such circulation, or successive exchanges, that it
can yield him any profit. Such capitals, therefore, may very properly be called
circulating capitals.
5Secondly, it may be employed in the improvement of land, in the purchase of useful
machines and instruments of trade, or in suchlike things as yield a revenue or profit
without changing masters, or circulating any further. Such capitals, therefore, may
very properly be called fixed capitals.
6Different occupations require very different proportions between the fixed and
circulating capitals employed in them.
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7The capital of a merchant, for example, is altogether a circulating capital. He has
occasion for no machines or instruments of trade, unless his shop, or warehouse, be
considered as such.
8Some part of the capital of every master artificer or manufacturer must be fixed in
the instruments of his trade. This part, however, is very small in some, and very great
in others. A master taylor requires no other instruments of trade but a parcel of
needles. Those of the master shoemaker are a little, though but a very little, more
expensive. Those of the weaver rise a good deal above those of the shoemaker. The
far greater part of the capital of all such master artificers, however, is circulated,
either in the wages of their workmen, or in the price of their materials, and repaid with
a profit by the price of the work.1
9In other works a much greater fixed capital is required. In a great iron–work, for
example, the furnace for melting the ore, the forge, the slitt–mill, are instruments of
trade2 which cannot be erected without a very great expence.3 In coal–works and
mines of every kind, the machinery necessary both for drawing out the water and for
other purposes, is frequently still more expensive.
10That part of the capital of the farmer which is employed in the instruments of
agriculture is a fixed; that which is employed in the wages and maintenance of his
labouring servants, is a circulating capital. He makes a profit of the one by keeping it
in his own possession, and of the other by parting with it. The price or value of his
labouring cattle is a fixed capital in the same manner as that of the instruments of
husbandry: Their maintenance is a circulating capital in the same manner as that of
the labouring servants. The farmer makes his profit by keeping the labouring cattle,
and by parting with their maintenance. Both the price and the maintenance of the
cattle which are bought in and fattened, not for labour, but for sale, are a circulating
capital. The farmer makes his profit by parting with them. A flock of sheep or a herd
of cattle that, in a breeding country, is bought in, neither for labour, nor for sale, but in
order to make a profit by their wool, by their milk, and by their increase, is a fixed
capital. The profit is made by keeping them. Their maintenance is a circulating
capital. The profit is made by parting with it; and it comes back with both its own
profit, and the profit upon the whole price of the cattle, in the price of the wool, the
milk, and the increase. The whole value of the seed too is properly a fixed capital.
Though it goes backwards and forwards between the ground and the granary, it never
changes masters, and therefore does not properly circulate. The farmer makes his
profit, not by its sale, but by its increase.
11The general stock of any country or society is the same with that of all its
inhabitants or members, and therefore naturally divides itself into the same three
portions, each of which has a distinct function or office.
12The First, is that portion which is reserved for immediate consumption, and of
which the characteristick is, that it affords no revenue or profit. It consists in the stock
of food, cloaths, household furniture, &c. which have been purchased by their proper
consumers, but which are not yet entirely consumed. The whole stock of mere
dwelling–houses too subsisting at any one time in the country, make a part of this first
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portion. The stock that is laid out in a house, if it is to be the dwelling–house of the
proprietor, ceases from that moment to serve in the function of a capital, or to afford
any revenue to its owner. A dwelling–house, as such, contributes nothing to the
revenue of its inhabitant; and though it is, no doubt, extremely useful to him, it is as
his cloaths and household furniture are useful to him, which, however, make a part of
his expence, and not of his revenue. If it is to be lett to a tenant for rent, as the house
itself can produce nothing, the tenant must always pay the rent out of some other
revenue which he derives either from labour, or stock, or land.4 Though a house,
therefore, may yield a revenue to its proprietor, and thereby serve in the function of a
capital to him, it cannot yield any to the publick, nor serve in the function of a capital
to it, and the revenue of the whole body of the people can never be in the smallest
degree increased by it. Cloaths, and household furniture, in the same manner,
sometimes yield a revenue, and thereby serve in the function of a capital to particular
persons. In countries where masquerades are common, it is a trade to let out
masquerade dresses for a night. Upholsterers frequently lett furniture by the month or
by the year. Undertakers lett the furniture of funerals by the day and by the week.
Many people lett furnished houses, and get a rent, not only for the use of the house,
but for that of the furniture. The revenue, however, which is derived from such things,
must always be ultimately drawn from some other source of revenue. Of all parts of
the stock, either of an individual, or of a society, reserved for immediate consumption,
what is laid out in houses is most slowly consumed.5 A stock of cloaths may last
several years: a stock of furniture half a century or a century: but a stock of houses,
well built and properly taken care of, may last many centuries. Though the period of
their total consumption, however, is more distant, they are still as really a stock
reserved for immediate consumption as either cloaths or household furniture.
13The Second of the three portions into which the general stock of the society divides
itself, is the fixed capital; of which the characteristick is, that it affords a revenue or
profit without circulating or changing masters. It consists chiefly of the four following
articles:
14First, of all useful machines and instruments of trade which facilitate and abridge
labour:
15Secondly, of all those profitable buildings which are the means of procuring a
revenue, not only to their proprietor who letts them for a rent, but to the person who
possesses them and pays that rent for them; such as shops, warehouses, workhouses,
farmhouses, with all their necessary buildings; stables, granaries, &c. These are very
different from mere dwelling houses. They are a sort of instruments of trade, and may
be considered in the same light:
16Thirdly, of the improvements of land, of what has been profitably laid out in
clearing, draining, enclosing, manuring, and reducing it into the condition most proper
for tillage and culture. An improved farm may very justly be regarded in the same
light as those useful machines which facilitate and abridge labour, and by means of
which, an equal circulating capital can afford a much greater revenue to its employer.
An improved farm is equally advantageous and more durable than any of those
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machines, frequently requiring no other repairs than the most profitable application of
the farmer’s capital employed in cultivating it:
17Fourthly, of the acquired and useful abilities of all the inhabitants or members of
the society. The acquisition of such talents, by the maintenance of the acquirer during
his education, study, or apprenticeship, always costs a real expence, which is a capital
fixed and realized, as it were, in his person.6 Those talents, as they make a part of his
fortune, so do they likewise of that of the society to which he belongs. The improved
dexterity of a workman may be considered in the same light as a machine or
instrument of trade which facilitates and abridges labour, and which, though it costs a
certain expence, repays that expence with a profit.
18The third and last of the three portions into which the general stock of the society
naturally divides itself, is the circulating capital; of which the characteristick is, that it
affords a revenue only by circulating or changing masters. It is composed likewise of
four parts:
19First, of the money by means of which all the other three are circulated and
distributed to their proper a consumers:7
20Secondly, of the stock of provisions which are in the possession of the butcher, the
grazier, the farmer, the corn–merchant, the brewer, &c. and from the sale of which
they expect to derive a profit:
21 Thirdly, of the materials, whether altogether rude, or more or less manufactured, of
cloaths, furniture, and building, which are not yet made up into any of those three
shapes, but which remain in the hands of the growers, the manufacturers, the mercers
and drapers, the timber–merchants, the carpenters and joiners, the brickmakers, &c.
22Fourthly, and lastly, of the work which is made up and compleated, but which is
still in the hands of the merchant borb manufacturer, and not yet disposed of or
distributed to the proper c consumers; such as the finished work which we frequently
find ready–made in the shops of the smith, the cabinet–maker, the goldsmith, the
jeweller, the china–merchant, &c. The circulating capital consists in this manner, of
the provisions, materials, and finished work of all kinds that are in the hands of their
respective dealers, and of the money that is necessary for circulating and distributing
them to those who are finally to use, or to consume them.
23Of these four parts three, provisions, materials, and finished work, are, either
annually, or in a longer or shorter period, regularly withdrawn from it, and placed
either in the fixed capital or in the stock reserved for immediate consumption.
24Every fixed capital is both originally derived from, and requires to be continually
supported by a circulating capital. All useful machines and instruments of trade are
originally derived from a circulating capital, which furnishes the materials of which
they are made, and the maintenance of the workmen who make them. They require
too a capital of the same kind to keep them in constant repair.
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25No fixed capital can yield any revenue but by means of a circulating capital. The
most useful machines and instruments of trade will produce nothing without the
circulating capital which affords the materials they are employed upon, and the
maintenance of the workmen who employ them.8 Land, however improved, will yield
no revenue without a circulating capital, which maintains the labourers who cultivate
and collect its produce.
26To maintain and augment the stock which may be reserved for immediate
consumption, is the sole end and purpose both of the fixed and circulating capitals. It
is this stock which feeds, cloaths, and lodges the people. Their riches or poverty
depends upon the abundant or sparing supplies which those two capitals can afford to
the stock reserved for immediate consumption.
27So great a part of the circulating capital being continually withdrawn from it, in
order to be placed in the other two branches of the general stock of the society; it must
in its turn require continual supplies, without which it would soon cease to exist.
These supplies are principally drawn from three sources, the produce of land, of
mines, and of fisheries. These afford continual supplies of provisions and materials, of
which part is afterwards wrought up into finished work, and by which are replaced the
provisions, materials, and finished work continually withdrawn from the circulating
capital. From mines too is drawn what is necessary for maintaining and augmenting
that part of it which consists in money. For though, in the ordinary course of business,
this part is not, like the other three, necessarily withdrawn from it, in order to be
placed in the other two branches of the general stock of the society, it must, however,
like all other things, be wasted and worn out at last, and sometimes too be either lost
or sent abroad, and must, therefore, require continual, though, no doubt, much smaller
supplies.
28Land, mines, and fisheries, require all both a fixed and a circulating capital to
cultivate them; and their produce replaces with a profit, not only those capitals, but all
the others in the society. Thus the farmer annually replaces to the manufacturer the
provisions which he had consumed and the materials which he had wrought up the
year before; and the manufacturer replaces to the farmer the finished work which he
had wasted and worn out in the same time. This is the real exchange that is annually
made between those two orders of people,9 though it seldom happens that the rude
produce of the one and the manufactured produce of the other, are directly bartered
for one another; because it seldom happens that the farmer sells his corn and his
cattle, his flax and his wool, to the very same person of whom he chuses to purchase
the cloaths, furniture, and instruments of trade which he wants. He sells, therefore, his
rude produce for money, with which he can purchase, wherever it is to be had, the
manufactured produce he has occasion for. Land even replaces, in part, at least, the
capitals with which fisheries and mines are cultivated. It is the produce of land which
draws the fish from the waters; and it is the produce of the surface of the earth which
extracts the minerals from its bowels.
29The produce of land, mines, and fisheries, when their natural fertility is equal, is in
proportion to the extent and proper application of the capitals employed about them.
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When the capitals are equal and equally well applied, it is in proportion to their
natural fertility.
30In all countries where there is tolerable security,10 every man of common
understanding will endeavour to employ whatever stock he can command in
procuring either present enjoyment or future profit. If it is employed in procuring
present enjoyment, it is a stock reserved for immediate consumption. If it is employed
in procuring future profit, it must procure this profit either by staying with him, or by
going from him. In the one case it is a fixed, in the other it is a circulating capital. A
man must be perfectly crazy who, where there is tolerable security, does not employ
all the stock which he commands, whether it be his own or borrowed of other people,
in some one or other of those three ways.11
31 In those unfortunate countries, indeed, where men are continually afraid of the
violence of their superiors, they frequently bury and conceal a great part of their
stock, in order to have it always at hand to carry with them to some place of safety, in
case of their being threatened with any of those disasters to which they consider
themselves as at all times exposed. This is said to be a common practice in Turkey, in
Indostan, and, I believe, in most other governments of Asia.12 It seems to have been a
common practice among our ancestors during the violence of the feudal
government.13 Treasure–trove was in those times considered as no contemptible part
of the revenue of the greatest sovereigns in Europe. It consisted in such treasure as
was found concealed in the earth, and to which no particular person could prove any
right. This was regarded in those times as so important an object, that it was always
considered as belonging to the sovereign, and neither to the finder nor to the
proprietor of the land, unless the right to it had been conveyed to the latter by an
express clause in his charter.14 It was put upon the same footing with gold and silver
mines, which, without a special clause in the charter, were never supposed to be
comprehended in the general grant of the lands, though mines of lead, copper, tin, and
coal were, as things of smaller consequence.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
CHAPTER II
Of Money Considered As A Particular Branch Of The General
Stock Of The Society, Or Of The Expence Of Maintaining The
National Capital
1It has been shewn in the first Book, that the price of the greater part of commodities
resolves itself into three parts, of which one pays the wages of the labour, another the
profits of the stock, and a third the rent of the land which had been employed in
producing and bringing them to market:1 that there are, indeed, some commodities of
which the price is made up of two of those parts only, the wages of labour, and the
profits of stock:2 and a very few in which it consists altogether in one, the wages of
labour: but that the price of every commodity necessarily resolves itself into some
one, or other, or all of these three parts; every part of it which goes neither to rent nor
to wages, being necessarily profit to somebody.
2Since this is the case, it has been observed, with regard to every particular
commodity, taken separately; it must be so with regard to all the commodities which
compose the whole annual produce of the land and labour of every country, taken
complexly. The whole price or exchangeable value of that annual produce, must
resolve itself into the same three parts, and be parcelled out among the different
inhabitants of the country, either as the wages of their labour, the profits of their
stock, or the rent of their land.
3But though the whole value of the annual produce of the land and labour of every
country is thus divided among and constitutes a revenue to its different inhabitants,
yet as in the rent of a private estate we distinguish between the gross rent and the neat
rent, so may we likewise in the revenue of all the inhabitants of a great country.
4The gross rent of a private estate comprehends whatever is paid by the farmer; the
neat rent, what remains free to the landlord, after deducting the expence of
management, of repairs, and all other necessary charges;3 or what, without hurting his
estate, he can afford to place in his stock reserved for immediate consumption, or to
spend upon his table, equipage, the ornaments of his house and furniture, his private
enjoyments and amusements. His real wealth is in proportion, not to his gross, but to
his neat rent.
5The gross revenue of all the inhabitants of a great country, comprehends the whole
annual produce of their land and labour; the neat revenue, what remains free to them
after deducting the expence of maintaining; first, their fixed; and, secondly, their
circulating capital; or what, without encroaching upon their capital, they can place in
their stock reserved for immediate consumption, or spend upon their subsistence,
conveniencies, and amusements. Their real wealth too is in proportion, not to their
gross, but to their neat revenue.
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6The whole expence of maintaining the fixed capital, must evidently be excluded
from the neat revenue of the society. Neither the materials necessary for supporting
their useful machines and instruments of trade, their profitable buildings, &c. nor the
produce of the labour necessary for fashioning those materials into the proper form,
can ever make any part of it. The price of that labour may indeed make a part of it; as
the workmen so employed may place the whole value of their wages in their stock
reserved for immediate consumption. But in other sorts of labour, both the price and
the produce go to this stock, the price to that of the workmen, the produce to that of
other people, whose subsistence, conveniencies, and amusements, are augmented by
the labour of those workmen.
7The intention of the fixed capital is to increase the productive powers of labour, or to
enable the same number of labourers to perform a much greater quantity of work. In a
farm where all the necessary buildings, fences, drains, communications, &c. are in the
most perfect good order, the same number of labourers and labouring cattle will raise
a much greater produce, than in one of equal extent and equally good ground, but not
furnished with equal conveniencies. In manufactures the same number of hands,
assisted with the best machinery, will work up a much greater quantity of goods than
with more imperfect instruments of trade. The expence which is properly laid out
upon a fixed capital of any kind, is always repaid with great profit, and increases the
annual produce by a much greater value than that of the support which such
improvements require.4 This support, however, still requires a certain portion of that
produce. A certain quantity of materials, and the labour of a certain number of
workmen, both of which might have been immediately employed to augment the
food, cloathing and lodging, the subsistence and conveniencies of the society, are thus
diverted to another employment, highly advantageous indeed, but still different from
this one. It is upon this account that all such improvements in mechanicks, as enable
the same number of workmen to perform an equal quantity of work, with cheaper and
simpler machinery than had been usual before, are always regarded as advantageous
to every society.5 A certain quantity of materials, and the labour of a certain number
of workmen, which had before been employed in supporting a more complex and
expensive machinery, can afterwards be applied to augment the quantity of work
which that or any other machinery is useful only for performing. The undertaker of
some great manufactory who employs a thousand a–year in the maintenance of his
machinery, if he can reduce this expence to five hundred, will naturally employ the
other five hundred in purchasing an additional quantity of materials to be wrought up
by an additional number of workmen. The quantity of that work, therefore, which his
machinery was useful only for performing, will naturally be augmented, and with it
all the advantage and conveniency which the society can derive from that work.
8The expence of maintaining the fixed capital in a great country, may very properly
be compared to that of repairs in a private estate. The expence of repairs may
frequently be necessary for supporting the produce of the estate, and consequently
both the gross and the neat rent of the landlord. When by a more proper direction,
however, it can be diminished without occasioning any diminution of produce, the
gross rent remains at least the same as before, and the neat rent is necessarily
augmented.
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9But though the whole expence of maintaining the fixed capital is thus necessarily
excluded from the neat revenue of the society, it is not the same case with that of
maintaining the circulating capital. Of the four parts of which this latter capital is
composed, money, provisions, materials, and finished work, the three last, it has
already been observed, are regularly withdrawn from it, and placed either in the fixed
capital of the society, or in their stock reserved for immediate consumption. Whatever
portion of those consumable goods is not employed in maintaining the former, goes
all to the latter, and makes a part of the neat revenue of the society. The maintenance
of those three parts of the circulating capital, therefore, withdraws no portion of the
annual produce from the neat revenue of the society, besides what is necessary for
maintaining the fixed capital.
10 The circulating capital of a society is in this respect different from that of an
individual. That of an individual is totally excluded from making any part of his neat
revenue, which must consist altogether in his profits. But though the circulating
capital of every individual makes a part of that of the society to which he belongs, it is
not upon that account totally excluded from making a part likewise of their neat
revenue. Though the whole goods in a merchant’s shop must by no means be placed
in his own stock reserved for immediate consumption, they may in that of other
people, who, from a revenue derived from other funds, may regularly replace their
value to him, together with its profits, without occasioning any diminution either of
his capital or of theirs.
11Money, therefore, is the only part of the circulating capital of a society, of which
the maintenance can occasion any diminution in their neat revenue.
