By the above-mentioned statute, gum senega, or gum arabic, being among

the enumerated dyeing drugs, might be imported duty free. They were

subjected, indeed, to a small poundage duty, amounting only to

threepence in the hundred weight, upon their re-exportation. France

enjoyed, at that time, an exclusive trade to the country most productive

of those drugs, that which lies in the neighbourhood of the Senegal; and

the British market could not easily be supplied by the immediate

importation of them from the place of growth. By the 25th Geo. II.

therefore, gum senega was allowed to be imported (contrary to the

general dispositions of the act of navigation) from any part of Europe.

As the law, however, did not mean to encourage this species of trade, so

contrary to the general principles of the mercantile policy of England,

it imposed a duty of ten shillings the hundred weight upon such

importation, and no part of this duty was to be afterwards drawn back

upon its exportation. The successful war which began in 1755 gave Great

Britain the same exclusive trade to those countries which France had

enjoyed before. Our manufactures, as soon as the peace was made,

endeavoured to avail themselves of this advantage, and to establish a

monopoly in their own favour both against the growers and against the

importers of this commodity. By the 5th Geo. III. therefore, chap. 37,

the exportation of gum senega, from his majesty's dominions in Africa,

was confined to Great Britain, and was subjected to all the same

restrictions, regulations, forfeitures, and penalties, as that of the

enumerated commodities of the British colonies in America and the West

Indies. Its importation, indeed, was subjected to a small duty of

sixpence the hundred weight, but its re-exportation was subjected to the

enormous duty of one pound ten shillings the hundred weight. It was the

intention of our manufacturers, that the whole produce of those

countries should be imported into Great Britain; and in order that they

themselves might be enabled to buy it at their own price, that no part

of it should be exported again, but at such an expense as would

sufficiently discourage that exportation. Their avidity, however, upon

this, as well as upon many other occasions, disappointed itself of its

object. This enormous duty presented such a temptation to smuggling,

that great quantities of this commodity were clandestinely exported,

probably to all the manufacturing countries of Europe, but particularly

to Holland, not only from Great Britain, but from Africa. Upon this

account, by the 14th Geo. III. chap. 10, this duty upon exportation was

reduced to five shillings the hundred weight.

In the book of rates, according to which the old subsidy was levied,

beaver skins were estimated at six shillings and eight pence a-piece;

and the different subsidies and imposts which, before the year 1722, had

been laid upon their importation, amounted to one-fifth part of the

rate, or to sixteen pence upon each skin; all of which, except half the

old subsidy, amounting only to twopence, was drawn back upon

exportation. This duty, upon the importation of so important a material

of manufacture, had been thought too high; and, in the year 1722, the

rate was reduced to two shillings and sixpence, which reduced the duty

upon importation to sixpence, and of this only one-half was to be drawn

back upon exportation. The same successful war put the country most

productive of beaver under the dominion of Great Britain; and beaver

skins being among the enumerated commodities, the exportation from

America was consequently confined to the market of Great Britain. Our

manufacturers soon bethought themselves of the advantage which they

might make of this circumstance; and in the year 1764, the duty upon the

importation of beaver skin was reduced to one penny, but the duty upon

exportation was raised to sevenpence each skin, without any drawback of

the duty upon importation. By the same law, a duty of eighteen pence the

pound was imposed upon the exportation of beaver wool or woumbs, without

making any alteration in the duty upon the importation of that

commodity, which, when imported by British, and in British shipping,

amounted at that time to between fourpence and fivepence the piece.

Coals may be considered both as a material of manufacture, and as an

instrument of trade. Heavy duties, accordingly, have been imposed upon

their exportation, amounting at present (1783) to more than five

shillings the ton, or more than fifteen shillings the chaldron,

Newcastle measure; which is, in most cases, more than the original value

of the commodity at the coal-pit, or even at the shipping port for

exportation.

