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manufacture, the machinery employed was to restrain, by high duties, the importation of much more imperfect in those ancient, than foreign manufactures, but rather to encourit is in the present times. It has since re-age it, in order that merchants might be enceived three very capital improvements, be-abled to supply, at as easy a rate as possible, sides, probably, many smaller ones, of which the great men with the conveniencies and luxit may be difficult to ascertain either the num-uries which they wanted, and which the inber or the importance. The three capital im-dustry of their own country could not afford provements are, first, the exchange of the rock them.

Conclusion of the Chapter.'

and spindle for the spinning-wheel, which, The consideration of these circumstances with the same quantity of labour, will perform may, perhaps, in some measure explain to us more than double the quantity of work. Se- why, in those ancient times, the real price of condly, the use of several very ingenious ma- the coarse manufacture was, in proportion to chines, which facilitate and abridge, in a still that of the fine, so much lower than in the greater proportion, the winding of the worsted present times. 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 -orth of the Alps. They had been introduced .nto Italy some time before.

The 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 chose ancient 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.

I shall conclude this very long chapter with observing, 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.

The 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.

That rise in the real price of those parts of the rude produce of land, which is first the effect of the 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.

The coarse manufacture probably was, in those ancient 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 derived the greater part of their subsistence. The All those improvements in the productive work which is performed in this manner, it powers of labour, which tend directly to rehas already been observed, comes always much duce the rent price of manufactures, tend incheaper to market than that which is the prin- directly to raise the real rent of land. cipal or sole fund of the workman's subsist- landlord exchanges that part of his rude proThe fine manufacture, on the other duce, which is over and above his own conhand, was not, in those times, carried on in sumption, or, what comes to the same thing, England, but in the rich and commercial the price of that part of it, for manufactured country of Flanders; and it was probably produce. Whatever reduces the real price of 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 ancient 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

ence.

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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 conveniencies, ornaments, or luxuries which he has occasion for.

Every increase in the real wealth of the society, every increase in the quantity of useful

labour employed within it, tends indirectly to are soon reduced to what is barely enough to raise the real rent of land. A certain propor- enable him to bring up a family, or to contion of this labour naturally goes to the land. tinue the race of labourers. When the socieA greater number of men and cattle are em- ty declines, they fall even below this. The ployed in its cultivation, the produce increases order of proprietors may perhaps gain more with the increase of the stock which is thus by the prosperity of the society than that of employed in raising it, and the rent increases labourers; but there is no order that suffers with the produce. so cruelly from its decline. But though the The contrary circumstances, the neglect of interest of the labourer is strictly connected cultivation and improvement, the fall in the with that of the society, he is incapable either real price of any part of the rude produce of of comprehending that interest, or of underland, the rise in the real price of manufactures standing its connexion with his own. His from the decay of manufacturing art and in-condition leaves him no time to receive the dustry, the declension of the real wealth of necessary information, and his education and the society, all tend, on the other hand, to habits are commonly such as to render him 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.

unfit to judge, even though he was fully informed. In the public deliberations, therefore, his voice is little heard, and less regarded; except upon particular occasions, when his clamour is animated, set on, and supported by his employers, not for his, but their own particular purposes.

His 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 la

The 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 already been observed, 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 civi-bour, and profit is the end proposed by all lized society, from whose revenue that of every other order is ultimately derived.

those plans and projects. But the rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with The interest of the first of those three great the prosperity, and fall with the declension of orders, it appears from what has been just now the society. On the contrary, it is naturally said, is strictly and inseparably connected with low in rich, and high in poor countries, and the general interest of the society. Whatever it is always highest in the countries which are either promotes or obstructs the one, necessa- going fastest to ruin. The interest of this rily promotes or obstructs the other. When third order, therefore, has not the same conthe public deliberates concerning any regula- nexion with the general interest of the society, tion of commerce or police, the proprietors of as that of the other two. Merchants and land never can mislead it, with a view to pro-master manufacturers are, in this order, the mote the interest of their own particular or- two classes of people who commonly employ der; at least, if they have any tolerable know- the largest capitals, and who by their wealth ledge of that interest. They are, indeed, too draw to themselves the greatest share of the often defective in this tolerable knowledge. public consideration. As during their whole They are the only one of the three orders lives they are engaged in plans and projects, whose revenue costs them neither labour nor they have frequently more acuteness of uncare, but comes to them, as it were, of its own derstanding than the greater part of country accord, and independent of any plan or pro- gentlemen. As their thoughts, however, are ject of their own. That indolence which is commonly exercised rather about the interest the natural effect of the ease and security of of their own particular branch of business, 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 consequence of any public regulation.

The 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, 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

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 public 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 public, from a

To

very simple but honest conviction, that their | benefit, an absurd tax upon the rest of their interest, and not his, was the interest of the fellow-citizens. The proposal of any new law public. The interest of the dealers, however, or regulation of commerce which comes from in any particular branch of trade or manufac- this order, ought always to be listened to with tures, is always in some respects different from, great precaution, and ought never to be adoptand even opposite to, that of the public. ed till after having been long and carefully widen the market, and to narrow the compe-examined, not only with the most scrupulous, tition, is always the interest of the dealers. To widen the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the public; but to narrow the competition must always be against it, and can only serve to enable the dealers, by raising their profits above what they naturally would be, to levy, for their own

but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both de ceived and oppressed it.

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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.

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