12The fixed capital, and that part of the circulating capital which consists in money,
so far as they affect the revenue of the society, bear a very great resemblance to one
another.
13First, as those machines and instruments of trade, &c. require a certain expence,
first to erect them, and afterwards to support them, both which expences, though they
make a part of the gross, are deductions from the neat revenue of the society; so the
stock of money which circulates in any country must require a certain expence, first to
collect it, and afterwards to support it, both which expences, though they make a part
of the gross, are, in the same manner, deductions from the neat revenue of the society.
A certain quantity of very valuable materials, gold and silver, and of very curious
labour, instead of augmenting the stock reserved for immediate consumption, the
subsistence, conveniences, and amusements of individuals, is employed in supporting
that great but expensive instrument of commerce, by means of which every individual
in the society has his subsistence, conveniencies, and amusements, regularly
distributed to him in their proper aproportionsa
14Secondly, as the machines and instruments of trade, &c. which compose the fixed
capital either of an individual or of a society, make no part either of the gross or of the
neat revenue of either; so money, by means of which the whole revenue of the society
is regularly distributed among all its different members, makes itself no part of that
revenue. The great wheel of circulation is altogether different from the goods which
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are circulated by means of it.6 The revenue of the society consists altogether in those
goods, and not in the wheel which circulates them. In computing either the gross or
the neat revenue of any society, we must always, from their whole annual circulation
of money and goods, deduct the whole value of the money, of which not a single
farthing can ever make any part of either.
15It is the ambiguity of language only which can make this proposition appear either
doubtful or paradoxical. When properly explained and understood, it is almost
self–evident.
16When we talk of any particular sum of money, we sometimes mean nothing but the
metal pieces of which it is composed; and sometimes we include in our meaning some
obscure reference to the goods which can be had in exchange for it, or to the power of
purchasing which the possession of it conveys. Thus when we say, that the circulating
money of England has been computed at eighteen millions, we mean only to express
the amount of the metal pieces, which some writers have computed, or rather have
supposed to circulate in that country. But when we say that a man is worth fifty or a
hundred pounds a–year, we mean commonly to express not only the amount of the
metal pieces which are annually paid to him, but the value of the goods which he can
annually purchase or consume. We mean commonly to ascertain what is or ought to
be his way of living, or the quantity and quality of the necessaries and conveniencies
of life in which he can with propriety indulge himself.
17When, by any particular sum of money, we mean not only to express the amount of
the metal pieces of which it is composed, but to include in its signification some
obscure reference to the goods which can be had in exchange for them, the wealth or
revenue which it in this case denotes, is equal only to one of the two values which are
thus intimated somewhat ambiguously by the same word, and to the latter more
properly than to the former, to the money’s worth more properly than to the money.
18 Thus if a guinea be the weekly pension of a particular person, he can in the course
of the week purchase with it a certain quantity of subsistence, conveniencies, and
amusements. In proportion as this quantity is great or small, so are his real riches, his
real weekly revenue. His weekly revenue is certainly not equal both to the guinea, and
to what can be purchased with it, but only to one or other of those two equal values;
and to the latter more properly than to the former, to the guinea’s worth rather than to
the guinea.
19If the pension of such a person was paid to him, not in gold, but in a weekly bill for
a guinea, his revenue surely would not so properly consist in the piece of paper, as in
what he could get for it. A guinea may be considered as a bill for a certain quantity of
necessaries and conveniencies upon all the tradesmen in the neighbourhood. The
revenue of the person to whom it is paid, does not so properly consist in the piece of
gold, as in what he can get for it, or in what he can exchange it for. If it could be
exchanged for nothing, it would, like a bill upon a bankrupt, be of no more value than
the most useless piece of paper.
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20Though the weekly, or yearly revenue of all the different inhabitants of any
country, in the same manner, may be, and in reality frequently is paid to them in
money, their real riches, however, the real weekly or yearly revenue of all of them
taken together, must always be great or small in proportion to the quantity of
consumable goods which they can all of them purchase with this money. The whole
revenue of all of them taken together is evidently not equal to both the money and the
consumable goods; but only to one or other of those two values, and to the latter more
properly than to the former.
21Though we frequently, therefore, express a person’s revenue by the metal pieces
which are annually paid to him, it is because the amount of those pieces regulates the
extent of his power of purchasing, or the value of the goods which he can annually
afford to consume. We still consider his revenue as consisting in this power of
purchasing or consuming, and not in the pieces which convey it.7
22But if this is sufficiently evident even with regard to an individual, it is still more so
with regard to a society. The amount of the metal pieces which are annually paid to an
individual, is often precisely equal to his revenue, and is upon that account the
shortest and best expression of its value. But the amount of the metal pieces which
circulate in a society, can never be equal to the revenue of all its members. As the
same guinea which pays the weekly pension of one man to–day, may pay that of
another tomorrow, and that of a third the day thereafter, the amount of the metal
pieces which annually circulate in any country, must always be of much less value
than the whole money pensions annually paid with them.8 But the power of
purchasing, borb the goods which can successively be bought with the whole of those
money pensions as they are successively paid, must always be precisely of the same
value with those pensions; as must likewise be the revenue of the different persons to
whom they are paid. That revenue, therefore, cannot consist in those metal pieces, of
which the amount is so much inferior to its value, but in the power of purchasing, in
the goods which can successively be bought with them as they circulate from hand to
hand.
23Money, therefore, the great wheel of circulation, the great instrument of commerce,
like all other instruments of trade,9 though it makes a part and a very valuable part of
the capital, makes no part of the revenue of the society to which it belongs;10 and
though the metal pieces of which it is composed, in the course of their annual
circulation, distribute to every man the revenue which properly belongs to him, they
make themselves no part of that revenue.
24Thirdly, and lastly, the machines and instruments of trade, &c. which compose the
fixed capital, bear this further resemblance to that part of the circulating capital which
consists in money; that as every saving in the expence of erecting and supporting
those machines, which does not diminish the productive powers of labour, is an
improvement of the neat revenue of the society; so every saving in the expence of
collecting and supporting that part of the circulating capital which consists in money,
is an improvement of exactly the same kind.
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25It is sufficiently obvious, and it has partly too been explained already, in what
manner every saving in the expence of supporting the fixed capital is an improvement
of the neat revenue of the society.11 The whole capital of the undertaker of every
work is necessarily divided between his fixed and his circulating capital. While his
whole capital remains the same, the smaller the one part, the greater must necessarily
be the other. It is the circulating capital which furnishes the materials and wages of
labour, and puts industry into motion. Every saving, therefore, in the expence of
maintaining the fixed capital, which does not diminish the productive powers of
labour, must increase the fund which puts industry into motion, and consequently the
annual produce of land and labour, the real revenue of every society.
26The substitution of paper in the room of gold and silver money, replaces a very
expensive instrument of commerce with one much less costly, and sometimes equally
convenient.12 Circulation comes to be carried on by a new wheel, which it costs less
both to erect and to maintain than the old one.13 But in what manner this operation is
performed, and in what manner it tends to increase either the gross or the neat revenue
of the society, is not altogether so obvious, and may therefore require some further
explication.
27There are several different sorts of paper money; but the circulating notes of banks
and bankers are the species which is best known, and which seems best adapted for
this purpose.14
28When the people of any particular country have such confidence in the fortune,
probity, and prudence of a particular banker, as to believe that he is always ready to
pay upon demand such of his promissory notes as are likely to be at any time
presented to him; those notes come to have the same currency as gold and silver
money, from the confidence that such money can at any time be had for them.
29A particular banker lends among his customers his own promissory notes, to the
extent, we shall suppose, of a hundred thousand pounds. As those notes serve all the
purposes of money, his debtors pay him the same interest as if he had lent them so
much money. This interest is the source of his gain. Though some of those notes are
continually coming back upon him for payment, part of them continue to circulate for
months and years together. Though he has generally in circulation, therefore, notes to
the extent of a hundred thousand pounds, twenty thousand pounds in gold and silver
may, frequently be a sufficient provision for answering occasional demands. By this
operation, therefore, twenty thousand pounds in gold and silver perform all the
functions which a hundred thousand could otherwise have performed. The same
exchanges may be made, the same quantity of consumable goods may be circulated
and distributed to their proper consumers, by means of his promissory notes, to the
value of a hundred thousand pounds, as by an equal value of gold and silver money.
Eighty thousand pounds of gold and silver, therefore, can, in this manner, be spared
from the circulation of the country; and if different operations of the same kind
should, at the same time, be carried on by many different banks and bankers, the
whole circulation may thus be conducted with a fifth part only of the gold and silver
which would otherwise have been requisite.
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30Let us suppose, for example, that the whole circulating money of some particular
country amounted, at a particular time, to one million sterling, that sum being then
sufficient for circulating the whole annual produce of their land and labour. Let us
suppose too, that some time thereafter, different banks and bankers issued promissory
notes, payable to the bearer, to the extent of one million, reserving in their different
coffers two hundred thousand pounds for answering occasional demands.15 There
would remain, therefore, in circulation, eight hundred thousand pounds in gold and
silver, and a million of bank notes, or eighteen hundred thousand pounds of paper and
money together. But the annual produce of the land and labour of the country had
before required only one million to circulate and distribute it to its proper consumers,
and that annual produce cannot be immediately augmented by those operations of
banking. One million, therefore, will be sufficient to circulate it after them. The goods
to be bought and sold being precisely the same as before, the same quantity of money
will be sufficient for buying and selling them. The channel of circulation, if I may be
allowed such an expression, will remain precisely the same as before. One million we
have supposed sufficient to fill that channel. Whatever, therefore, is poured into it
beyond this sum, cannot run in it, but must overflow. One million eight hundred
thousand pounds are poured into it. Eight hundred thousand pounds, therefore, must
overflow, that sum being over and above what can be employed in the circulation of
the country. But though this sum cannot be employed at home, it is too valuable to be
allowed to lie idle.16 It will, therefore, be sent abroad, in order to seek that profitable
employment which it cannot find at home.17 But the paper cannot go abroad; because
at a distance from the banks which issue it, and from the country in which payment of
it can be exacted by law, it will not be received in common payments.18 Gold and
silver, therefore, to the amount of eight hundred thousand pounds will be sent abroad,
and the channel of home circulation will remain filled with a million of paper, instead
of the million of those metals which filled it before.19
31But though so great a quantity of gold and silver is thus sent abroad, we must not
imagine it is sent abroad for nothing, or that its proprietors make a present of it to
foreign nations. They will exchange it for foreign goods of some kind or another, in
order to supply the consumption either of some other foreign country, or of their own.
32If they employ it in purchasing goods in one foreign country in order to supply the
consumption of another, or in what is called the carrying trade, whatever profit they
make will be an addition to the neat revenue of their own country. It is like a new
fund, created for carrying on a new trade; domestick business being now transacted by
paper, and the gold and silver being converted into a fund for this new trade.
33If they employ it in purchasing foreign goods for home consumption, they may
either, first, purchase such goods as are likely to be consumed by idle people who
produce nothing, such as foreign wines, foreign silks, &c.; or, secondly, they may
purchase an additional stock of materials, tools, and provisions, in order to maintain
and employ an additional number of industrious people, who re–produce, with a
profit, the value of their annual consumption.
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34So far as it is employed in the first way, it promotes prodigality, increases expence
and consumption without increasing production, or establishing any permanent fund
for supporting that expence, and is in every respect hurtful to the society.
35So far as it is employed in the second way, it promotes industry; and though it
increases the consumption of the society, it provides a permanent fund for supporting
that consumption, the people who consume re–producing, with a profit, the whole
value of their annual consumption. The gross revenue of the society, the annual
produce of their land and labour, is increased by the whole value which the labour of
those workmen adds to the materials upon which they are employed; and their neat
revenue by what remains of this value, after deducting what is necessary for
supporting the tools and instruments of their trade.
36That the greater part of the gold and silver which, being forced abroad by those
operations of banking, is employed in purchasing foreign goods for home
consumption, is and must be employed in purchasing those of this second kind, seems
not only probable but almost unavoidable. Though some particular men may
sometimes increase their expence very considerably though their revenue does not
increase at all, we may be assured that no class or order of men ever does so; because,
though the principles of common prudence do not always govern the conduct of every
individual, they always influence that of the majority of every class or order. But the
revenue of idle people, considered as a class or order, cannot, in the smallest degree,
be increased by those operations of banking. Their expence in general, therefore,
cannot be much increased by them, though that of a few individuals among them may,
and in reality sometimes is. The demand of idle people, therefore, for foreign goods,
being the same, or very nearly the same, as before, a very small part of the money,
which being forced abroad by those operations of banking, is employed in purchasing
foreign goods for home consumption, is likely to be employed in purchasing those for
their use. The greater part of it will naturally be destined for the employment of
industry, and not for the maintenance of idleness.
37 When we compute the quantity of industry which the circulating capital of any
society can employ, we must always have regard to those parts of it only, which
consist in provisions, materials, and finished work: the other, which consists in
money, and which serves only to circulate those three, must always be deducted. In
order to put industry into motion, three things are requisite; materials to work upon,
tools to work with, and the wages or recompence for the sake of which the work is
done. Money is neither a material to work upon, nor a tool to work with; and though
the wages of the workman are commonly paid to him in money, his real revenue, like
that of all other men, consists, not in the money, but in the money’s worth; not in the
metal pieces, but in what can be got for them.
38The quantity of industry which any capital can employ, must, evidently, be equal to
the number of workmen whom it can supply with materials, tools, and a maintenance
suitable to the nature of the work. Money may be requisite for purchasing the
materials and tools of the work, as well as the maintenance of the workmen. But the
quantity of industry which the whole capital can employ, is certainly not equal both to
the money which purchases, and to the materials, tools, and maintenance, which are
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purchased with it; but only to one or other of those two values, and to the latter more
properly than to the former.
39 When paper is substituted in the room of gold and silver money, the quantity of the
materials, tools, and maintenance, which the whole circulating capital can supply,
may be increased by the whole value of gold and silver which used to be employed in
purchasing them. The whole value of the great wheel of circulation and distribution, is
added to the goods which are circulated and distributed by means of it. The operation,
in some measure, resembles that of the undertaker of some great work, who, in
consequence of some improvement in mechanicks, takes down his old machinery and
adds the difference between its price and that of the new to his circulating capital, to
the fund from which he furnishes materials and wages to his workmen.20
40What is the proportion which the circulating money of any country bears to the
whole value of the annual produce circulated by means of it, it is, perhaps, impossible
to determine. It has been computed by different authors at a fifth, at a tenth, at a
twentieth, and at a thirtieth part of that value.21 But how small soever the proportion
which the circulating money may bear to the whole value of the annual produce, as
but a part, and frequently but a small part, of that produce, is ever destined for the
maintenance of industry, it must always bear a very considerable proportion to that
part. When, therefore, by the substitution of paper, the gold and silver necessary for
circulation is reduced to, perhaps, a fifth part of the former quantity, if the value of
only the greater part of the other four–fifths be added to the funds which are destined
for the maintenance of industry, it must make a very considerable addition to the
quantity of that industry, and, consequently, to the value of the annual produce of land
and labour.22
41An operation of this kind has, within these five–and–twenty or thirty years, been
performed in Scotland, by the erection of new banking companies in almost every
considerable town, and even in some country villages. The effects of it have been
precisely those above described. The business of the country is almost entirely carried
on by means of the paper of those different banking companies, with which purchases
and payments of all kinds are commonly made. Silver very seldom appears except in
the change of a twenty shillings bank note, and gold still seldomer. But though the
conduct of all those different companies has not been unexceptionable,23 and has
accordingly required an act of parliament to regulate it;24 the ccountryc
notwithstanding, has evidently derived great benefit from their trade. I have heard it
asserted, that the trade of the city of Glasgow doubled in about fifteen years after the
first erection of the banks there;25 and that the trade of Scotland has more than
quadrupled since the first erection of the two publick banks at Edinburgh,26 of which
the one, called The Bank of Scotland, was established by act of parliament in 1695;27
the other, called The Royal Bank, by royal charter in 1727.28 Whether the trade,
either of Scotland in general, or of the city of Glasgow in particular, has really
increased in so great a proportion, during so short a period, I do not pretend to know.
If either of them has increased in this proportion, it seems to be an effect too great to
be accounted for by the sole operation of this cause. That the trade and industry of
Scotland, however, have increased very considerably during this period, and that the
banks have contributed a good deal to this increase, cannot be doubted.29
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42The value of the silver money which circulated in Scotland before the union, in
1707, and which, immediately after it, was brought into the bank of Scotland in order
to be re–coined, amounted to 411,117l. 10s. 9d. sterling. No account has been got of
the gold coin; but it appears from the antient accounts of the mint of Scotland, that the
value of the gold annually coined somewhat exceeded that of the silver.* There were
a good many people too upon this occasion, who, from a diffidence of repayment, did
not bring their silver into the bank of Scotland: and there was, besides, some English
coin, which was not called in. The whole value of the gold and silver, therefore,
which circulated in Scotland before the union, cannot be estimated at less than a
million sterling. It seems to have constituted almost the whole circulation of that
country; for though the circulation of the bank of Scotland, which had then no rival,
was considerable,30 it seems to have made but a very small part of the whole. In the
present times the whole circulation of Scotland cannot be estimated at less than two
millions, of which that part which consists in gold and silver, most probably, does not
amount to half a million. But though the circulating gold and silver of Scotland have
suffered so great a diminution during this period, its real riches and prosperity do not
appear to have suffered any. Its agriculture, manufactures, and trade, on the contrary,
the annual produce of its land and labour, have evidently been augmented.
43It is chiefly by discounting bills of exchange, that is, by advancing money upon
them before they are due, that the greater part of banks and bankers issue their
promissory notes. They deduct always, upon whatever sum they advance, the legal
interest till the bill shall become due. The payment of the bill, when it becomes due,
replaces to the bank the value of what had been advanced, together with a clear profit
of the interest. The banker who advances to the merchant whose bill he discounts, not
gold and silver, but his own promissory notes, has the advantage of being able to
discount to a greater amount, by the whole value of his promissory notes, which he
finds by experience, are commonly in circulation. He is thereby enabled to make his
clear gain of interest on so much a larger sum.