The exportation, however, of the instruments of trade, properly so

called, is commonly restrained, not by high duties, but by absolute

prohibitions. Thus, by the 7th and 8th of William III. chap. 20, sect.

8, the exportation of frames or engines for knitting gloves or

stockings, is prohibited, under the penalty, not only of the forfeiture

of such frames or engines, so exported, or attempted to be exported, but

of forty pounds, one half to the king, the other to the person who shall

inform or sue for the same. In the same manner, by the 14th Geo. III.

chap. 71, the exportation to foreign parts, of any utensils made use of

in the cotton, linen, woollen, and silk manufacturers, is prohibited

under the penalty, not only of the forfeiture of such utensils, but of

two hundred pounds, to be paid by the person who shall offend in this

manner; and likewise of two hundred pounds, to be paid by the master of

the ship, who shall knowingly suffer such utensils to be loaded on board

his ship.

When such heavy penalties were imposed upon the exportation of the dead

instruments of trade, it could not well be expected that the living

instrument, the artificer, should be allowed to go free. Accordingly, by

the 5th Geo. I. chap. 27, the person who shall be convicted of enticing

any artificer, of or in any of the manufactures of Great Britain, to go

into any foreign parts, in order to practise or teach his trade, is

liable, for the first offence, to be fined in any sum not exceeding one

hundred pounds, and to three months imprisonment, and until the fine

shall be paid; and for the second offence, to be fined in any sum, at

the discretion of the court, and to imprisonment for twelve months, and

until the fine shall be paid. By the 23d Geo. II. chap. 13, this penalty

is increased, for the first offence, to five hundred pounds for every

artificer so enticed, and to twelve months imprisonment, and until the

fine shall be paid; and for the second offence, to one thousand pounds,

and to two years imprisonment, and until the fine shall be paid.

By the former of these two statutes, upon proof that any person has been

enticing any artificer, or that any artificer has promised or contracted

to go into foreign parts, for the purposes aforesaid, such artificer may

be obliged to give security, at the discretion of the court, that he

shall not go beyond the seas, and may be committed to prison until he

give such security.

If any artificer has gone beyond the seas, and is exercising or teaching

his trade in any foreign country, upon warning being given to him by any

of his majesty's ministers or consuls abroad, or by one of his majesty's

secretaries of state, for the time being, if he does not, within six

months after such warning, return into this realm, and from henceforth

abide and inhabit continually within the same, he is from thenceforth

declared incapable of taking any legacy devised to him within this

kingdom, or of being executor or administrator to any person, or of

taking any lands within this kingdom, by descent, devise, or purchase.

He likewise forfeits to the king all his lands, goods, and chattels; is

declared an alien in every respect; and is put out of the king's

protection.

It is unnecessary, I imagine, to observe how contrary such regulations

are to the boasted liberty of the subject, of which we affect to be so

very jealous; but which, in this case, is so plainly sacrificed to the

futile interests of our merchants and manufacturers.

The laudable motive of all these regulations, is to extend our own

manufactures, not by their own improvement, but by the depression of

those of all our neighbours, and by putting an end, as much as possible,

to the troublesome competition of such odious and disagreeable rivals.

Our master manufacturers think it reasonable that they themselves should

have the monopoly of the ingenuity of all their countrymen. Though by

restraining, in some trades, the number of apprentices which can be

employed at one time, and by imposing the necessity of a long

apprenticeship in all trades, they endeavour, all of them, to confine

the knowledge of their respective employments to as small a number as

possible; they are unwilling, however, that any part of this small

number should go abroad to instruct foreigners.

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the

interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may

be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

The maxim is so perfectly self-evident, that it would be absurd to

attempt to prove it. But in the mercantile system, the interest of the

consumer is almost constantly sacrificed to that of the producer; and it

seems to consider production, and not consumption, as the ultimate end

and object of all industry and commerce.