44The commerce of Scotland, which at present is not very great, was still more
inconsiderable when the two first banking companies were established; and those
companies would have had but little trade, had they confined their business to the
discounting of bills of exchange. They invented, therefore, another method of issuing
their promissory notes; by granting, what they called, cash accounts,31 that is by
giving credit to the extent of a certain sum (two or three thousand pounds, for
example), to any individual who could procure two persons of undoubted credit and
good landed estate to become surety for him, that whatever money should be
advanced to him, within the sum for which the credit had been given, should be repaid
upon demand, together with the legal interest. Credits of this kind are, I believe,
commonly granted by banks and bankers in all different parts of the world. But the
easy terms upon which the Scotch banking companies accept of re–payment are, so
far as I know, peculiar to them, and have, perhaps, been the principal cause, both of
the great trade of those companies, and of the benefit which the country has received
from it.
45Whoever has a credit of this kind with one of those companies, and borrows a
thousand pounds upon it, for example, may repay this sum piecemeal, by twenty and
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thirty pounds at a time, the company discounting a proportionable part of the interest
of the great sum from the day on which each of those small sums is paid in, till the
whole be in this manner repaid. All merchants, therefore, and almost all men of
business, find it convenient to keep such cash accounts with them, and are thereby
interested to promote the trade of those companies, by readily receiving their notes in
all payments, and by encouraging all those with whom they have any influence to do
the same. The banks, when their customers apply to them for money, generally
advance it to them in their own promissory notes. These the merchants pay away to
the manufacturers for goods, the manufacturers to the farmers for materials and
provisions, the farmers to their landlords for rent, the landlords repay them to the
merchants for the conveniencies and luxuries with which they supply them, and the
merchants again return them to the banks in order to balance their cash accounts, or to
replace what they may have borrowed of them; and thus almost the whole money
business of the country is transacted by means of them. Hence, the great trade of those
companies.
46By means of those cash accounts every merchant can, without imprudence, carry on
a greater trade than he otherwise could do. If there are two merchants, one in London,
and the other in Edinburgh, who employ equal stocks in the same branch of trade, the
Edinburgh merchant can, without imprudence, carry on a greater trade, and give
employment to a greater number of people than the London merchant. The London
merchant must always keep by him a considerable sum of money, either in his own
coffers, or in those of his banker, who gives him no interest for it, in order to answer
the demands continually coming upon him for payment of the goods which he
purchases upon credit. Let the ordinary amount of this sum be supposed five hundred
pounds. The value of the goods in his warehouse must always be less by five hundred
pounds than it would have been, had he not been obliged to keep such a sum
unemployed. Let us suppose that he generally disposes of his whole stock upon hand,
or of goods to the value of his whole stock upon hand, once in the year. By being
obliged to keep so great a sum unemployed, he must sell in a year five hundred
pounds worth less goods than he might otherwise have done. His annual profits must
be less by all that he could have made by the sale of five hundred pounds worth more
goods; and the number of people employed in preparing his goods for the market,
must be less by all those that five hundred pounds more stock could have employed.
The merchant in Edinburgh, on the other hand, keeps no money unemployed for
answering such occasional demands. When they actually come upon him, he satisfies
them from his cash account with the bank, and gradually replaces the sum borrowed
with the money or paper which comes in from the occasional sales of his goods. With
the same stock, therefore, he can, without imprudence, have at all times in his
warehouse a larger quantity of goods than the London merchant; and can thereby both
make a greater profit himself, and give constant employment to a greater number of
industrious people who prepare those goods for the market. Hence the great benefit
which the country has derived from this trade.
47 The facility of discounting bills of exchange, it may be thought indeed, gives the
English merchants a conveniency equivalent to the cash accounts of the Scotch
merchants. But the Scotch merchants, it must be remembered, can discount their bills
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of exchange as easily as the English merchants; and have, besides, the additional
conveniency of their cash accounts.
48The whole paper money of every kind which can easily circulate in any country
never can exceed the value of the gold and silver, of which it supplies the place, or
which (the commerce being supposed the same) would circulate there, if there was no
paper money. If twenty shilling notes, for example, are the lowest paper money
current in Scotland, the whole of that currency which can easily circulate there cannot
exceed the sum of gold and silver, which would be necessary for transacting the
annual exchanges of twenty shillings value and upwards usually transacted within that
country. Should the circulating paper at any time exceed that sum, as the excess could
neither be sent abroad nor be employed in the circulation of the country, it must
immediately return upon the banks to be exchanged for gold and silver. Many people
would immediately perceive that they had more of this paper than was necessary for
transacting their business at home, and as they could not send it abroad, they would
immediately demand payment of it from the banks. When this superfluous paper was
converted into gold and silver, they could easily find a use for it by sending it abroad;
but they could find none while it remained in the shape of paper. There would
immediately, therefore, be a run upon the banks to the whole extent of this
superfluous paper, and, if they showed any difficulty or backwardness in payment, to
a much greater extent; the alarm, which this would occasion, necessarily increasing
the run.
49Over and above the expences which are common to every branch of trade; such as
the expence of house–rent, the wages of servants, clerks, accountants, &c.; the
expences peculiar to a bank consist chiefly in two articles: First, in the expence of
keeping at all times in its coffers, for answering the occasional demands of the holders
of its notes, a large sum of money, of which it loses the interest:32 And, secondly, in
the expence of replenishing those coffers as fast as they are emptied by answering
such occasional demands.
50A banking company, which issues more paper than can be employed in the
circulation of the country, and of which the excess is continually returning upon them
for payment, ought to increase the quantity of gold and silver, which they keep at all
times in their coffers, not only in proportion to this excessive increase of their
circulation, but in a much greater proportion; their notes returning upon them much
faster than in proportion to the excess of their quantity. Such a company, therefore,
ought to increase the first article of their expence, not only in proportion to this forced
increase of their business, but in a much greater proportion.
51The coffers of such a company too, though they ought to be filled much fuller, yet
must empty themselves much faster than if their business was confined within more
reasonable bounds, and must require, not only a more violent, but a more constant and
uninterrupted exertion of expence in order to replenish them. The coin too, which is
thus continually drawn in such large quantities from their coffers, cannot be employed
in the circulation of the country. It comes in place of a paper which is over and above
what can be employed in that circulation, and is therefore over and above what can be
employed in it too. But as that coin will not be allowed to lie idle, it must, in one
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shape or another, be sent abroad, in order to find that profitable employment which it
cannot find at home;33 and this continual exportation of gold and silver, by enhancing
the difficulty, must necessarily enhance still further the expence of the bank, in
finding new gold and silver in order to replenish those coffers, which empty
themselves so very rapidly. Such a company, therefore, must, in proportion to this
forced increase of their business, increase the second article of their expence still
more than the first.
52Let us suppose that all the paper of a particular bank, which the circulation of the
country can easily absorb and employ, amounts exactly to forty thousand pounds; and
that for answering occasional demands, this bank is obliged to keep at all times in its
coffers ten thousand pounds in gold and silver. Should this bank attempt to circulate
forty–four thousand pounds, the four thousand pounds which are over and above what
the circulation can easily absorb and employ, will return upon it almost as fast as they
are issued. For answering occasional demands, therefore, this bank ought to keep at
all times in its coffers, not eleven thousand pounds only, but fourteen thousand
pounds. It will thus gain nothing by the interest of the four thousand pounds excessive
circulation; and it will lose the whole expence of continually collecting four thousand
pounds in gold and silver, which will be continually going out of its coffers as fast as
they are brought into them.
53Had every particular banking company always understood and attended to its own
particular interest, the circulation never could have been overstocked with paper
money. But every particular banking company has not always understood or attended
to its own particular interest, and the circulation has frequently been overstocked with
paper money.
54By issuing too great a quantity of paper, of which the excess was continually
returning, in order to be exchanged for gold and silver, the bank of England was for
many years together obliged to coin gold to the extent of between eight hundred
thousand pounds and a million a year; or at an average, about eight hundred and fifty
thousand pounds.34 For this great coinage the bank (in consequence of the worn and
degraded state into which the gold coin had fallen a few years ago) was frequently
obliged to purchase gold bullion at the high price of four pounds an ounce, which it
soon after issued in coin at 3l.17s.10½d. an ounce, losing in this manner between two
and a half and three per cent. upon the coinage of so very large a sum. Though the
bank therefore paid no seignorage, though the government was properly at the
expence of the coinage, this liberality of government did not prevent altogether the
expence of the bank.35
55The Scotch banks, in consequence of an excess of the same kind, were all obliged
to employ constantly agents at London to collect money for them, at an expence
which was seldom below one a half or two per cent. This money was sent down by
the waggon, and insured by the carriers at an additional expence of three quarters per
cent. or fifteen shillings on the hundred pounds. Those agents were not always able to
replenish the coffers of their employers so fast as they were emptied. In this case the
resource of the banks was, to draw upon their correspondents in London bills of
exchange to the extent of the sum which they wanted. When those correspondents
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afterwards drew upon them for the payment of this sum, together with the interest and
a commission, some of those banks, from the distress into which their excessive
circulation had thrown them, had sometimes no other means of satisfying this draught
but by drawing a second sett of bills either upon the same, or upon some other
correspondents in London; and the same sum, or rather bills for the same sum, would
in this manner make sometimes more than two or three journies; the debtor, bank,
paying always the interest and commission upon the whole accumulated sum. Even
those Scotch banks which never distinguished themselves by their extreme
imprudence, were sometimes obliged to employ this ruinous resource.
56The gold coin which was paid out either by the bank of England, or by the Scotch
banks, in exchange for that part of their paper which was over and above what could
be employed in the circulation of the country, being likewise over and above what
could be employed in that circulation, was sometimes sent abroad in the shape of
coin, sometimes melted down and sent abroad in the shape of bullion, and sometimes
melted down and sold to the bank of England at the high price of four pounds an
ounce. It was the newest, the heaviest, and the best pieces only which were carefully
picked out of the whole coin, and either sent abroad or melted down. At home, and
while they remained in the shape of coin, those heavy pieces were of no more value
than the light: But they were of more value abroad, or when melted down into bullion,
at home. The bank of England, notwithstanding their great annual coinage, found to
their astonishment, that there was every year the same scarcity of coin as there had
been the year before; and that notwithstanding the great quantity of good and new
coin which was every year issued from the bank, the state of the coin, instead of
growing better and better, became every year worse and worse. Every year they found
themselves under the necessity of coining nearly the same quantity of gold as they had
coined the year before, and from the continual rise in the price of gold bullion, in
consequence of the continual wearing and clipping of the coin, the expence of this
great annual coinage became every year greater and greater. The bank of England, it
is to be observed, by supplying its own coffers with coin, is indirectly obliged to
supply the whole kingdom, into which coin is continually flowing from those coffers
in a great variety of ways. Whatever coin therefore was wanted to support this
excessive circulation both of Scotch and English paper money, whatever vacuities this
excessive circulation occasioned in the necessary coin of the kingdom, the bank of
England was obliged to supply them. The Scotch banks, no doubt, paid all of them
very dearly for their own imprudence and inattention. But the bank of England paid
very dearly, not only for its own imprudence; but for the much greater imprudence of
almost all the Scotch banks.36
57The over–trading of some bold projectors in both parts of the united kingdom, was
the original cause of this excessive circulation of paper money.37
58What a bank can with propriety advance to a merchant or undertaker of any kind, is
not, either the whole capital with which he trades, or even any considerable part of
that capital; but that part of it only, which he would otherwise be obliged to keep by
him unemployed, and in ready money for answering occasional demands. If the paper
money which the bank advances never exceeds this value, it can never exceed the
value of the gold and silver, which would necessarily circulate in the country if there
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was no paper money; it can never exceed the quantity which the circulation of the
country can easily absorb and employ.
59When a bank discounts to a merchant a real bill of exchange drawn by a real
creditor upon a real debtor, and which, as soon as it becomes due, is really paid by
that debtor; it only advances to him a part of the value which he would otherwise be
obliged to keep by him unemployed, and in ready money for answering occasional
demands. The payment of the bill, when it becomes due, replaces to the bank the
value of what it had advanced, together with the interest. The coffers of the bank, so
far as its dealings are confined to such customers, resemble a water pond, from which,
though a stream is continually running out, yet another is continually running in, fully
equal to that which runs out; so that, without any further care or attention, the pond
keeps always equally, or very near equally full.38 Little or no expence can ever be
necessary for replenishing the coffers of such a bank.
60 A merchant, without over–trading, may frequently have occasion for a sum of
ready money, even when he has no bills to discount. When a bank, besides
discounting his bills, advances him likewise upon such occasions, such sums upon his
cash account, and accepts of a piece–meal repayment as the money comes in from the
occasional sale of his goods, upon the easy terms of the banking companies of
Scotland; it dispenses him entirely from the necessity of keeping any part of his stock
by him unemployed, and in ready money for answering occasional demands. When
such demands actually come upon him, he can answer them sufficiently from his cash
account. The bank, however, in dealing with such customers, ought to observe with
great attention, whether in the course of some short period (of four, five, six, or eight
months, for example) the sum of the repayments which it commonly receives from
them, is, or is not, fully equal to that of the advances which it commonly makes to
them. If, within the course of such short periods, the sum of the repayments from
certain customers is, upon most occasions, fully equal to that of the advances, it may
safely continue to deal with such customers. Though the stream which is in this case
continually running out from its coffers may be very large, that which is continually
running into them must be at least equally large; so that without any further care or
attention those coffers are likely to be always equally or very near equally full; and
scarce ever to require any extraordinary expence to replenish them. If, on the contrary
the sum of the repayments from certain other customers falls commonly very much
short of the advances which it makes to them, it cannot with any safety continue to
deal with such customers, at least if they continue to deal with it in this manner. The
stream which is in this case continually running out from its coffers in necessarily
much larger than that which is continually running in; so that, unless they are
replenished by some great and continual effort of expence, those coffers must soon be
exhausted altogether.
61The banking companies of Scotland, accordingly, were for a long time very careful
to require frequent and regular repayments from all their customers, and did not care
to deal with any person, whatever might be his fortune or credit, who did not make,
what they called, frequent and regular operations with them. By this attention, besides
saving almost entirely the extraordinary expence of replenishing their coffers, they
gained two other very considerable advantages.
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62First, by this attention they were enabled to make some tolerable judgment
concerning the thriving or declining circumstances of their debtors, without being
obliged to look out for any other evidence besides what their own books afforded
them; men being for the most part either regular or irregular in their repayments,
according as their circumstances are either thriving or declining. A private man who
lends out his money to perhaps half a dozen or a dozen of debtors, may, either by
himself or his agents, observe and enquire both constantly and carefully into the
conduct and situation of each of them. But a banking company, which lends money to
perhaps five hundred different people, and of which the attention is continually
occupied by objects of a very different kind, can have no regular information
concerning the conduct and circumstances of the greater part of its debtors beyond
what its own books afford it. In requiring frequent and regular repayments from all
their customers, the banking companies of Scotland had probably this advantage in
view.
63Secondly, by this attention they secured themselves from the possibility of issuing
more paper money than what the circulation of the country could easily absorb and
employ. When they observed, that within moderate periods of time the repayments of
a particular customer were upon most occasions fully equal to the advances which
they had made to him, they might be assured that the paper money which they had
advanced to him, had not at any time exceeded the quantity of gold and silver which
he would otherwise have been obliged to keep by him for answering occasional
demands; and that, consequently the paper money, which they had circulated by his
means, had not at any time exceeded the quantity of gold and silver which would have
circulated in the country, had there been no paper money. The frequency, regularity
and amount of his repayments would sufficiently demonstrate that the amount of their
advances had at no time exceeded that part of his capital which he would otherwise
have been obliged to keep by him, unemployed and in ready money for answering
occasional demands; that is, for the purpose of keeping the rest of his capital in
constant employment. It is this part of his capital only which, within moderate periods
of time, is continually returning to every dealer in the shape of money, whether paper
or coin, and continually going from him in the same shape. If the advances of the
bank had commonly exceeded this part of his capital, the ordinary amount of his
repayments could not, within moderate periods of time, have equalled the ordinary
amount of its advances. The stream which, by means of his dealings, was continually
running into the coffers of the bank, could not have been equal to the stream which,
by means of the same dealings, was continually running out. The advances of the
bank paper, by exceeding the quantity of gold and silver which, had there been no
such advances, he would have been obliged to keep by him for answering occasional
demands, might soon come to exceed the whole quantity of gold and silver which (the
commerce being supposed the same) would have circulated in the country had there
been no paper money; and consequently to exceed the quantity which the circulation
of the country could easily absorb and employ; and the excess of this paper money
would immediately have returned upon the bank in order to be exchanged for gold
and silver. This second advantage, though equally real, was not perhaps so well
understood by all the different banking companies of Scotland as the first.
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64When, partly by the conveniency of discounting bills, and partly by that of cash
accounts, the creditable traders of any country can be dispensed from the necessity of
keeping any part of their stock by them, unemployed and in ready money, for
answering occasional demands, they can reasonably expect no dfurtherd assistance
from banks and bankers, who, when they have gone thus far, cannot, consistently with
their own interest and safety, go farther. A bank cannot, consistently with its own
interest, advance to a trader the whole or even the greater part of the circulating
capital with which he trades; because, though that capital is continually returning to
him in the shape of money, and going from him in the same shape, yet the whole of
the returns is too distant from the whole of the outgoings, and the sum of his
repayments could not equal the sum of its advances within such moderate periods of
time as suit the conveniency of a bank. Still less could a bank afford to advance him
any considerable part of his fixed capital; of the capital which the undertaker of an
iron forge, for example, employs in erecting his forge and smelting–house, his
work–houses and warehouses, the dwelling–houses of his workmen, &c.; of the
capital which the undertaker of a mine employs in sinking his shafts, in erecting
engines for drawing out the water, in making roads and waggon–ways, &c.; of the
capital which the person who undertakes to improve land employs in clearing,
draining, enclosing, manuring and ploughing waste and uncultivated fields, in
building farm–houses, with all their necessary appendages of stables, granaries, &c.
The returns of the fixed capital are in almost all cases much slower than those of the
circulating capital; and such expences, even when laid out with the greatest prudence
and judgment, very seldom return to the undertaker till after a period of many years, a
period by far too distant to suit the conveniency of a bank. Traders and other
undertakers may, no doubt, with great propriety, carry on a very considerable part of
their projects with borrowed money. In justice to their creditors, however, their own
capital ought, in this case, to be sufficient to ensure, if I may say so, the capital of
those creditors; or to render it extremely improbable that those creditors should incur
any loss, even though the success of the project should fall very much short of the
expectation of the projectors. Even with this precaution too, the money which is
borrowed, and which it is meant should not be repaid till after a period of several
years, ought not to be borrowed of a bank, but ought to be borrowed upon bond or
mortgage, of such private people as propose to live upon the interest of their money,
without taking the trouble themselves to employ the capital; and who are upon that
account willing to lend that capital to such people of good credit as are likely to keep
it for several years. A bank, indeed, which lends its money without the expence of
stampt paper, or of attornies fees for drawing bonds and mortgages, and which
accepts of repayment upon the easy terms of the banking companies of Scotland;
would, no doubt, be a very convenient creditor to such traders and undertakers. But
such traders and undertakers would, surely, be most inconvenient debtors to such a
bank.
65It is now more than five–and–twenty years since the paper money issued by the
different banking companies of Scotland was fully equal, or rather was somewhat
more than fully equal, to what the circulation of the country could easily absorb and
employ.39 Those companies, therefore, had so long ago given all the assistance to the
traders and other undertakers of Scotland which it is possible for banks and bankers,
consistently with their own interest, to give. They had even done somewhat more.
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They had overtraded a little, and had brought upon themselves that loss, or at least
that diminution of profit, which in this particular business never fails to attend the
smallest degree of over–trading. Those traders and other undertakers, having got so
much assistance from banks and bankers, wished to get still more. The banks, they
seem to have thought, could extend their credits to whatever sum might be wanted,
without incurring any other expence besides that of a few reams of paper. They
complained of the contracted views and dastardly spirit of the directors of those
banks, which did not, they said, extend their credits in proportion to the extension of
the trade of the country; meaning, no doubt, by the extension of that trade the
extension of their own projects beyond what they could carry on, either with their
own capital, or with what they had credit to borrow of private people in the usual way
of bond or mortgage. The banks, they seem to have thought, were in honour bound to
supply the deficiency, and to provide them with all the capital which they wanted to
trade with. The banks, however, were of a different opinion, and upon their refusing
to extend their credits, some of those traders had recourse to an expedient which, for a
time, served their purpose, though at a much greater expence, yet as effectually as the
utmost extension of bank credits could have done. This expedient was no other than
the well–known shift of drawing and redrawing; the shift to which unfortunate traders
have sometimes recourse when they are upon the brink of bankruptcy. The practice of
raising money in this manner had been long known in England, and during the course
of the late war, when the high profits of trade afforded a great temptation to
overtrading, is said to have been carried on to a very great extent. From England it
was brought into Scotland, where, in proportion to the very limited commerce, and to
the very moderate capital of the country, it was soon carried on to a much greater
extent than it ever had been in England.
66 The practice of drawing and re–drawing is so well known to all men of business,
that it may perhaps be thought unnecessary to give eanye account of it. But as this
book may come into the hands of many people who are not men of business, and as
the effects of this practice upon the banking trade are not perhaps generally
understood even by men of business themselves, I shall endeavour to explain it as
distinctly as I can.
67The customs of merchants, which were established when the barbarous laws of
Europe did not enforce the performance of their contracts, and which during the
course of the two last centuries have been adopted into the laws of all European
nations, have given such extraordinary privileges to bills of exchange, that money is
more readily advanced upon them, than upon any other species of obligation;
especially when they are made payable within so short a period as two or three
months after their date.40 If, when the bill comes due, the acceptor does not pay it as
soon as it is presented, he becomes from that moment a bankrupt. The bill is
protested, and returns upon the drawer, who, if he does not immediately pay it,
becomes likewise a bankrupt. If, before it came to the person who presents it to the
acceptor for payment, it had passed through the hands of several other persons, who
had successively advanced to one another the contents of it either in money or goods,
and who, to express that each of them had in his turn received those contents, had all
of them in their order endorsed, that is, written their names upon the back of the bill;
each endorser becomes in his turn liable to the owner of the bill for those contents,
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and, if he fails to pay, he becomes too from that moment a bankrupt. Though the
drawer, acceptor, and endorsers of the bill should, all of them, be persons of doubtful
credit; yet still the shortness of the date gives some security to the owner of the bill.
Though all of them may be very likely to become bankrupts; it is a chance if they all
become so in so short a time. The house is crazy, says a weary traveller to himself,
and will not stand very long; but it is a chance if it falls to–night, and I will venture,
therefore, to sleep in it to–night.
68The trader A in Edinburgh, we shall suppose, draws a bill upon B in London,
payable two months after date. In reality B in London owes nothing to A in
Edinburgh; but he agrees to accept of A’s bill, upon condition that before the term of
payment he shall redraw upon A in Edinburgh, for the same sum, together with the
interest and a commission, another bill, payable likewise two months after date. B
accordingly, before the expiration of the first two months, redraws this bill upon A in
Edinburgh; who again, before the expiration of the second two months, draws a
second bill upon B in London, payable likewise two months after date; and before the
expiration of the third two months, B in London redraws upon A in Edinburgh
another bill, payable also two months after date. This practice has sometimes gone on,
not only for several months, but for several years together, the bill always returning
upon A in Edinburgh, with the accumulated interest and commission of all the former
bills. The interest was five per cent. in the year, and the commission was never less
than one half per cent. on each draught. This commission being repeated more than
six times in the year, whatever money A might raise by this expedient must
necessarily have cost him something more than eight per cent. in the year, and
sometimes a great deal more; when either the price of the commission happened to
rise, or when he was obliged to pay compound interest upon the interest and
commission of former bills. This practice was called raising money by circulation.
69In a country where the ordinary profits of stock in the greater part of mercantile
projects are supposed to run between six and ten per cent.; it must have been a very
fortunate speculation of which the returns could not only repay the enormous expence
at which the money was thus borrowed for carrying it on; but afford, besides, a good
surplus profit to the projector. Many vast and extensive projects, however, were
undertaken, and for several years carried on without any other fund to support them
besides what was raised at this enormous expence. The projectors, no doubt, had in
their golden dreams the most distinct vision of this great profit. Upon their awaking,
however, either at the end of their projects, or when they were no longer able to carry
them on, they very seldom, I believe, had the good fortune to find it* .
70The bills which A in Edinburgh drew upon B in London, he regularly discounted
two months before they were due with some bank or banker in Edinburgh; and the
bills which B in London re–drew upon A in Edinburgh, he as regularly discounted
either with the bank of England, or with some other bankers in London. Whatever was
advanced upon such circulating bills, was, in Edinburgh, advanced in the paper of the
Scotch banks, and in London, when they were discounted at the bank of England, in
the paper of that bank. Though the bills upon which this paper had been advanced,
were all of them repaid in their turn as soon as they became due; yet the value which
had been really advanced upon the first bill, was never really returned to the banks
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which advanced it; because, before each bill became due, another bill was always
drawn to somewhat a greater amount than the bill which was soon to be paid; and the
discounting of this other bill was essentially necessary towards the payment of that
which was soon to be due. This payment, therefore, was altogether fictitious. The
stream, which, by means of those circulating bills of exchange, had once been made
to run out from the coffers of the banks, was never replaced by any stream which
really run into them.
71 The paper which was issued upon those circulating bills of exchange, amounted,
upon many occasions, to the whole fund destined for carrying on some vast and
extensive project of agriculture, commerce, or manufactures; and not merely to that
part of it which, had there been no paper money, the projector would have been
obliged to keep by him, unemployed and in ready money for answering occasional
demands. The greater part of this paper was, consequently, over and above the value
of the gold and silver which would have circulated in the country, had there been no
paper money. It was over and above, therefore, what the circulation of the country
could easily absorb and employ, and, upon that account, immediately returned upon
the banks in order to be exchanged for gold and silver, which they were to find as they
could. It was a capital which those projectors had very artfully contrived to draw from
those banks, not only without their knowledge or deliberate consent, but for some
time, perhaps, without their having the most distant suspicion that they had really
advanced it.
72When two people, who are continually drawing and re–drawing upon one another,
discount their bills always with the same banker, he must immediately discover what
they are about, and see clearly that they are trading, not with any capital of their own,
but with the capital which he advances to them. But this discovery is not altogether so
easy when they discount their bills sometimes with one banker, and sometimes with
another, and when the same two persons do not constantly draw and re–draw upon
one another, but occasionally run the round of a great circle of projectors, who find it
for their interest to assist one another in this method of raising money,41 and to render
it, upon that account, as difficult as possible to distinguish between a real and a
fictitious bill of exchange; between a bill drawn by a real creditor upon a real debtor,
and a bill for which there was properly no real creditor but the bank which discounted
it; nor any real debtor but the projector who made use of the money. When a banker
had even made this discovery, he might sometimes make it too late, and might find
that he had already discounted the bills of those projectors to so great an extent, that,
by refusing to discount any more, he would necessarily make them all bankrupts, and
thus, by ruining them, might perhaps ruin himself. For his own interest and safety,
therefore, he might find it necessary, in this very perilous situation, to go on for some
time, endeavouring, however, to withdraw gradually, and upon that account making
every day greater and greater difficulties about discounting, in order to force those
projectors by degrees to have recourse, either to other bankers, or to other methods of
raising money; so as that he himself might, as soon as possible, get out of the circle.
The difficulties, accordingly, which the bank of England, which the principal bankers
in London, and which even the more prudent Scotch banks began, after a certain time,
and when all of them had already gone too far, to make about discounting, not only
alarmed, but enraged in the highest degree those projectors. Their own distress, of
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which this prudent and necessary reserve of the banks, was, no doubt, the immediate
occasion, they called the distress of the country; and this distress of the country, they
said, was altogether owing to the ignorance, pusillanimity, and bad conduct of the
banks, which did not give a sufficiently liberal aid to the spirited undertakings of
those who exerted themselves in order to beautify, improve, and enrich the country. It
was the duty of the banks, they seemed to think, to lend for as long a time, and to as
great an extent as they might wish to borrow. The banks, however, by refusing in this
manner to give more credit to those, to whom they had already given a great deal too
much, took the only method by which it was now possible to save either their own
credit, or the publick credit of the country.42
73In the midst of this clamour and distress, a new bank was established in Scotland43
for the express purpose of relieving the distress of the country. The design was
generous; but the execution was imprudent, and the nature and causes of the distress
which it meant to relieve, were not, perhaps, well understood. This bank was more
liberal than any other had ever been, both in granting cash accounts, and in
discounting bills of exchange. With regard to the latter, it seems to have made scarce
any distinction between real and circulating bills, but to have discounted all equally. It
was the avowed principle of this bank to advance, upon any reasonable security, the
whole capital which was to be employed in gthoseg improvements of which the
returns are the most slow and distant, such as the improvements of land. To promote
such improvements was even said to be the chief of the publick spirited purposes for
which it was instituted. By its liberality in granting cash accounts, and in discounting
bills of exchange, it, no doubt, issued great quantities of its bank–notes. But those
bank–notes being, the greater part of them, over and above what the circulation of the
country could easily absorb and employ, returned upon it, in order to be exchanged
for gold and silver, as fast as they were issued. Its coffers were never well–filled. The
capital which had been subscribed to this bank at two different subscriptions,
amounted to one hundred and sixty thousand pounds, of which eighty per cent. only
was paid up. This sum ought to have been paid in at several different instalments. A
great part of the proprietors, when they paid in their first instalment, opened a cash
account with the bank; and the directors, thinking themselves obliged to treat their
own proprietors with the same liberality with which they treated all other men,
allowed many of them to borrow upon this cash account what they paid in upon all
their subsequent instalments. Such payments, therefore, only put into one coffer, what
had the moment before been taken out of another. But had the coffers of this bank
been filled ever so well, its excessive circulation must have emptied them faster than
they could have been replenished by any other expedient but the ruinous one of
drawing upon London, and when the bill became due, paying it, together with interest
and commission, by another draught upon the same place. Its coffers having been
filled so very ill, it is said to have been driven to this resource within a very few
months after it began to do business. The estates of the proprietors of this bank were
worth several millions, and by their subscription to the original bond or contract of the
bank, were really pledged for answering all its engagements. By means of the great
credit which so great a pledge necessarily gave it, it was, notwithstanding its too
liberal conduct, enabled to carry on business for more than two years. When it was
obliged to stop, it had in the circulation about two hundred thousand pounds in
bank–notes.44 In order to support the circulation of those notes, which were
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continually returning upon it as fast as they were issued, it had been constantly in the
practice of drawing bills of exchange upon London, of which the number and value
were continually increasing, and, when it stopt, amounted to upwards of six hundred
thousand pounds. This bank, therefore, had, in little more than the course of two
years, advanced to different people upwards of eight hundred thousand pounds at five
per cent. Upon the two hundred thousand pounds which it circulated in bank–notes,
this five per cent. might, perhaps, be considered as clear gain, without any other
deduction besides the expence of management. But upon upwards of six hundred
thousand pounds, for which it was continually drawing bills of exchange upon
London, it was paying, in the way of interest and commission, upwards of eight per
cent., and was consequently losing more than three per cent. upon more than
three–fourths of all its dealings.
74The operations of this bank seem to have produced effects quite opposite to those
which were intended by the particular persons who planned and directed it. They
seem to have intended to support the spirited undertakings, for as such they
considered them, which were at that time carrying on in different parts of the country;
and at the same time, by drawing the whole banking business to themselves, to
supplant all the other Scotch banks; particularly those established at Edinburgh,
whose backwardness in discounting bills of exchange had given some offence.45 This
bank, no doubt, gave some temporary relief to those projectors, and enabled them to
carry on their projects for about two years longer than they could otherwise have
done. But it thereby only enabled them to get so much deeper into debt, so that when
ruin came, it fell so much the heavier both upon them and upon their creditors. The
operations of this bank, therefore, instead of relieving, in reality aggravated in the
long–run the distress which those projectors had brought both upon themselves and
upon their country. It would have been much better for themselves, their creditors and
their country, had the greater part of them been obliged to stop two years sooner than
they actually did. The temporary relief, however, which this bank afforded to those
projectors, proved a real and permanent relief to the other Scotch banks. All the
dealers in circulating bills of exchange, which those other banks had become so
backward in discounting, had recourse to this new bank, where they were received
with open arms. Those other banks, therefore, were enabled to get very easily out of
that fatal circle, from which they could not otherwise have disengaged themselves
without incurring a considerable loss, and perhaps too even some degree of
discredit.46
75In the long–run, therefore, the operations of this bank increased the real distress of
the country which it meant to relieve; and effectually relieved from a very great
distress those rivals whom it meant to supplant.47
76At the first setting out of this bank, it was the opinion of some people, that how fast
soever its coffers might be emptied, it might easily replenish them by raising money
upon the securities of those to whom it had advanced its paper. Experience, I believe,
soon convinced them that this method of raising money was by much too slow to
answer their purpose; and that coffers which originally were so ill filled, and which
emptied themselves so very fast, could be replenished by no other expedient but the
ruinous one of drawing bills upon London, and when they became due, paying them
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by other draughts upon the same place with accumulated interest and commission.
But though they had been able by this method to raise money as fast as they wanted it;
yet, instead of making a profit, they must have suffered a loss by every such
operation; so that in the long–run they must have ruined themselves as a mercantile
company, though, perhaps, not so soon as by the more expensive practice of drawing
and redrawing. They could still have made nothing by the interest of the paper, which,
being over and above what the circulation of the country could absorb and employ,
returned upon them, in order to be exchanged for gold and silver, as fast as they
issued it; and for the payment of which they were themselves continually obliged to
borrow money. On the contrary, the whole expence of this borrowing, of employing
agents to look out for people who had money to lend, of negociating with those
people, and of drawing the proper bond or assignment, must have fallen upon them,
and have been so much clear loss upon the balance of their accounts. The project of
replenishing their coffers in this manner may be compared to that of a man who had a
water–pond from which a stream was continually running out, and into which no
stream was continually running, but who proposed to keep it always equally full by
employing a number of people to go continually with buckets to a well at some miles
distance in order to bring water to replenish it.48
77 But though this operation had proved, not only practicable, but profitable to the
bank as a mercantile company; yet the country could have derived no benefit from it;
but, on the contrary, must have suffered a very considerable loss by it. This operation
could not augment in the smallest degree the quantity of money to be lent. It could
only have erected this bank into a sort of general loan office for the whole country.
Those who wanted to borrow, must have applied to this bank, instead of applying to
the private persons who had lent it their money. But a bank which lends money,
perhaps, to five hundred different people, the greater part of whom its directors can
know very little about, is not likely to be more judicious in the choice of its debtors,
than a private person who lends out his money among a few people whom he knows,
and in whose sober and frugal conduct he thinks he has good reason to confide. The
debtors of such a bank, as that whose conduct I have been giving some account of,
were likely, the greater part of them, to be chimerical projectors, the drawers and
redrawers of circulating bills of exchange, who would employ the money in
extravagant undertakings, which, with all the assistance that could be given them,
they would probably never be able to compleat, and which, if they should be
compleated, would never repay the expence which they had really cost, would never
afford a fund capable of maintaining a quantity of labour equal to that which had been
employed about them. The sober and frugal debtors of private persons, on the
contrary, would be more likely to employ the money borrowed in sober undertakings
which were proportioned to their capitals, and which, though they might have less of
the grand and the marvellous, would have more of the solid and the profitable, which
would repay with a large profit whatever had been laid out upon them, and which
would thus afford a fund capable of maintaining a much greater quantity of labour
than that which had been employed about them. The success of this operation,
therefore, without increasing in the smallest degree the capital of the country, would
only have transferred a great part of it from prudent and profitable, to imprudent and
unprofitable undertakings.
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78That the industry in Scotland languished for want of money to employ it, was the
opinion of the famous Mr. Law.49 By establishing a bank of a particular kind, which
he seems to have imagined, might issue paper to the amount of the whole value of all
the lands in the country, he proposed to remedy this want of money. The parliament
of Scotland, when he first proposed his project, did not think proper to adopt it. It was
afterwards adopted, with some variations, by the duke of Orleans, at that time regent
of France. The idea of the possibility of multiplying paper money to almost any
extent, was the real foundation of what is called the Mississippi scheme,50 the most
extravagant project both of banking and stock–jobbing that, perhaps, the world ever
saw.51 The different operations of this scheme are explained so fully, so clearly, and
with so much order and distinctness, by Mr. Du Verney, in his Examination of the
Political Reflections upon Commerce and Finances of Mr. Du Tot,52 that I shall not
give any account of them.53 The principles upon which it was founded are explained
by Mr. Law himself, in a discourse concerning money and trade, which he published
in Scotland when he first proposed his project.54 The splendid, but visionary ideas
which are set forth in that and some other works upon the same principles, still
continue to make an impression upon many people, and have, perhaps, in part,
contributed to that excess of banking, which has of late been complained of both in
Scotland and in other places.