In the restraints upon the importation of all foreign commodities which

can come into competition with those of our own growth or manufacture,

the interest of the home consumer is evidently sacrificed to that of the

producer. It is altogether for the benefit of the latter, that the

former is obliged to pay that enhancement of price which this monopoly

almost always occasions.

It is altogether for the benefit of the producer, that bounties are

granted upon the exportation of some of his productions. The home

consumer is obliged to pay, first, the tax which is necessary for paying

the bounty; and, secondly, the still greater tax which necessarily

arises from the enhancement of the price of the commodity in the home

market.

By the famous treaty of commerce with Portugal, the consumer is

prevented by high duties from purchasing of a neighbouring country, a

commodity which our own climate does not produce; but is obliged to

purchase it of a distant country, though it is acknowledged, that the

commodity of the distant country is of a worse quality than that of the

near one. The home consumer is obliged to submit to this inconvenience,

in order that the producer may import into the distant country some of

his productions, upon more advantageous terms than he otherwise would

have been allowed to do. The consumer, too, is obliged to pay whatever

enhancement in the price of those very productions this forced

exportation may occasion in the home market.

But in the system of laws which has been established for the management

of our American and West Indies colonies, the interest of the home

consumer has been sacrificed to that of the producer, which a more

extravagant profusion than in all our other commercial regulations. A

great empire has been established for the sole purpose of raising up a

nation of customers, who should be obliged to buy, from the shops of our

different producers, all the goods with which these could supply them.

For the sake of that little enhancement of price which this monopoly

might afford our producers, the home consumers have been burdened with

the whole expense of maintaining and defending that empire. For this

purpose, and for this purpose only, in the last two wars, more than two

hundred millions have been spent, and a new debt of more than a hundred

and seventy millions has been contracted, over and above all that had

been expended for the same purpose in former wars. The interest of this

debt alone is not only greater than the whole extraordinary profit

which, it never could be pretended, was made by the monopoly of the

colony trade, but than the whole value of that trade, or than the whole

value of the goods which, at an average, have been annually exported to

the colonies.

It cannot be very difficult to determine who have been the contrivers of

this whole mercantile system; not the consumers, we may believe, whose

interest has been entirely neglected; but the producers, whose interest

has been so carefully attended to; and among this latter class, our

merchants and manufacturers have been by far the principal architects.

In the mercantile regulations, which have been taken notice of in this

chapter, the interest of our manufacturers has been most peculiarly

attended to; and the interest, not so much of the consumers, as that of

some other sets of producers, has been sacrificed to it.

CHAP. IX.

OF THE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS, OR OF THOSE SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

WHICH REPRESENT THE PRODUCE OF LAND, AS EITHER THE SOLE OR THE PRINCIPAL

SOURCE OF THE REVENUE AND WEALTH OF EVERY COUNTRY.

The agricultural systems of political economy will not require so long

an explanation as that which I have thought it necessary to bestow upon

the mercantile or commercial system.

That system which represents the produce of land as the sole source of

the revenue and wealth of every country, has, so far as I know, never

been adopted by any nation, and it at present exists only in the

speculations of a few men of great learning and ingenuity in France. It

would not, surely, be worth while to examine at great length the errors

of a system which never has done, and probably never will do, any harm

in any part of the world. I shall endeavour to explain, however, as

distinctly as I can, the great outlines of this very ingenious system.