79The bank of England is the greatest bank of circulation in Europe.55 It was
incorporated, in pursuance of an act of parliament,56 by a charter under the great seal,
dated the 27th hofh July, 1694. It at that time advanced to government the sum of one
million two hundred thousand pounds, for an annuity of one hundred thousand
pounds; or for 96,000l. a year interest, at the rate of eight per cent., and 4,000l. a year
for the expence of management. The credit of new government, established by the
Revolution, we may believe, must have been very low, when it was obliged to borrow
at so high an interest.57
80In 1697 the bank was allowed to enlarge its capital stock by an engraftment of
1,001,171l. 10s.58 Its whole capital stock, therefore, amounted at this time to
2,201,171l. 10s.59 This engraftment is said to have been for the support of publick
credit. In 1696, tallies had been at forty, and fifty, and sixty per cent. discount, and
bank notes at twenty per cent.* .60 During the great recoinage of the silver,61 which
was going on at this time, the bank had thought proper to discontinue the payment of
its notes, which necessarily occasioned their discredit.
81In pursuance of the 7th Anne, c. vii.62 the bank advanced and paid into the
exchequer, the sum of 400,000l.; making in all the sum of 1,600,000l. which it had
advanced upon its original annuity of 96,000l. interest and 4,000l. for expence of
management. In 1708,63 therefore, the credit of government was as good as that of
private persons, since it could borrow at six per cent. interest, the common legal and
market rate of those times. In pursuance of the same act, the bank cancelled exchequer
bills to the amount of 1,775,027l. 17s. 10½d. at six per cent. interest, and was at the
same time allowed to take in subscriptions for doubling its capital. In 1708, therefore,
the capital of the bank amounted to 4,402,343l.; and it had advanced to government
the sum of 3,375,027l. 17s. 10½d.64
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82By a call of fifteen per cent. in 1709, there was paid in and made stock 656,204l.
1s. 9d.; and by another of ten per cent. in 1710, 501,448l. 12s. 11d. In consequence of
those two calls, therefore, the bank capital amounted to 5,559,995l. 14s. 8d.
83iIn pursuance of the 3d George I.65 c. 8. the bank delivered up two millions of
exchequer bills to be cancelled. It had at this time, therefore, advanced to government
5,375,027l. 17s. 10d.i In pursuance of the 8th George I. c. 21.66 the bank purchased
of the South Sea Company, stock to the amount of 4,000,000l.; and in 1722, in
consequence of the subscriptions which it had taken in for enabling it to make this
purchase, its capital stock was increased by 3,400,000l. At this time, therefore, the
bank had advanced to the publick 9,375,027l. 17s. 10½d.; and its capital stock
amounted only to 8,959,995l. 14s. 8d. It was upon this occasion that the sum which
the bank had advanced to the publick, and for which it received interest, began first to
exceed its capital stock, or the sum for which it paid a dividend to the proprietors of
bank stock; or, in other words, that the bank began to have an undivided capital, over
and above its divided one. It has continued to have an undivided capital of the same
kind ever since. In 1746, the bank had, upon different occasions, advanced to the
publick 11,686,800l. and its divided capital had been raised by different calls and
subscriptions to 10,780,000l. The state of those two sums has continued to be the
same ever since. In pursuance of the 4th of George III. c. 25.67 the bank agreed to pay
to government for the renewal of its charter 110,000l. without interest or
repayment.68 This sum, therefore, did not increase either of those two other sums.
84 The dividend of the bank has varied according to the variations in the rate of
interest which it has, at different times, received for the money it had advanced to the
publick, as well as according to other circumstances. This rate of interest has
gradually been reduced from eight to three per cent. For some years past the bank
dividend has been at five and a half per cent.69
85The stability of the bank of England is equal to that of the British government. All
that it has advanced to the publick must be lost before its creditors can sustain any
loss. No other banking company in England can be established by act of parliament,
or can consist of more than six members. It acts, not only as an ordinary bank, but as a
great engine of state. It receives and pays the greater part of the annuities which are
due to the creditors of the publick, it circulates exchequer bills, and it advances to
government the annual amount of the land and malt taxes, which are frequently not
paid up till some years thereafter. In those different operations, its duty to the publick
may sometimes have obliged it, without any fault of its directors, to overstock the
circulation with paper money. It likewise discounts merchants bills, and has, upon
several different occasions, supported the credit of the principal houses, not only of
England, but of Hamburgh and Holland. Upon one occasionj, in 1763,j it is said to
have advanced for this purpose, in one week, about 1,600,000l.; a great part of it in
bullion. I do not, however, pretend to warrant either the greatness of the sum, or the
shortness of the time.70 Upon other occasions, this great company has been reduced
to the necessity of paying in sixpences.71
86It is not by augmenting the capital of the country, but by rendering a greater part of
that capital active and productive than would otherwise be so, that the most judicious
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operations of banking can increase the industry of the country. That part of his capital
which a dealer is obliged to keep by him unemployed, and in ready money for
answering occasional demands, is so much dead stock, which, so long as it remains in
this situation, produces nothing either to him or to his country. The judicious
operations of banking enable him to convert this dead stock into active and productive
stock; into materials to work upon, into tools to work with, and into provisions and
subsistence to work for; into stock which produces something both to khimselfk and to
his country. The gold and silver money which circulates in any country, and by means
of which, the produce of its land and labour is annually circulated and distributed to
the proper consumers, is, in the same manner as the ready money of the dealer, all
dead stock. It is a very valuable part of the capital of the country, which produces
nothing to the country. The judicious operations of banking, by substituting paper in
the room of a great part of this gold and silver, enables the country to convert a great
part of this dead stock into active and productive stock; into stock which produces
something to the country.72 The gold and silver money which circulates in any
country may very properly be compared to a highway, while it circulates and carries
to market all the grass and corn of the country, produces itself not a single pile of
either. The judicious operations of banking, by providing, if I may be allowed so
violent a metaphor, a sort of waggon–way through the air;73 enable the country to
convert, as it were, a great part of its highways into good pastures and corn fields, and
thereby to increase very considerably the annual produce of its land and labour. The
commerce and industry of the country, however, it must be acknowledged, though
they may be somewhat augmented, cannot be altogether so secure, when they are
thus, as it were, suspended upon the Daedalian wings of paper money, as when they
travel about upon the solid ground of gold and silver.74 Over and above the accidents
to which they are exposed from the unskilfulness of the conductors of this paper
money, they are liable to several others, from which no prudence or skill of those
conductors can guard them.
87An unsuccessful war, for example, in which the enemy got possession of the
capital, and consequently of that treasure which supported the credit of the paper
money, would occasion a much greater confusion in a country where the whole
circulation was carried on by paper, than in one where the greater part of it was
carried on by gold and silver. The usual instrument of commerce having lost its value,
no exchanges could be made but either by barter or upon credit. All taxes having been
usually paid in paper money, the prince would not have wherewithal either to pay his
troops, or to furnish his magazines; and the state of the country would be much more
irretrievable than if the greater part of its circulation had consisted in gold and silver.
A prince, anxious to maintain his dominions at all times in the state in which he can
most easily defend them, ought, upon this account, to guard, not only against that
excessive multiplication of paper money which ruins the very banks which issue it;
but even against that multiplication of it, which enables them to fill the greater part of
the circulation of the country with it.
88The circulation of every country may be considered as divided into two different
branches; the circulation of the dealers with one another, and the circulation between
the dealers and the consumers. Though the same pieces of money, whether paper or
metal, may be employed sometimes in the one circulation and sometimes in the other,
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yet as both are constantly going on at the same time, each requires a certain stock of
money of one kind or another, to carry it on. The value of the goods circulated
between the different dealers, never can exceed the value of those circulated between
the dealers and the consumers; whatever is bought by the dealers, being ultimately
destined to be sold to the consumers. The circulation between the dealers, as it is
carried on by wholesale, requires generally a pretty large sum for every particular
transaction. That between the dealers and the consumers, on the contrary, as it is
generally carried on by retail, frequently requires but very small ones, a shilling, or
even a halfpenny, being often sufficient. But small sums circulate much faster than
large ones. A shilling changes masters more frequently than a guinea, and a halfpenny
more frequently than a shilling. Though the annual purchases of all the consumers,
therefore, are at least equal in value to those of all the dealers, they can generally be
transacted with a much smaller quantity of money; the same pieces, by a more rapid
circulation, serving as the instrument of many more purchases of the one kind than of
the other.
89Paper money may be so regulated, as either to confine itself very much to the
circulation between the different dealers, or to extend itself likewise to a great part of
that between the dealers and the consumers. Where no bank notes are circulated under
ten pounds value, as in London,75 paper money confines itself very much to the
circulation between the dealers. When a ten pound bank note comes into the hands of
a consumer, he is generally obliged to change it at the first shop where he has
occasion to purchase five shillings worth of goods, so that it often returns into the
hands of a dealer, before the consumer has spent the fortieth part of the money. Where
bank notes are issued for so small sums as twenty shillings, as in Scotland, paper
money extends itself to a considerable part of the circulation between dealers and
consumers. Before the act of parliament,76 which put a stop to the circulation of ten
and five shilling notes, it filled a still greater part of that circulation. In the currencies
of North America, paper was commonly issued for so small a sum as a shilling, and
filled almost the whole of that circulation. In some paper currencies of Yorkshire, it
was issued even for so small a sum as a sixpence.
90Where the issuing of bank notes for such very small sums is allowed and
commonly practised, many mean people are both enabled and encouraged to become
bankers. A person whose promissory note for five pounds, or even for twenty
shillings, would be rejected by every body, will get it to be received without scruple
when it is issued for so small a sum as a sixpence. But the frequent bankruptcies to
which such beggarly bankers must be liable, may occasion a very considerable
inconveniency, and sometimes even a very great calamity to many poor people who
had received their notes in payment.
91It were better, perhaps, that no bank notes were issued in any part of the kingdom
for a smaller sum than five pounds. Paper money would then, probably, confine itself,
in every part of the kingdom, to the circulation between the different dealers, as much
as it does at present in London, where no bank notes are issued under ten pounds
value; five pounds being, in most parts of the kingdom, a sum which, though it will
purchase, perhaps, little more than half the quantity of goods, is as much considered,
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and is as seldom spent all at once, as ten pounds are amidst the profuse expence of
London.
92Where paper money, it is to be observed, is pretty much confined to the circulation
between dealers and dealers, as at London, there is always plenty of gold and silver.
Where it extends itself to a considerable part of the circulation between dealers and
consumers, as in Scotland, and still more in North America,77 it banishes gold and
silver almost entirely from the country; almost all the ordinary transactions of its
interior commerce being thus carried on by paper. The suppression of ten and five
shilling bank notes, somewhat relieved the scarcity of gold and silver in Scotland; and
the suppression of twenty shilling notes, lwouldl probably relieve it still more. Those
metals are said to have become more abundant in America, since the suppression of
some of their paper currencies. They are said, likewise, to have been more abundant
before the institution of those currencies.
93Though paper money should be pretty much confined to the circulation between
dealers and dealers, yet banks and bankers might still be able to give nearly the same
assistance to the industry and commerce of the country, as they had done when paper
money filled almost the whole circulation. The ready money which a dealer is obliged
to keep by him, for answering occasional demands, is destined altogether for the
circulation between himself and other dealers, of whom he buys goods. He has no
occasion to keep any by him for the circulation between himself and the consumers,
who are his customers, and who bring ready money to him, instead of taking any from
him. Though no paper money, therefore, was allowed to be issued, but for such sums
as would confine it pretty much to the circulation between dealers and dealers; yet,
partly by discounting real bills of exchange, and partly by lending upon cash
accounts, banks and bankers might still be able to relieve the greater part of those
dealers from the necessity of keeping any considerable part of their stock by them,
unemployed and in ready money, for answering occasional demands. They might still
be able to give the utmost assistance which banks and bankers can, with propriety,
give to traders of every kind.
94To restrain private people, it may be said, from receiving in payment the
promissory notes of a banker, for any sum whether great or small, when they
themselves are willing to receive them; or, to restrain a banker from issuing such
notes, when all his neighbours are willing to accept of them, is a manifest violation of
that natural liberty which it is the proper business of law, not to infringe, but to
support. Such regulations may, no doubt, be considered as in some respect a violation
of natural liberty. But those exertions of the natural liberty of a few individuals, which
might endanger the security of the whole society, are, and ought to be, restrained by
the laws of all governments; of the most free, as well as of the most despotical. The
obligation of building party walls, in order to prevent the communication of fire, is a
violation of natural liberty, exactly of the same kind with the regulations of the
banking trade which are here proposed.
95A paper money consisting in bank notes, issued by people of undoubted credit,
payable upon demand without any condition, and in fact always readily paid as soon
as presented, is, in every respect, equal in value to gold and silver money; since gold
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and silver money can at any time be had for it. Whatever is either bought or sold for
such paper, must necessarily be bought or sold as cheap as it could have been for gold
and silver.
96The increase of paper money, it has been said, by augmenting the quantity, and
consequently diminishing the value of the whole currency, necessarily augments the
money price of commodities. But as the quantity of gold and silver, which is taken
from the currency, is always equal to the quantity of paper which is added to it, paper
money does not necessarily increase the quantity of the whole currency. From the
beginning of the last century to the present mtimem , provisions never were cheaper in
Scotland than in 1759,78 though, from the circulation of ten and five shilling bank
notes, there was then more paper money in the country than at present. The proportion
between the price of provisions in Scotland and that in England, is the same now as
before the great multiplication of banking companies in Scotland. Corn is, upon most
occasions, fully as cheap in England as in France; though there is a great deal of paper
money in England, and scarce any in France. In 1751 and in 1752, when Mr. Hume
published his Political Discourses, and soon after the great multiplication of paper
money in Scotland, there was a very sensible rise in the price of provisions, owing,
probably, to the badness of the seasons, and not to the multiplication of paper
money.79
97It would be otherwise, indeed, with a paper money consisting in promissory notes,
of which the immediate payment depended, in any respect, either upon the good will
of those who issued them; or upon a condition which the holder of the notes might not
always have it in his power to fulfil; or of which the payment was not exigible till
after a certain number of years, and which in the mean time bore no interest. Such a
paper money would, no doubt, fall more or less below the value of gold and silver,
according as the difficulty or uncertainty of obtaining immediate payment was
supposed to be greater or less; or according to the greater or less distance of time at
which payment was exigible.
98Some years ago the different banking companies of Scotland were in the practice of
inserting into their bank notes, what they called an Optional Clause,80 by which they
promised payment to the bearer, either as soon as the note should be presented, or, in
the option of the directors, six months after such presentment, together with the legal
interest for the said six months. The directors of some of those banks sometimes took
advantage of this optional clause, and sometimes threatened those who demanded
gold and silver in exchange for a considerable number of their notes, that they would
take advantage of it, unless such demanders would content themselves with a part of
what they demanded. The promissory notes of those banking companies constituted at
that time the far greater part of the currency of Scotland, which this uncertainty of
payment necessarily degraded below the value of gold and silver money. During the
continuance of this abuse (which prevailed chiefly in 1762, 1763, and 1764), while
the exchange between London and Carlisle was at par, that between London and
Dumfries would sometimes be four per cent. against Dumfries, though this town is
not thirty miles distant from Carlisle. But at Carlisle, bills were paid in gold and
silver; whereas at Dumfries they were paid in Scotch bank notes, and the uncertainty
of getting those bank notes exchanged for gold and silver coin had thus degraded
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them four per cent. below the value of that coin. The same act of parliament81 which
suppressed ten and five shilling bank notes, suppressed likewise this optional clause,
and thereby restored the exchange between England and Scotland to its natural rate, or
to what the course of trade and remittances might happen to make it.
99In the paper currencies of Yorkshire, the payment of so small a sum as a sixpence
sometimes depended upon the condition that the holder of the note should bring the
change of a guinea to the person who issued it; a condition, which the holders of such
notes might frequently find it very difficult to fulfil, and which must have degraded
this currency below the value of gold and silver money. An act of parliament,
accordingly, declared all such clauses unlawful, and suppressed, in the same manner
as in Scotland, all promissory notes, payable to the bearer, under twenty shillings
value.82
100The paper currencies of North America consisted, not in bank notes payable to the
bearer on demand, but in a government paper, of which the payment was not exigible
till several years after it was issued: And though the colony governments paid no
interest to the holders of this paper, they declared it to be, and in fact rendered it, a
legal tender of payment for the full value for which it was issued. But allowing the
colony security to be perfectly good, a hundred pounds payable fifteen years hence,
for example, in a country where interest is at six per cent. is worth little more than
forty pounds ready money. To oblige a creditor, therefore, to accept of this as full
payment for a debt of a hundred pounds actually paid down in ready money, was an
act of such violent injustice, as has scarce, perhaps, been attempted by the government
of any other country which pretended to be free. It bears the evident marks of having
originally been, what the honest and downright Doctor Douglas assures us it was, a
scheme of fraudulent debtors to cheat their creditors.83 The government of
Pensylvania, indeed, pretended, upon their first emission of paper money, in 1722,84
to render their paper of equal value with gold and silver, by enacting penalties against
all those who made any difference in the price of their goods when they sold them for
a colony paper, and when they sold them for gold and silver; a regulation equally
tyrannical, but much less effectual than that which it was meant to support. A positive
law may render a shilling a legal tender for a guinea; because it may direct the courts
of justice to discharge the debtor who has made that tender. But no positive law can
oblige a person who sells goods, and who is at liberty to sell or not to sell, as he
pleases, to accept of a shilling as equivalent to a guinea in the price of them.
Notwithstanding any regulation of this kind, it appeared by the course of exchange
with Great Britain, that a hundred pounds sterling was occasionally considered as
equivalent, in some of the colonies, to a hundred and thirty pounds, and in others to so
great a sum as eleven hundred pounds currency; this difference in the value arising
from the difference in the quantity of paper emitted in the different colonies, and in
the distance and probability of the term of its final discharge and redemption.85
101No law, therefore, could be more equitable than the act of parliament, so unjustly
complained of in the colonies, which declared that no paper currency to be emitted
there in time coming, should be a legal tender of payment.86
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102Pensylvania was always more moderate in its emissions of paper money than any
other of our colonies.87 Its paper currency accordingly is said never to have sunk
below the value of the gold and silver which was current in the colony before the first
emission of its paper money. Before that emission, the colony had raised the
denomination of its coin, and had, by act of assembly, ordered five shillings sterling
to pass in the colony for six and three–pence, and afterwards for six and eight–pence.