Mr. Colbert, the famous minister of Lewis XIV. was a man of probity, of

great industry, and knowledge of detail; of great experience and

acuteness in the examination of public accounts; and of abilities, in

short, every way fitted for introducing method and good order into the

collection and expenditure of the public revenue. That minister had

unfortunately embraced all the prejudices of the mercantile system, in

its nature and essence a system of restraint and regulation, and such as

could scarce fail to be agreeable to a laborious and plodding man of

business, who had been accustomed to regulate the different departments

of public offices, and to establish the necessary checks and controuls

for confining each to its proper sphere. The industry and commerce of a

great country, he endeavoured to regulate upon the same model as the

departments of a public office; and instead of allowing every man to

pursue his own interest his own way, upon the liberal plan of equality,

liberty, and justice, he bestowed upon certain branches of industry

extraordinary privileges, while he laid others under as extraordinary

restraints. He was not only disposed, like other European ministers, to

encourage more the industry of the towns than that of the country; but,

in order to support the industry of the towns, he was willing even to

depress and keep down that of the country. In order to render provisions

cheap to the inhabitants of the towns, and thereby to encourage

manufactures and foreign commerce, he prohibited altogether the

exportation of corn, and thus excluded the inhabitants of the country

from every foreign market, for by far the most important part of the

produce of their industry. This prohibition, joined to the restraints

imposed by the ancient provincial laws of France upon the transportation

of corn from one province to another, and to the arbitrary and degrading

taxes which are levied upon the cultivators in almost all the provinces,

discouraged and kept down the agriculture of that country very much

below the state to which it would naturally have risen in so very

fertile a soil, and so very happy a climate. This state of

discouragement and depression was felt more or less in every different

part of the country, and many different inquiries were set on foot

concerning the causes of it. One of those causes appeared to be the

preference given, by the institutions of Mr. Colbert, to the industry of

the towns above that of the country.

If the rod be bent too much one way, says the proverb, in order to make

it straight, you must bend it as much the other. The French

philosophers, who have proposed the system which represents agriculture

as the sole source of the revenue and wealth of every country, seem to

have adopted this proverbial maxim; and, as in the plan of Mr. Colbert,

the industry of the towns was certainly overvalued in comparison with

that of the country, so in their system it seems to be as certainly

under-valued.

The different orders of people, who have ever been supposed to

contribute in any respect towards the annual produce of the land and

labour of the country, they divide into three classes. The first is the

class of the proprietors of land. The second is the class of the

cultivators, of farmers and country labourers, whom they honour with the

peculiar appellation of the productive class. The third is the class of

artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, whom they endeavour to degrade

by the humiliating appellation of the barren or unproductive class.

The class of proprietors contributes to the annual produce, by the

expense which they may occasionally lay out upon the improvement of the

land, upon the buildings, drains, inclosures, and other ameliorations,

which they may either make or maintain upon it, and by means of which

the cultivators are enabled, with the same capital, to raise a greater

produce, and consequently to pay a greater rent. This advanced rent may

be considered as the interest or profit due to the proprietor, upon the

expense or capital which he thus employs in the improvement of his land.

Such expenses are in this system called ground expenses (_depenses

foncieres_).