A pound colony currency, therefore, even when that currency was gold and silver,
was more than thirty per cent. below the value of a pound sterling, and when that
currency was turned into paper, it was seldom much more than thirty per cent. below
that value. The pretence for raising the denomination of the coin, was to prevent the
exportation of gold and silver, by making equal quantities of those metals pass for
greater sums in the colony than they did in the mother country. It was found, however,
that the price of all goods from the mother country rose exactly in proportion as they
raised the denomination of their coin, so that their gold and silver were exported as
fast as ever.
103The paper of each colony being received in the payment of the provincial taxes,
for the full value for which it had been issued, it necessarily derived from this use
some additional value, over and above what it would have had, from the real or
supposed distance of the term of its final discharge and redemption. This additional
value was greater or less, according as the quantity of paper issued was more or less
above what could be employed in the payment of the taxes of the particular colony
which issued it. It was in all the colonies very much above what could be employed in
this manner.
104A prince, who should enact that a certain proportion of his taxes should be paid in
a paper money of a certain kind, might thereby give a certain value to this paper
money; even though the term of its final discharge and redemption should depend
altogether upon the will of the prince. If the bank which issued this paper was careful
to keep the quantity of it always somewhat below what could easily be employed in
this manner, the demand for it might be such as to make it even bear a premium, or
sell for somewhat more in the market than the quantity of gold or silver currency for
which it was issued. Some people account in this manner for what is called the Agio
of the bank of Amsterdam, or for the superiority of bank money over current money;
though this bank money, as they pretend, cannot be taken out of the bank at the will of
the owner.88 The greater part of foreign bills of exchange must be paid in bank
money, that is, by a transfer in the books of the bank; and the directors of the bank,
they allege, are careful to keep the whole quantity of bank money always below what
this use occasions a demand for. It is upon this account, they say, that bank money
sells for a premium, or bears an agio of four or five per cent. above the same nominal
sum of the gold and silver currency of the country.89 This account of the bank of
Amsterdam, however, nit will appear hereafter, is in a great measuren chimerical.90
105A paper currency which falls below the value of gold and silver coin, does not
thereby sink the value of othose metalso , or occasion equal quantities of pthemp to
exchange for a smaller quantity of goods of any other kind. The proportion between
the value of gold and silver and that of goods of any other kind, depends in all cases,
not upon the nature or quantity of any particular paper money, which may be current
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in any particular country, but upon the richness or poverty of the mines, which happen
at any particular time to supply the great market of the commercial world with those
metals. It depends upon the proportion between the quantity of labour which is
necessary in order to bring a certain quantity of gold and silver to market, and that
which is necessary in order to bring thither a certain quantity of any other sort of
goods.
106If bankers are restrained from issuing any circulating bank notes, or notes payable
to the bearer, for less than a certain sum; and if they are subjected to the obligation of
an immediate and unconditional payment of such bank notes as soon as presented,
their trade may, with safety to the publick, be rendered in all other respects perfectly
free. The late multiplication of banking companies in both parts of the united
kingdom, an event by which many people have been much alarmed, instead of
diminishing, increases the security of the publick. It obliges all of them to be more
circumspect in their conduct, and, by not extending their currency beyond its due
proportion to their cash, to guard themselves against those malicious runs, which the
rivalship of so many competitors is always ready to bring upon them. It restrains the
circulation of each particular company within a narrower circle, and reduces their
circulating notes to a smaller number. By dividing the whole circulation into a greater
number of parts, the failure of any one company, an accident which, in the course of
things, must sometimes happen, becomes of less consequence to the publick. This free
competition too obliges all bankers to be more liberal in their dealings with their
customers, lest their rivals should carry them away. In general, if any branch of trade,
or any division of labour, be advantageous to the publick, the freer and more general
the competition, it will always be the more so.91
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[Back to Table of Contents]
CHAPTER III
Of The Accumulation Of Capital, Or Of Productive And
Unproductive Labour
1There is one sort of labour which adds to the value of the subject upon which it is
bestowed: There is another which has no such effect. The former, as it produces a
value, may be called productive; the latter, unproductive* labour.1 Thus the labour of
a manufacturer adds, generally, to the value of the materials which he works upon,
that of his own maintenance, and of his master’s profit. The labour of a menial
servant, on the contrary, adds to the value of nothing. Though the manufacturer has
his wages advanced to him by his master, he, in reality, costs him no expence, the
value of those wages being generally restored, together with a profit, in the improved
value of the subject upon which his labour is bestowed. But the maintenance of a
menial servant never is restored. A man grows rich by employing a multitude of
manufacturers: He grows poor, by maintaining a multitude of menial servants. The
labour of the latter, however, has its value, and deserves its reward as well as that of
the former. But the labour of the manufacturer fixes and realizes itself in some
particular subject or vendible commodity, which lasts for some time at least after that
labour is past.2 It is, as it were, a certain quantity of labour stocked and stored up to
be employed, if necessary, upon some other occasion. That subject, or what is the
same thing, the price of that subject, can afterwards, if necessary, put into motion a
quantity of labour equal to that which had originally produced it.3 The labour of the
menial servant, on the contrary, does not fix or realize itself in any particular subject
or vendible commodity. His services generally perish in the very instant of their
performance, and seldom leave any trace or value behind them, for which an equal
quantity of service could afterwards be procured.4
2The labour of some of the most respectable orders in the society is, like that of
menial servants, unproductive of any value, and does not fix or realize itself in any
permanent subject, or vendible commodity, which endures after that labour is past,
and for which an equal quantity of labour could afterwards be procured. The
sovereign, for example, with all the officers both of justice and war who serve under
him, the whole army and navy, are unproductive labourers.5 They are the servants of
the publick, and are maintained by a part of the annual produce of the industry of
other people.6 Their service, how honourable, how useful,7 or how necessary soever,
produces nothing for which an equal quantity of service can afterwards be procured.
The protection, security, and defence of the commonwealth, the effect of their labour
this year, will not purchase its protection, security, and defence, for the year to come.
In the same class must be ranked, some both of the gravest and most important, and
some of the most frivolous professions: churchmen, lawyers, physicians, men of
letters of all kinds; players, buffoons, musicians, opera–singers, opera–dancers, &c.8
The labour of the meanest of these has a certain value, regulated by the very same
principles which regulate that of every other sort of labour;9 and that of the noblest
and most useful, produces nothing which could afterwards purchase or procure an
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equal quantity of labour. Like the declamation of the actor, the harangue of the orator,
or the tune of the musician, the work of all of them perishes in the very instant of its
production.10
3 Both productive and unproductive labourers, and those who do not labour at all, are
all equally maintained by the annual produce of the land and labour of the country.
This produce, how great soever, can never be infinite, but must have certain limits.
According, therefore, as a smaller or greater proportion of it is in any one year
employed in maintaining unproductive hands, the more in the one case and the less in
the other will remain for the productive, and the next year’s produce will be greater or
smaller accordingly; the whole annual produce, if we except the spontaneous
productions of the earth, being the effect of productive labour.
4Though the whole annual produce of the land and labour of every country, is, no
doubt, ultimately destined for supplying the consumption of its inhabitants, and for
procuring a revenue to them; yet when it first comes either from the ground, or from
the hands of the productive labourers, it naturally divides itself into two parts. One of
them, and frequently the largest, is, in the first place, destined for replacing a capital,
or for renewing the provisions, materials, and finished work, which had been
withdrawn from a capital; the other for constituting a revenue either to the owner of
this capital, as the profit of his stock; or to some other person, as the rent of his land.
Thus, of the produce of land, one part replaces the capital of the farmer; the other pays
his profit and the rent of the landlord; and thus constitutes a revenue both to the owner
of this capital, as the profits of his stock; and to some other person, as the rent of his
land. Of the produce of a great manufactory, in the same manner, one part, and that
always the largest, replaces the capital of the undertaker of the work; the other pays
his profit, and thus constitutes a revenue to the owner of athisa capital.
5That part of the annual produce of the land and labour of any country which replaces
a capital, never is immediately employed to maintain any but productive hands. It
pays the wages of productive labour only. That which is immediately destined for
constituting a revenue either as profit or as rent, may maintain indifferently either
productive or unproductive hands.
6Whatever part of his stock a man employs as a capital, he always expects bisb to be
replaced to him with a profit. He employs it, therefore, in maintaining productive
hands only; and after having served in the function of a capital to him, it constitutes a
revenue to them. Whenever he employs any part of it in maintaining unproductive
hands of any kind, that part is, from that moment, withdrawn from his capital, and
placed in his stock reserved for immediate consumption.
7Unproductive labourers, and those who do not labour at all, are all maintained by
revenue; either, first, by that part of the annual produce which is originally destined
for constituting a revenue to some particular persons, either as the rent of land or as
the profits of stock; or, secondly, by that part which, though originally destined for
replacing a capital and for maintaining productive labourers only, yet when it comes
into their hands, whatever part of it is over and above their necessary subsistence, may
be employed in maintaining indifferently either productive or unproductive hands.
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Thus, not only the great landlord or the rich merchant, but even the common
workman, if his wages are considerable, may maintain a menial servant; or he may
sometimes go to a play or a puppet–show, and so contribute his share towards
maintaining one set of unproductive labourers; or he may pay some taxes, and thus
help to maintain another set, more honourable and useful, indeed, but equally
unproductive. No part of the annual produce, however, which had been originally
destined to replace a capital, is ever directed towards maintaining unproductive hands,
till after it has put into motion its full complement of productive labour, or all that it
could put into motion in the way in which it was employed.11 The workman must
have earned his wages by work done, before he can employ any part of them in this
manner. That part too is generally but a small one. It is his spare revenue only, of
which productive labourers have seldom a great deal. They generally have some,
however; and in the payment of taxes the greatness of their number may compensate,
in some measure, the smallness of their contribution.12 The rent of land and the
profits of stock are every where, therefore, the principal sources from which
unproductive hands derive their subsistence. These are the two sorts of revenue of
which the owners have generally most to spare. They might both maintain
indifferently either productive or unproductive hands. They seem, however, to have
some predilection for the latter. The expence of a great lord feeds generally more idle
than industrious people. The rich merchant, though with his capital he maintains
industrious people only, yet by his expence, that is, by the employment of his revenue,
he feeds commonly the very same sort as the great lord.13
8The proportion, therefore, between the productive and unproductive hands, depends
very much in every country upon the proportion between that part of the annual
produce, which, as soon as it comes either from the ground or from the hands of the
productive labourers, is destined for replacing a capital, and that which is destined for
constituting a revenue, either as rent, or as profit. This proportion is very different in
rich from what it is in poor countries.14
9Thus, at present, in the opulent countries of Europe, a very large, frequently the
largest portion of the produce of the land, is destined for replacing the capital of the
rich and independent farmer; the other for paying his profits, and the rent of the
landlord. But antiently, during the prevalency of the feudal government, a very small
portion of the produce was sufficient to replace the capital employed in cultivation. It
consisted commonly in a few wretched cattle, maintained altogether by the
spontaneous produce of uncultivated land, and which might, therefore, be considered
as a part of that spontaneous produce. It generally too belonged to the landlord, and
was by him advanced to the occupiers of the land. All the rest of the produce properly
belonged to him too, either as rent for his land, or as profit upon this paultry capital.
The occupiers of land were generally bondmen, whose persons and effects were
equally his property. Those who were not bondmen were tenants at will, and though
the rent which they paid was often nominally little more than a quit–rent, it really
amounted to the whole produce of the land. Their lord could at all times command
their labour in peace, and their service in war. Though they lived at a distance from
his house, they were equally dependent upon him as his retainers who lived in it. But
the whole produce of the land undoubtedly belongs to him, who can dispose of the
labour and service of all those whom it maintains. In the present state of Europe, the
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share of the landlord seldom exceeds a third, sometimes not a fourth part of the whole
produce of the land. The rent of land, however, in all the improved parts of the
country, has been tripled and quadrupled since those antient times; and this third or
fourth part of the annual produce is, it seems, three or four times greater than the
whole had been before. In the progress of improvement, rent, though it increases in
proportion to the extent, diminishes in proportion to the produce of the land.15
10In the opulent countries of Europe, great capitals are at present employed in trade
and manufactures. In the antient state, the little trade that was stirring, and the few
homely and coarse manufactures that were carried on, required but very small
capitals. These, however, must have yielded very large profits. The rate of interest
was no where less than ten per cent. and their profits must have been sufficient to
afford this great interest. At present the rate of interest, in the improved parts of
Europe, is no where higher than six per cent. and in some of the most improved it is
so low as four, three, and two per cent. Though that part of the revenue of the
inhabitants which is derived from the profits of stock is always much greater in rich
than in poor countries, it is because the stock is much greater: in proportion to the
stock the profits are generally much less.
11That part of the annual produce, therefore, which, as soon as it comes either from
the ground, or from the hands of the productive labourers, is destined for replacing a
capital, is not only much greater in rich than in poor countries, but bears a much
greater proportion to that which is immediately destined for constituting a revenue
either as rent or as profit. The funds destined for the maintenance of productive
labour, are not only much greater in the former than in the latter, but bear a much
greater proportion to those which, though they may be employed to maintain either
productive or unproductive hands, have generally a predilection for the latter.
12The proportion between those different funds necessarily determines in every
country the general character of the inhabitants as to industry or idleness. We are
more industrious than our forefathers; because in the present times the funds destined
for the maintenance of industry, are much greater in proportion to those which are
likely to be employed in the maintenance of idleness, than they were two or three
centuries ago. Our ancestors were idle for want of a sufficient encouragement to
industry. It is better, says the proverb, to play for nothing, than to work for nothing. In
mercantile and manufacturing towns, where the inferior ranks of people are chiefly
maintained by the employment of capital, they are in general industrious, sober, and
thriving; as in many English, and in most Dutch towns. In those towns which are
principally supported by the constant or occasional residence of a court, and in which
the inferior ranks of people are chiefly maintained by the spending of revenue, they
are in general idle, dissolute, and poor; as at Rome, Versailles, Compiegne, and
Fontainbleau. If you except Rouen and Bourdeaux, there is little trade or industry in
any of the parliament towns of France;16 and the inferior ranks of people, being
chiefly maintained by the expence of the members of the courts of justice, and of
those who come to plead before them, are in general idle and poor. The great trade of
Rouen and Bourdeaux seems to be altogether the effect of their situation.17 Rouen is
necessarily the entrepôt of almost all the goods which are brought either from foreign
countries, or from the maritime provinces of France, for the consumption of the great
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city of Paris. Bourdeaux is in the same manner the entrepôt of the wines which grow
upon the banks of the Garonne, and of the rivers which run into it, one of the richest
wine countries in the world, and which seems to produce the wine fittest for
exportation, or best suited to the taste of foreign nations. Such advantageous situations
necessarily attract a great capital by the great employment which they afford it; and
the employment of this capital is the cause of the industry of those two cities. In the
other parliament towns of France, very little more capital seems to be employed than
what is necessary for supplying their own consumption; that is, little more than the
smallest capital which can be employed in them. The same thing may be said of Paris,
Madrid, and Vienna. Of those three cities, Paris is by far the most industrious; but
Paris itself is the principal market of all the manufactures established at Paris, and its
own consumption is the principal object of all the trade which it carries on. London,
Lisbon, and Copenhagen, are, perhaps, the only three cities in Europe, which are both
the constant residence of a court, and can at the same time be considered as trading
cities, or as cities which trade not only for their own consumption, but for that of other
cities and countries. The situation of all the three is extremely advantageous, and
naturally fits them to be the entrepôts of a great part of the goods destined for the
consumption of distant places. In a city where a great revenue is spent, to employ with
advantage a capital for any other purpose than for supplying the consumption of that
city, is probably more difficult than in one in which the inferior ranks of people have
no other maintenance but what they derive from the employment of such a capital.
The idleness of the greater part of the people who are maintained by the expence of
revenue, corrupts, it is probable, the industry of those who ought to be maintained by
the employment of capital, and renders it less advantageous to employ a capital there
than in other places. There was little trade or industry in Edinburgh before the union.
When the Scotch parliament was no longer to be assembled in it, when it ceased to be
the necessary residence of the principal nobility and gentry of Scotland, it became a
city of some trade and industry. It still continues, however, to be the residence of the
principal courts of justice in Scotland, of the boards of customs and excise, &c. A
considerable revenue, therefore, still continues to be spent in it. In trade and industry
it is much inferior to Glasgow, of which the inhabitants are chiefly maintained by the
employment of capital. The inhabitants of a large village, it has sometimes been
observed, after having made considerable progress in manufactures, have become idle
and poor, in consequence of a great lord’s having taken up his residence in their
neighbourhood.18
13The proportion between capital and revenue, therefore, seems every where to
regulate the proportion between industry and idleness. Whereever capital
predominates, industry prevails: wherever revenue, idleness. Every increase or
diminution of capital, therefore, naturally tends to increase or diminish the real
quantity of industry, the number of productive hands, and consequently the
exchangeable value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the country, the
real wealth and revenue of all its inhabitants.
14Capitals are increased by parsimony, and diminished by prodigality and
misconduct.
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15Whatever a person saves from his revenue he adds to his capital, and either
employs it himself in maintaining an additional number of productive hands, or
enables some other person to do so, by lending it to him for an interest, that is, for a
share of the profits.19 As the capital of an individual can be increased only by what
he saves from his annual revenue or his annual gains, so the capital of a society,
which is the same with that of all the individuals who compose it, can be increased
only in the same manner.
16Parsimony, and not industry, is the immediate cause of the increase of capital.
Industry, indeed, provides the subject which parsimony accumulates. But whatever
industry might acquire, if parsimony did not save and store up, the capital would
never be the greater.20
17Parsimony, by increasing the fund which is destined for the maintenance of
productive hands, tends to increase the number of those hands whose labour adds to
the value of the subject upon which it is bestowed. It tends therefore to increase the
exchangeable value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the country. It
puts into motion an additional quantity of industry, which gives an additional value to
the annual produce.
18What is annually saved is as regularly consumed as what is annually spent, and
nearly in the same time too; but it is consumed by a different set of people.21 That
portion of his revenue which a rich man annually spends, is in most cases consumed
by idle guests, and menial servants, who leave nothing behind them in return for their
consumption. That portion which he annually saves, as for the sake of the profit it is
immediately employed as a capital, is consumed in the same manner, and nearly in the
same time too, but by a different set of people, by labourers, manufacturers, and
artificers, who re–produce with a profit the value of their annual consumption. His
revenue, we shall suppose, is paid him in money. Had he spent the whole, the food,
cloathing, and lodging which the whole could have purchased, would have been
distributed among the former set of people. By saving a part of it, as that part is for
the sake of the profit immediately employed as a capital either by himself or by some
other person, the food, cloathing, and lodging, which may be purchased with it, are
necessarily reserved for the latter. The consumption is the same, but the consumers
are different.
19By what a frugal man annually saves, he not only affords maintenance to an
additional number of productive hands, for that or the ensuing year, but, like the
founder of a publick workhouse, he establishes as it were a perpetual fund for the
maintenance of an equal number in all times to come. The perpetual allotment and
destination of this fund, indeed, is not always guarded by any positive law, by any
trust–right or deed of mortmain. It is always guarded, however, by a very powerful
principle, the plain and evident interest of every individual to whom any share of it
shall ever belong. No part of it can ever afterwards be employed to maintain any but
productive hands, without an evident loss to the person who thus perverts it from its
proper destination.22
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20The prodigal perverts it in this manner. By not confining his expence within his
income, he encroaches upon his capital. Like him who perverts the revenues of some
pious foundation to profane purposes, he pays the wages of idleness with those funds
which the frugality of his forefathers had, as it were, consecrated to the maintenance
of industry. By diminishing the funds destined for the employment of productive
labour, he necessarily diminishes, so far as citc depends upon him, the quantity of that
labour which adds a value to the subject upon which it is bestowed, and,
consequently, the value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the whole
country, the real wealth and revenue of its inhabitants. If the prodigality of some was
not compensated by the frugality of others, the conduct of every prodigal, by feeding
the idle with the bread of the industrious, tends not only to beggar himself, but to
impoverish his country.
21Though the expence of the prodigal should be altogether in home–made, and no
part of it in foreign commodities, its effect upon the productive funds of the society
would still be the same.23 Every year there would still be a certain quantity of food
and cloathing, which ought to have maintained productive, employed in maintaining
unproductive hands. Every year, therefore, there would still be some diminution in
what would otherwise have been the value of the annual produce of the land and
labour of the country.
22This expence, it may be said indeed, not being in foreign goods, and not
occasioning any exportation of gold and silver, the same quantity of money would
remain in the country as before. But if the quantity of food and cloathing, which were
thus consumed by unproductive, had been distributed among productive hands, they
would have reproduced, together with a profit, the full value of their consumption.
The same quantity of money would in this case equally have remained in the country,
and there would besides have been a reproduction of an equal value of consumable
goods. There would have been two values instead of one.
23The same quantity of money, besides, cannot long remain in any country, in which
the value of the annual produce diminishes. The sole use of money is to circulate
consumable goods.24 By means of it, provisions, materials, and finished work, are
bought and sold, and distributed to their proper consumers. The quantity of money,
therefore, which can be annually employed in any country must be determined by the
value of the consumable goods annually circulated within it. These must consist either
in the immediate produce of the land and labour of the country itself, or in something
which had been purchased with some part of that produce. Their value, therefore,
must diminish as the value of that produce diminishes, and along with it the quantity
of money which can be employed in circulating them. But the money which by this
annual diminution of produce is annually thrown out of domestick circulation will not
be allowed to lie idle. The interest of whoever possesses it, requires that it should be
employed. But having no employment at home, it will, in spite of all laws and
prohibitions, be sent abroad, and employed in purchasing consumable goods which
may be of some use at home.25 Its annual exportation will in this manner continue for
some time to add something to the annual consumption of the country beyond the
value of its own annual produce. What in the days of its prosperity had been saved
from that annual produce, and employed in purchasing gold and silver, will contribute
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for some little time to support its consumption in adversity. The exportation of gold
and silver is, in this case, not the cause, but the effect of its declension, and may even,
for some little time, alleviate the misery of that declension.
24 The quantity of money, on the contrary, must in every country naturally increase as
the value of the annual produce increases. The value of the consumable goods
annually circulated within the society being greater, will require a greater quantity of
money to circulate them. A part of the increased produce, therefore, will naturally be
employed in purchasing, wherever it is to be had, the additional quantity of gold and
silver necessary for circulating the rest. The increase of those metals will in this case
be the effect, not the cause, of the publick prosperity. Gold and silver are purchased
every where in the same manner.26 The food, cloathing, and lodging, the revenue and
maintenance of all those whose labour or stock is employed in bringing them from the
mine to the market, is the price paid for them in Peru as well as in England. The
country which has this price to pay, will never be long without the quantity of those
metals which it has occasion for; and no country will ever long retain a quantity
which it has no occasion for.
25Whatever, therefore, we may imagine the real wealth and revenue of a country to
consist in, whether in the value of the annual produce of its land and labour, as plain
reason seems to dictate; or in the quantity of the precious metals which circulate
within it, as vulgar prejudices suppose;27 in either view of the matter, every prodigal
appears to be a publick enemy, and every frugal man a publick benefactor.
26 The effects of misconduct are often the same as those of prodigality. Every
injudicious and unsuccessful project in agriculture, mines, fisheries, trade, or
manufactures, tends in the same manner to diminish the funds destined for the
maintenance of productive labour.28 In every such project, though the capital is
consumed by productive hands only, yet, as by the injudicious manner in which they
are employed, they do not reproduce the full value of their consumption, there must
always be some diminution in what would otherwise have been the productive funds
of the society.
27It can seldom happen, indeed, that the circumstances of a great nation can be much
affected either by the prodigality or misconduct of individuals; the profusion or
imprudence of some being always more than compensated by the frugality and good
conduct of others.
28With regard to profusion, the principle, which prompts to expence, is the passion
for present enjoyment; which, though sometimes violent and very difficult to be
restrained, is in general only momentary and occasional. But the principle which
prompts to save, is the desire of bettering our condition,29 a desire which, though
generally calm and dispassionate, comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us
till we go into the grave. In the whole interval which separates those two moments,
there is scarce perhaps a single dinstantd in which any man is so perfectly and
completely satisfied with his situation, as to be without any wish of alteration or
improvement, of any kind. An augmentation of fortune is the means by which the
greater part of men propose and wish to better their condition.30 It is the means the
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most vulgar and the most obvious; and the most likely way of augmenting their
fortune, is to save and accumulate some part of what they acquire, either regularly and
annually, or upon some extraordinary occasions. Though the principle of expence,
therefore, prevails in almost all men upon some occasions, and in some men upon
almost all occasions, yet in the greater part of men, taking the whole course of their
life at an average, the principle of frugality seems not only to predominate, but to
predominate very greatly.
29With regard to misconduct, the number of prudent and successful undertakings is
every where much greater than that of injudicious and unsuccessful ones. After all our
complaints of the frequency of bankruptcies, the unhappy men who fall into this
misfortune make but a very small part of the whole number engaged in trade, and all
other sorts of business; not much more perhaps than one in a thousand. Bankruptcy is
perhaps the greatest and most humiliating calamity which can befal an innocent man.
The greater part of men, therefore, are sufficiently careful to avoid it. Some, indeed,
do not avoid it; as some do not avoid the gallows.
30Great nations are never impoverished by private, though they sometimes are by
publick prodigality and misconduct. The whole, or almost the whole publick revenue,
is in most countries employed in maintaining unproductive hands. Such are the people
who compose a numerous and splendid court, a great ecclesiastical establishment,
great fleets and armies, who in time of peace produce nothing, and in time of war
acquire nothing which can compensate the expence of maintaining them, even while
the war lasts. Such people, as they themselves produce nothing, are all maintained by
the produce of other men’s labour. When multiplied, therefore, to an unnecessary
number, they may in a particular year consume so great a share of this produce, as not
to leave a sufficiency for maintaining the productive labourers, who should reproduce
it next year. The next year’s produce, therefore, will be less than that of the foregoing,
and if the same disorder should continue, that of the third year will be still less than
that of the second. Those unproductive hands, who should be maintained by a part
only of the spare revenue of the people, may consume so great a share of their whole
revenue, and thereby oblige so great a number to encroach upon their capitals, upon
the funds destined for the maintenance of productive labour, that all the frugality and
good conduct of individuals may not be able to compensate the waste and degradation
of produce occasioned by this violent and forced encroachment.
31This frugality and good conduct, however, is upon most occasions, it appears from
experience, sufficient to compensate, not only the private prodigality and misconduct
of individuals, but the publick extravagance of government. The uniform, constant,
and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition, the principle from which
publick and national, as well as private opulence is originally derived, is frequently
powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in
spite both of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of
administration.31 Like the unknown principle of animal life, it frequently restores
health and vigour to the constitution, in spite, not only of the disease, but of the
absurd prescriptions of the doctor.
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32The annual produce of the land and labour of any nation can be increased in its
value by no other means, but by increasing either the number of its productive
labourers, or the productive powers of those labourers who had before been
employed.32 The number of its productive labourers, it is evident, can never be much
increased, but in consequence of an increase of capital, or of the funds destined for
maintaining them. The productive powers of the same number of labourers cannot be
increased, but in consequence either of some addition and improvement to those
machines and instruments which facilitate and abridge labour; or of a more proper
division and distribution of employment.33 In either case an additional capital is
almost always required. It is by means of an additional capital only that the undertaker
of any work can either provide his workmen with better machinery, or make a more
proper distribution of employment among them. When the work to be done consists of
a number of parts, to keep every man constantly employed in one way, requires a
much greater capital than where every man is occasionally employed in every
different part of the work. When we compare, therefore, the state of a nation at two
different periods, and find, that the annual produce of its land and labour is evidently
greater at the latter than at the former, that its lands are better cultivated, its
manufactures more numerous and more flourishing, and its trade more extensive, we
may be assured that its capital must have increased during the interval between those
two periods, and that more must have been added to it by the good conduct of some,
than had been taken from it either by the private misconduct of others, or by the
publick extravagance of government. But we shall find this to have been the case of
almost all nations, in all tolerably quiet and peaceable times, even of those who have
not enjoyed the most prudent and parsimonious governments. To form a right
judgment of it, indeed, we must compare the state of the country at periods somewhat
distant from one another. The progress is frequently so gradual, that, at near periods,
the improvement is not only not sensible, but from the declension either of certain
branches of industry, or of certain districts of the country, things which sometimes
happen though the country in general ebee in great prosperity, there frequently arises a
suspicion, that the riches and industry of the whole are decaying.
33The annual produce of the land and labour of England, for example, is certainly
much greater than it was, a little more than a century ago, at the restoration of Charles
II. Though at present, few people, I believe, doubt of this, yet during this period, five
years have seldom passed away in which some book or pamphlet has not been
published, written too with such abilities as to gain some authority with the publick,
and pretending to demonstrate that the wealth of the nation was fast declining, that the
country was depopulated, agriculture neglected, manufactures decaying, and trade
undone. Nor have these publications been all party pamphlets, the wretched offspring
of falshood and venality. Many of them have been written by very candid and very
intelligent people; who wrote nothing but what they believed, and for no other reason
but because they believed it.
34The annual produce of the land and labour of England again, was certainly much
greater at the restoration, than we can suppose it to have been about an hundred years
before, at the accession of Elizabeth. At this period too, we have all reason to believe,
the country was much more advanced in improvement, than it had been about a
century before, towards the close of the dissensions between the houses of York and
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Lancaster. Even then it was, probably, in a better condition than it had been at the
Norman conquest, and at the Norman conquest, than during the confusion of the
Saxon Heptarchy. Even at this early period, it was certainly a more improved country
than at the invasion of Julius Caesar, when its inhabitants were nearly in the same
state with the savages in North America.34
35In each of those periods, however, there was, not only much private and publick
profusion, many expensive and unnecessary wars, great perversion of the annual
produce from maintaining productive to maintain unproductive hands; but sometimes,
in the confusion of civil discord, such absolute waste and destruction of stock, as
might be supposed, not only to retard, as it certainly did, the natural accumulation of
riches, but to have left the country, at the end of the period, poorer than at the
beginning. Thus, in the happiest and most fortunate period of them all, that which has
passed since the restoration, how many disorders and misfortunes have occurred,
which, could they have been foreseen, not only the impoverishment, but the total ruin
of the country would have been expected from them? The fire and the plague of
London, the two Dutch wars, the disorders of the revolution, the war in Ireland, the
four expensive French wars of 1688, f1702f , 1742, and 1756, together with the two
rebellions of 1715 and 1745. In the course of the four French wars, the nation has
contracted more than a hundred and forty–five millions of debt, over and above all the
other extraordinary annual expence which they occasioned, so that the whole cannot
be computed at less than two hundred millions.35 So great a share of the annual
produce of the land and labour of the country, has, since the revolution, been
employed upon different occasions, in maintaining an extraordinary number of
unproductive hands. But had not those wars given this particular direction to so large
a capital, the greater part of it would naturally have been employed in maintaining
productive hands, whose labour would have replaced, with a profit, the whole value of
their consumption. The value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the
country, would have been considerably increased by it every year, and every year’s
increase would have augmented still more that of the gfollowingg year. More houses
would have been built, more lands would have been improved, and those which had
been improved before would have been better cultivated, more manufactures would
have been established, and those which had been established before would have been
more extended; and to what height the real wealth and revenue of the country might,
by this time, have been raised, it is not perhaps very easy even to imagine.36
6But though the profusion of government must, undoubtedly, have retarded the
natural progress of England towards wealth and improvement, it has not been able to
stop it. The annual produce of its land and labour is, undoubtedly, much greater at
present than it was either at the restoration or at the revolution. The capital, therefore,
annually employed in cultivating this land, and in maintaining this labour, must
likewise be much greater. In the midst of all the exactions of government, this capital
has been silently and gradually accumulated by the private frugality and good conduct
of individuals, by their universal, continual, and uninterrupted effort to better their
own condition. It is this effort, protected by law and allowed by liberty to exert itself
in the manner that is most advantageous, which has maintained the progress of
England towards opulence and improvement in almost all former times, and which, it
is to be hoped, will do so in all future times.37 England, however, as it has never been
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blessed with a very parsimonious government, so parsimony has at no time been the
characteristical virtue of its inhabitants. It is the highest impertinence and
presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the œconomy
of private people, and to restrain their expence either by sumptuary laws, or by
prohibiting the importation of foreign luxuries.38 They are themselves always, and
without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society. Let them look well
after their own expence, and they may safely trust private people with theirs. If their
own extravagance does not ruin the state, that of their subjects never will.
37As frugality increases, and prodigality diminishes the publick capital, so the
conduct of those, whose expence just equals their revenue, without either
accumulating or encroaching, neither increases nor diminishes it. Some modes of
expence, however, seem to contribute more to the growth of publick opulence than
others.
38 The revenue of an individual may be spent, either in things which are consumed
immediately, and in which one day’s expence can neither alleviate nor support that of
another; or it may be spent in things more durable, which can therefore be
accumulated, and in which every day’s expence may, as he chuses, either alleviate or
support and heighten the effect of that of the following day.39 A man of fortune, for
example, may either spend his revenue in a profuse and sumptuous table, and in
maintaining a great number of menial servants, and a multitude of dogs and horses; or
contenting himself with a frugal table and few attendants, he may lay out the greater
part of it in adorning his house or his country villa, in useful or ornamental buildings,
in useful or ornamental furniture, in collecting books, statues, pictures; or in things
more frivolous, jewels, baubles, ingenious trinkets of different kinds; or, what is most
trifling of all, in amassing a great wardrobe of fine cloaths, like the favourite and
minister of a great prince who died a few years ago.40 Were two men of equal fortune
to spend their revenue, the one chiefly in the one way, the other in the other, the
magnificence of the person whose expence had been chiefly in durable commodities,
would be continually increasing, every day’s expence contributing something to
support and heighten the effect of that of the following day: that of the other, on the
contrary, would be no greater at the end of the period than at the beginning. The
former too would, at the end of the period, be the richer man of the two. He would
have a stock of goods of some kind or other, which, though it might not be worth all
that it cost, would always be worth something. No trace or vestige of the expence of
the latter would remain, and the effects of ten or twenty years profusion would be as
completely annihilated as if they had never existed.
39As the one mode of expence is more favourable than the other to the opulence of an
individual, so is it likewise to that of a nation. The houses, the furniture, the cloathing
of the rich, in a little time, become useful to the inferior and middling ranks of
people.41 They are able to purchase them when their superiors grow weary of them,
and the general accommodation of the whole people is thus gradually improved, when
this mode of expence becomes universal among men of fortune. In countries which
have long been rich, you will frequently find the inferior ranks of people in possession
both of houses and furniture perfectly good and entire, but of which neither the one
could have been built, nor the other have been made for their use. What was formerly
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a seat of the family of Seymour, is now an inn upon the Bath road. The marriage–bed
of James the First of Great Britain, which his Queen brought with her from Denmark,
as a present fit for a sovereign to make to a sovereign, was, a few years ago, the
ornament of an alehouse at Dunfermline. In some ancient cities, which either have
been long stationary, or have gone somewhat to decay, you will sometimes scarce
find a single house which could have been built for its present inhabitants. If you go
into those houses too, you will frequently find many excellent, though antiquated
pieces of furniture, which are still very fit for use, and which could as little have been
made for them. Noble palaces, magnificent villas, great collections of books, statues,
pictures, and other curiosities, are frequently both an ornament and an honour, not
only to the neighbourhood, but to the whole country to which they belong. Versailles
is an ornament and a honour to France, Stowe and Wilton to England. Italy continues
to command some sort of veneration by the number of monuments of this kind which
it possesses, though the wealth which produced them has decayed, and hthoughh the
genius which planned them seems to be extinguished, perhaps from not having the
same employment.