The cultivators or farmers contribute to the annual produce, by what are

in this system called the original and annual expenses (_depenses

primitives, et depenses annuelles_), which they lay out upon the

cultivation of the land. The original expenses consist in the

instruments of husbandry, in the stock of cattle, in the seed, and in

the maintenance of the farmer's family, servants, and cattle, during at

least a great part of the first year of his occupancy, or till he can

receive some return from the land. The annual expenses consist in the

seed, in the wear and tear of instruments of husbandry, and in the

annual maintenance of the farmer's servants and cattle, and of his

family too, so far as any part of them can be considered as servants

employed in cultivation. That part of the produce of the land which

remains to him after paying the rent, ought to be sufficient, first, to

replace to him, within a reasonable time, at least during the term of

his occupancy, the whole of his original expenses, together with the

ordinary profits of stock; and, secondly, to replace to him annually the

whole of his annual expenses, together likewise with the ordinary

profits of stock. Those two sorts of expenses are two capitals which the

farmer employs in cultivation; and unless they are regularly restored to

him, together with a reasonable profit, he cannot carry on his

employment upon a level with other employments; but, from a regard to

his own interest, must desert it as soon as possible, and see some

other. That part of the produce of the land which is thus necessary for

enabling the farmer to continue his business, ought to be considered as

a fund sacred to cultivation, which, if the landlord violates, he

necessarily reduces the produce of his own land, and, in a few years,

not only disables the farmer from paying this racked rent, but from

paying the reasonable rent which he might otherwise have got for his

land. The rent which properly belongs to the landlord, is no more than

the neat produce which remains after paying, in the completest manner,

all the necessary expenses which must be previously laid out, in order

to raise the gross or the whole produce. It is because the labour of the

cultivators, over and above paying completely all those necessary

expenses, affords a neat produce of this kind, that this class of people

are in this system peculiarly distinguished by the honourable

appellation of the productive class. Their original and annual expenses

are for the same reason called, in this system, productive expenses,

because, over and above replacing their own value, they occasion the

annual reproduction of this neat produce.

The ground expenses, as they are called, or what the landlord lays out

upon the improvement of his land, are, in this system, too, honoured

with the appellation of productive expenses. Till the whole of those

expenses, together with the ordinary profits of stock, have been

completely repaid to him by the advanced rent which he gets from his

land, that advanced rent ought to be regarded as sacred and inviolable,

both by the church and by the king; ought to be subject neither to tithe

nor to taxation. If it is otherwise, by discouraging the improvement of

land, the church discourages the future increase of her own tithes, and

the king the future increase of his own taxes. As in a well ordered

state of things, therefore, those ground expenses, over and above

reproducing in the completest manner their own value, occasion likewise,

after a certain time, a reproduction of neat produce, they are in this

system considered as productive expenses.

The ground expenses of the landlord, however, together with the original

and the annual expenses of the farmer, are the only three sorts of

expenses which in this system are considered as productive. All other

expenses, and all other orders of people, even those who, in the common

apprehensions of men, are regarded as the most productive, are, in this

account of things, represented as altogether barren and unproductive.

Artificers and manufacturers, in particular, whose industry, in the

common apprehensions of men, increases so much the value of the rude

produce of land, are in this system represented as a class of people

altogether barren and unproductive. Their labour, it is said, replaces

only the stock which employs them, together with its ordinary profits.

That stock consists in the materials, tools, and wages, advanced to them

by their employer; and is the fund destined for their employment and

maintenance. Its profits are the fund destined for the maintenance of

their employer. Their employer, as he advances to them the stock of

materials, tools, and wages, necessary for their employment, so he

advances to himself what is necessary for his own maintenance; and this

maintenance he generally proportions to the profit which he expects to

make by the price of their work. Unless its price repays to him the

maintenance which he advances to himself, as well as the materials,

tools, and wages, which he advances to his workmen, it evidently does

not repay to him the whole expense which he lays out upon it. The

profits of manufacturing stock, therefore, are not, like the rent of

land, a neat produce which remains after completely repaying the whole

expense which must be laid out in order to obtain them. The stock of the

farmer yields him a profit, as well as that of the master manufacturer;

and it yields a rent likewise to another person, which that of the

master manufacturer does not. The expense, therefore, laid out in

employing and maintaining artificers and manufacturers, does no more

than continue, if one may say so, the existence of its own value, and

does not produce any new value. It is, therefore, altogether a barren

and unproductive expense. The expense, on the contrary, laid out in

employing farmers and country labourers, over and above continuing the

existence of its own value, produces a new value the rent of the

landlord. It is, therefore, a productive expense.

Mercantile stock is equally barren and unproductive with manufacturing

stock. It only continues the existence of its own value, without

producing any new value. Its profits are only the repayment of the

maintenance which its employer advances to himself during the time that

he employs it, or till he receives the returns of it. They are only the

repayment of a part of the expense which must be laid out in employing

it.

The labour of artificers and manufacturers never adds any thing to the

value of the whole annual amount of the rude produce of the land. It

adds, indeed, greatly to the value of some particular parts of it. But

the consumption which, in the mean time, it occasions of other parts, is

precisely equal to the value which it adds to those parts; so that the

value of the whole amount is not, at any one moment of time, in the

least augmented by it. The person who works the lace of a pair of fine

ruffles for example, will sometimes raise the value of, perhaps, a

pennyworth of flax to L.30 sterling. But though, at first sight, he

appears thereby to multiply the value of a part of the rude produce

about seven thousand and two hundred times, he in reality adds nothing

to the value of the whole annual amount of the rude produce. The working

of that lace costs him, perhaps, two years labour. The L.30 which he

gets for it when it is finished, is no more than the repayment of the

subsistence which he advances to himself during the two years that he is

employed about it. The value which, by every day's, month's, or year's

labour, he adds to the flax, does no more than replace the value of his

own consumption during that day, month, or year. At no moment of time,

therefore, does he add any thing to the value of the whole annual amount

of the rude produce of the land: the portion of that produce which he is

continually consuming, being always equal to the value which he is

continually producing. The extreme poverty of the greater part of the

persons employed in this expensive, though trifling manufacture, may

satisfy us that the price of their work does not, in ordinary cases,

exceed the value of their subsistence. It is otherwise with the work of

farmers and country labourers. The rent of the landlord is a value

which, in ordinary cases, it is continually producing over and above

replacing, in the most complete manner, the whole consumption, the whole

expense laid out upon the employment and maintenance both of the workmen

and of their employer.

Artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, can augment the revenue and

wealth of their society by parsimony only; or, as it is expressed in

this system, by privation, that is, by depriving themselves of a part of

the funds destined for their own subsistence. They annually reproduce

nothing but those funds. Unless, therefore, they annually save some part

of them, unless they annually deprive themselves of the enjoyment of

some part of them, the revenue and wealth of their society can never be,

in the smallest degree, augmented by means of their industry. Farmers

and country labourers, on the contrary, may enjoy completely the whole

funds destined for their own subsistence, and yet augment, at the same

time, the revenue and wealth of their society. Over and above what is

destined for their own subsistence, their industry annually affords a

neat produce, of which the augmentation necessarily augments the revenue

and wealth of their society. Nations, therefore, which like France or

England, consist in a great measure, of proprietors and cultivators, can

be enriched by industry and enjoyment. Nations, on the contrary which,

like Holland and Hamburgh, are composed chiefly of merchants,

artificers, and manufacturers, can grow rich only through parsimony and

privation. As the interest of nations so differently circumstanced is

very different, so is likewise the common character of the people. In

those of the former kind, liberality, frankness, and good fellowship,

naturally make a part of their common character; in the latter,

narrowness, meanness, and a selfish disposition, averse to all social

pleasure and enjoyment.

The unproductive class, that of merchants, artificers, and

manufacturers, is maintained and employed altogether at the expense of

the two other classes, of that of proprietors, and of that of

cultivators. They furnish it both with the materials of its work, and

with the fund of its subsistence, with the corn and cattle which it

consumes while it is employed about that work. The proprietors and

cultivators finally pay both the wages of all the workmen of the

unproductive class, and the profits of all their employers. Those

workmen and their employers are properly the servants of the proprietors

and cultivators. They are only servants who work without doors, as

menial servants work within. Both the one and the other, however, are

equally maintained at the expense of the same masters. The labour of

both is equally unproductive. It adds nothing to the value of the sum

total of the rude produce of the land. Instead of increasing the value

of that sum total, it is a charge and expense which must be paid out of

it.