40The expence too, which is laid out in durable commodities, is favourable, not only
to accumulation, but to frugality. If a person should at any time exceed in it, he can
easily reform without exposing himself to the censure of the publick.42 To reduce
very much the number of his servants, to reform his table from great profusion to
great frugality, to lay down his equipage after he has once set it up, are changes which
cannot escape the observation of his neighbours, and which are supposed to imply
some acknowledgment of preceding bad conduct.43 Few, therefore, of those who
have once been so unfortunate as to launch out too far into this sort of expence, have
afterwards the courage to reform, till ruin and bankruptcy oblige them. But if a person
has, at any time, been at too great an expence in building, in furniture, in books or
pictures, no imprudence can be inferred from his changing his conduct. These are
things in which further expence is frequently rendered unnecessary by former
expence; and when a person stops short, he appears to do so, not because he has
exceeded his fortune, but because he has satisfied his fancy.
41The expence, besides, that is laid out in durable commodities, gives maintenance,
commonly, to a greater number of people, than that which is employed in the most
profuse hospitality. Of two or three hundred weight of provisions, which may
sometimes be served up at a great festival, one–half, perhaps, is thrown to the
dunghill, and there is always a great deal wasted and abused. But if the expence of
this entertainment had been employed in setting to work, masons, carpenters,
upholsterers, mechanicks, i&c.i a quantity of provisions, of equal value, would have
been distributed among a still greater number of people, who would have bought them
in penny–worths and pound weights, and not have lost or thrown away a single ounce
of them. In the one way, besides, this expence maintains productive, in the other
unproductive hands. In the one way, therefore, it increases, in the other, it does not
increase, the exchangeable value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the
country.
42 I would not, however, by all this be understood to mean, that the one species of
expence always betokens a more liberal or generous spirit than the other. When a man
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of fortune spends his revenue chiefly in hospitality, he shares the greater part of it
with his friends and companions; but when he employs it in purchasing such durable
commodities, he often spends the whole upon his own person, and gives nothing to
any body without an equivalent.44 The latter species of expence, therefore, especially
when directed towards frivolous objects, the little ornaments of dress and furniture,
jewels, trinkets, gewgaws, frequently indicates, not only a trifling, but a base and
selfish disposition. All that I mean is, that the one sort of expence, as it always
occasions some accumulation of valuable commodities, as it is more favourable to
private frugality, and, consequently, to the increase of the publick capital, and as it
maintains productive, rather than unproductive hands, conduces more than the other
to the growth of publick opulence.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
CHAPTER IV
Of Stock Lent At Interest
1The stock which is lent at interest is always considered as a capital by the lender. He
expects that in due time it is to be restored to him, and that in the mean time the
borrower is to pay him a certain annual rent for the use of it. The borrower may use it
either as a capital, or as a stock reserved for immediate consumption. If he uses it as a
capital, he employs it in the maintenance of productive labourers, who reproduce the
value with a profit. He can, in this case, both restore the capital and pay the interest
without alienating or encroaching upon any other source of revenue. If he uses it as a
stock reserved for immediate consumption, he acts the part of a prodigal, and
dissipates in the maintenance of the idle, what was destined for the support of the
industrious. He can, in this case, neither restore the capital nor pay the interest,
without either alienating or encroaching upon some other source of revenue, such as
the property or the rent of land.
2The stock which is lent at interest is, no doubt, occasionally employed in both these
ways, but in the former much more frequently than in the latter. The man who
borrows in order to spend will soon be ruined, and he who lends to him will generally
have occasion to repent of his folly. To borrow or to lend for such a purpose,
therefore, is in all cases, where gross usury is out of the question, contrary to the
interest of both parties; and though it no doubt happens sometimes that people do both
the one and the other; yet, from the regard that all men have for their own interest, we
may be assured, that it cannot happen so very frequently as we are sometimes apt to
imagine. Ask any rich man of common prudence, to which of the two sorts of people
he has lent the greater part of his stock, to those who, he thinks, will employ it
profitably, or to those who will spend it idly, and he will laugh at you for proposing
the question. Even among borrowers, therefore, not the people in the world most
famous for frugality, the number of the frugal and industrious surpasses considerably
that of the prodigal and idle.
3The only people to whom stock is commonly lent, without their being expected to
make any very profitable use of it, are country gentlemen who borrow upon mortgage.
Even they scarce ever borrow merely to spend. What they borrow, one may say, is
commonly spent before they borrow it. They have generally consumed so great a
quantity of goods, advanced to them upon credit by shopkeepers and tradesmen, that
they find it necessary to borrow at interest in order to pay the debt. The capital
borrowed replaces the capitals of those shopkeepers and tradesmen, which the country
gentlemen could not have replaced from the rents of their estates. It is not properly
borrowed in order to be spent, but in order to replace a capital which had been spent
before.
4Almost all loans at interest are made in money, either of paper, or of gold and silver.
But what the borrower really wants, and what the lender really supplies him with, is,
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not the money, but the money’s worth, or the goods which it can purchase.1 If he
wants it as a stock for immediate consumption, it is those goods only which he can
place in that stock. If he wants it as a capital for employing industry, it is from those
goods only that the industrious can be furnished with the tools, materials, and
maintenance, necessary for carrying on their work. By means of the loan, the lender,
as it were, assigns to the borrower his right to a certain portion of the annual produce
of the land and labour of the country, to be employed as the borrower pleases.
5The quantity of stock, therefore, or, as it is commonly expressed, of money which
can be lent at interest in any country, is not regulated by the value of the money,
whether paper or coin, which serves as the instrument of the different loans made in
that country, but by the value of that part of the annual produce which, as soon as it
comes either from the ground, or from the hands of the productive labourers, is
destined not only for replacing a capital, but such a capital as the owner does not care
to be at the trouble of employing himself. As such capitals are commonly lent out and
paid back in money, they constitute what is called the monied interest. It is distinct,
not only from the landed, but from the trading and manufacturing interests, as in these
last the owners themselves employ their own capitals.2 Even in the monied interest,
however, the money is, as it were, but the deed of assignment, which conveys from
one hand to another those capitals which the owners do not care to employ
themselves.3 Those capitals may be greater in almost any proportion, than the amount
of the money which serves as the instrument of their conveyance; the same pieces of
money successively serving for many different loans, as well as for many different
purchases. A, for example, lends to W a thousand pounds, with which W immediately
purchases of B a thousand pounds worth of goods. B having no occasion for the
money himself, lends the identical pieces to X, with which X immediately purchases
of C another thousand pounds worth of goods. C in the same manner, and for the
same reason, lends them to Y, who again purchases goods with them of D. In this
manner the same pieces, either of coin or of paper, may, in the course of a few days,
serve as the instrument of three different loans, and of three different purchases, each
of which is, in value, equal to the whole amount of those pieces. What the three
monied men A, B, and C, assign to the three borrowers, W, X, Y, is the power of
making those purchases. In this power consist both the value and the use of the loans.
The stock lent by the three monied men, is equal to the value of the goods which can
be purchased with it, and is three times greater than that of the money with which the
purchases are made. Those loans, however, may be all perfectly well secured, the
goods purchased by the different debtors being so employed, as, in due time, to bring
back, with a profit, an equal value either of coin or of paper. And as the same pieces
of money can thus serve as the instrument of different loans to three, or, for the same
reason, to thirty times their value, so they may likewise successively serve as the
instrument of repayment.
6A capital lent at interest may, in this manner, be considered as an assignment from
the lender to the borrower of a certain considerable portion of the annual produce;
upon condition that the borrower in return shall, during the continuance of the loan,
annually assign to the lender a smaller portion, called the interest; and at the end of it
a portion equally considerable with that which had originally been assigned to him,
called the repayment. Though money, either coin or paper, serves generally as the
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deed of assignment both to the smaller, and to the more considerable portion, it is
itself altogether different from what is assigned by it.
7In proportion as that share of the annual produce which, as soon as it comes either
from the ground, or from the hands of the productive labourers, is destined for
replacing a capital, increases in any country, what is called the monied interest
naturally increases with it. The increase of those particular capitals from which the
owners wish to derive a revenue, without being at the trouble of employing them
themselves, naturally accompanies the general increase of capitals; or, in other words,
as stock increases, the quantity of stock to be lent at interest grows gradually greater
and greater.
8As the quantity of stock to be lent at interest increases, the interest, or the price
which must be paid for the use of that stock, necessarily diminishes, not only from
those general causes which make the market price of things commonly diminish as
their quantity increases, but from other causes which are peculiar to this particular
case.4 As capitals increase in any country, the profits which can be made by
employing them necessarily diminish.5 It becomes gradually more and more difficult
to find within the country a profitable method of employing any new capital.6 There
arises in consequence a competition between different capitals, the owner of one
endeavouring to get possession of that employment which is occupied by another. But
upon most occasions he can hope to justle that other out of this employment, by no
other means but by dealing upon more reasonable terms. He must not only sell what
he deals in somewhat cheaper, but in order to get it to sell, he must sometimes too buy
it dearer. The demand for productive labour, by the increase of the funds which are
destined for maintaining it, grows every day greater and greater. Labourers easily find
employment, but the owners of capitals find it difficult to get labourers to employ.
Their competition raises the wages of labour, and sinks the profits of stock.7 But
when the profits which can be made by the use of a capital are in this manner
diminished, as it were, at both ends, the price which can be paid for the use of it,8 that
is, the rate of interest, must necessarily be diminished with them.
9Mr. Locke, Mr. Law, and Mr. Montesquieu,9 as well as many other writers, seem to
have imagined that the increase of the quantity of gold and silver, in consequence of
the discovery of the Spanish West Indies, was the real cause of the lowering of the
rate of interest through the greater part of Europe.10 Those metals, they say, having
become of less value themselves, the use of any particular portion of them necessarily
became of less value too, and consequently the price which could be paid for it. This
notion, which at first sight seems so plausible, has been so fully exposed by Mr.
Hume, that it is, perhaps, unnecessary to say any thing more about it.11 The following
very short and plain argument, however, may serve to explain more distinctly the
fallacy which seems to have misled those gentlemen.
10Before the discovery of the Spanish West Indies, ten per cent. seems to have been
the common rate of interest through the greater part of Europe. It has since that time
in different countries sunk to six, five, four, and three per cent.12 Let us suppose that
in every particular country the value of silver has sunk precisely in the same
proportion as the rate of interest; and that in those countries, for example, where
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interest has been reduced from ten to five per cent., the same quantity of silver can
now purchase just half the quantity of goods which it could have purchased before.
This supposition will not, I believe, be found any where agreeable to the truth, but it is
the most favourable to the opinion which we are going to examine; and even upon this
supposition it is utterly impossible that the lowering of the value of silver could have
the smallest tendency to lower the rate of interest. If a hundred pounds are in those
countries now of no more value than fifty pounds were then, ten pounds must now be
of no more value than five pounds were then. Whatever were the causes which
lowered the value of the capital, the same must necessarily have lowered that of the
interest, and exactly in the same proportion. The proportion between the value of the
capital and that of the interest, must have remained the same, though the rate had
never been altered. By altering the rate, on the contrary, the proportion between those
two values is necessarily altered. If a hundred pounds now are worth no more than
fifty were then, five pounds now can be worth no more than two pounds ten shillings
were then. By reducing the rate of interest, therefore, from ten to five per cent., we
give for the use of a capital, which is supposed to be equal to one–half of its former
value, an interest which is equal to one–fourth only of the value of the former interest.
11Any increase in the quantity of silver, while that of the commodities circulated by
means of it remained the same, could have no other effect than to diminish the value
of that metal. The nominal value of all sorts of goods would be greater, but their real
value would be precisely the same as before. They would be exchanged for a greater
number of pieces of silver; but the quantity of labour which they could command, the
number of people whom they could maintain and employ, would be precisely the
same. The capital of the country would be the same, though a greater number of
pieces might be requisite for conveying any equal portion of it from one hand to
another. The deeds of assignment, like the conveyances of a verbose attorney,13
would be more cumbersome, but the thing assigned would be precisely the same as
before, and could produce only the same effects. The funds for maintaining
productive labour being the same, the demand for it would be the same. Its price or
wages, therefore, though nominally greater, would really be the same. They would be
paid in a greater number of pieces of silver; but they would purchase only the same
quantity of goods. The profits of stock would be the same both nominally and really.
The wages of labour are commonly computed by the quantity of silver which is paid
to the labourer. When that is increased, therefore, his wages appear to be increased,
though they may sometimes be no greater than before. But the profits of stock are not
computed by the number of pieces of silver with which they are paid, but by the
proportion which those pieces bear to the whole capital employed. Thus in a particular
country five shillings a week are said to be the common wages of labour, and ten per
cent. the common profits of stock. But the whole capital of the country being the same
as before, the competition between the different capitals of individuals into which it
was divided would likewise be the same. They would all trade with the same
advantages and disadvantages. The common proportion between capital and profit,
therefore, would be the same, and consequently the common interest of money; what
can commonly be given for the use of money being necessarily regulated by what can
commonly be made by the use of it.
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12Any increase in the quantity of commodities annually circulated within the country,
while that of the money which circulated them remained the same, would, on the
contrary, produce many other important effects, besides that of raising the value of the
money. The capital of the country, though it might nominally be the same, would
really be augmented. It might continue to be expressed by the same quantity of
money, but it would command a greater quantity of labour. The quantity of productive
labour which it could maintain and employ would be increased, and consequently the
demand for that labour. Its wages would naturally rise with the demand, and yet might
appear to sink. They might be paid with a smaller quantity of money, but that smaller
quantity might purchase a greater quantity of goods than a greater had done before.
The profits of stock would be diminished both really and in appearance. The whole
capital of the country being augmented, the competition between the different capitals
of which it was composed, would naturally be augmented along with it. The owners
of those particular capitals would be obliged to content themselves with a smaller
proportion of the produce of that labour which their respective capitals employed. The
interest of money, keeping pace always with the profits of stock, might, in this
manner, be greatly diminished, though the value of money, or the quantity of goods
which any particular sum could purchase, was greatly augmented.
13In some countries the interest of money has been prohibited by law. But as
something can every where be made by the use of money, something ought every
where to be paid for the use of it.14 This regulation, instead of preventing, has been
found from experience to increase the evil of usury; the debtor being obliged to pay,
not only for the use of the money, but for the risk which his creditor runs by accepting
a compensation for that use. He is obliged, if one may say so, to insure his creditor
from the penalties of usury.
14In countries where interest is permitted, the law, in order to prevent the extortion of
usury, generally fixes the highest rate which can be taken without incurring a penalty.
This rate ought always to be somewhat above the lowest market price, or the price
which is commonly paid for the use of money by those who can give the most
undoubted security. If this legal rate should be fixed below the lowest market rate, the
effects of this fixation must be nearly the same as those of a total prohibition of
interest.15 The creditor will not lend his money for less than the use of it is worth, and
the debtor must pay him for the risk which he runs by accepting the full value of that
use. If it is fixed precisely at the lowest market price, it ruins with honest people, who
respect the laws of their country, the credit of all those who cannot give the very best
security, and obliges them to have recourse to exorbitant usurers. In a country, such as
Great Britain, where money is lent to government at three per cent. and to private
people upon good security at four, and four and a half, the present legal rate, five per
cent., is, perhaps, as proper as any.
15The legal rate, it is to be observed, though it ought to be somewhat above, ought
not to be much above the lowest market rate.16 If the legal rate of interest in Great
Britain, for example, was fixed so high as eight or ten per cent., the greater part of the
money which was to be lent, would be lent to prodigals and projectors, who alone
would be willing to give this high interest. Sober people,17 who will give for the use
of money no more than a part of what they are likely to make by the use of it, would
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not venture into the competition. A great part of the capital of the country would thus
be kept out of the hands which were most likely to make a profitable and
advantageous use of it, and thrown into those which were most likely to waste and
destroy it. Where the legal rate of interest, on the contrary, is fixed but a very little
above the lowest market rate, sober people are universally preferred, as borrowers, to
prodigals and projectors.18 The person who lends money gets nearly as much interest
from the former as he dares to take from the latter, and his money is much safer in the
hands of the one set of people, than in those of the other. A great part of the capital of
the country is thus thrown into the hands in which it is most likely to be employed
with advantage.19
16No law can reduce the common rate of interest below the lowest ordinary market
rate at the time when that law is made.20 Notwithstanding the edict of 1766, by which
the French king attempted to reduce the rate of interest from five to four per cent.,
money continued to be lent in France at five per cent., the law being evaded in several
different ways.21
17The ordinary market price of land, it is to be observed, depends every where upon
the ordinary market rate of interest.22 The person who has a capital from which he
wishes to derive a revenue, without taking the trouble to employ it himself,
deliberates whether he should buy land with it, or lend it out at interest. The superior
security of land, together with some other advantages which almost every where
attend upon this species of property, will generally dispose him to content himself
with a smaller revenue from land, than what he might have by lending out his money
at interest.23 These advantages are sufficient to compensate a certain difference of
revenue; but they will compensate a certain difference only; and if the rent of land
should fall short of the interest of money by a greater difference, nobody would buy
land, which would soon reduce its ordinary price.24 On the contrary, if the advantages
should much more than compensate the difference, every body would buy land, which
again would soon raise its ordinary price. When interest was at ten per cent., land was
commonly sold for ten and twelve years purchase. As interest sunk to six, five, and
four per cent., the price of land rose to twenty, five and twenty, and thirty years
purchase. The market rate of interest is higher in France than in England; and the
common price of land is lower. In England it commonly sells at thirty; in France at
twenty years purchase.
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[Back to Table of Contents]
CHAPTER V
Of The Different Employment Of Capitals
1Though all capitals are destined for the maintenance of productive labour only, yet
the quantity of that labour, which equal capitals are capable of putting into motion,
varies extremely according to the diversity of their employment; as does likewise the
value which that employment adds to the annual produce of the land and labour of the
country.
2A capital may be employed in four different ways: either, first, in procuring the rude
produce annually required for the use and consumption of the society; or, secondly, in
manufacturing and preparing that rude produce for immediate use and consumption;
or, thirdly, in transporting either the rude or manufactured produce from the places
where they abound to those where they are wanted; or, lastly, in dividing particular
portions of either into such small parcels as suit the occasional demands of those who
want them. In the first way are employed the capitals of all those who undertake the
improvement aora cultivation of lands, mines, or fisheries; in the second, those of all
master manufacturers; in the third, those of all wholesale merchants; and in the fourth,
those of all retailers. It is difficult to conceive that a capital should be employed in
any way which may not be classed under some one or other of those four.1
3Each of those four methods of employing a capital is essentially necessary either to
the existence or extension of the other three, or to the general conveniency of the
society.
4Unless a capital was employed in furnishing rude produce to a certain degree of
abundance, neither manufactures nor trade of any kind could exist.
5Unless a capital was emp