The unproductive class, however, is not only useful, but greatly useful,

to the other two classes. By means of the industry of merchants,

artificers, and manufacturers, the proprietors and cultivators can

purchase both the foreign goods and the manufactured produce of their

own country, which they have occasion for, with the produce of a much

smaller quantity of their own labour, than what they would be obliged to

employ, if they were to attempt, in an awkward and unskilful manner,

either to import the one, or to make the other, for their own use. By

means of the unproductive class, the cultivators are delivered from many

cares, which would otherwise distract their attention from the

cultivation of land. The superiority of produce, which in consequence of

this undivided attention, they are enabled to raise, is fully sufficient

to pay the whole expense which the maintenance and employment of the

unproductive class costs either the proprietors or themselves. The

industry of merchants, artificers, and manufacturers, though in its own

nature altogether unproductive, yet contributes in this manner

indirectly to increase the produce of the land. It increases the

productive powers of productive labour, by leaving it at liberty to

confine itself to its proper employment, the cultivation of land; and

the plough goes frequently the easier and the better, by means of the

labour of the man whose business is most remote from the plough.

It can never be the interest of the proprietors and cultivators, to

restrain or to discourage, in any respect, the industry of merchants,

artificers, and manufacturers. The greater the liberty which this

unproductive class enjoys, the greater will be the competition in all

the different trades which compose it, and the cheaper will the other

two classes be supplied, both with foreign goods and with the

manufactured produce of their own country.

It can never be the interest of the unproductive class to oppress the

other two classes. It is the surplus produce of the land, or what

remains after deducting the maintenance, first of the cultivators, and

afterwards of the proprietors, that maintains and employs the

unproductive class. The greater this surplus, the greater must likewise

be the maintenance and employment of that class. The establishment of

perfect justice, of perfect liberty, and of perfect equality, is the

very simple secret which most effectually secures the highest degree of

prosperity to all the three classes.

The merchants, artificers, and manufacturers of those mercantile states,

which, like Holland and Hamburgh, consist chiefly of this unproductive

class, are in the same manner maintained and employed altogether at the

expense of the proprietors and cultivators of land. The only difference

is, that those proprietors and cultivators are, the greater part of

them, placed at a most inconvenient distance from the merchants,

artificers, and manufacturers, whom they supply with the materials of

their work and the fund of their subsistence; are the inhabitants of

other countries, and the subjects of other governments.

Such mercantile states, however, are not only useful, but greatly

useful, to the inhabitants of these other countries. They fill up, in

some measure, a very important void; and supply the place of the

merchants, artificers, and manufacturers, whom the inhabitants of those

countries ought to find at home, but whom, from some defect in their

policy, they do not find at home.

It can never be the interest of those landed nations, if I may call them

so, to discourage or distress the industry of such mercantile states, by

imposing high duties upon their trade, or upon the commodities which

they furnish. Such duties, by rendering those commodities dearer, could

serve only to sink the real value of the surplus produce of their own

land, with which, or, what comes to the same thing, with the price of

which those commodities are purchased. Such duties could only serve to

discourage the increase of that surplus produce, and consequently the

improvement and cultivation of their own land. The most effectual

expedient, on the contrary, for raising the value of that surplus

produce, for encouraging its increase, and consequently the improvement

and cultivation of their own land, would be to allow the most perfect

freedom to the trade of all such mercantile nations.

This perfect freedom of trade would even be the most effectual expedient

for supplying them, in due time, with all the artificers, manufacturers,

and merchants, whom they wanted at home; and for filling up, in the

properest and most advantageous manner, that very important void which

they felt there.

The continual increase of the surplus produce of their land would, in

due time, create a greater capital than what would be employed with the

ordinary rate of profit in the improvement and cultivation of land; and

the surplus part of it would naturally turn itself to the employment of

artificers and manufacturers, at home. But these artificers and

manufacturers, finding at home both the materials of their work and the

fund of their subsistence, might immediately, even with much less art

and skill be able to work as cheap as the little artificers and

manufacturers of such mercantile states, who had both to bring from a

greater distance. Even though, from want of art and skill, they might

not for some time be able to work as cheap, yet, finding a market at

home, they might be able to sell their work there as cheap as that of

the artificers and manufacturers of such mercantile states, which could

not be brought to that market but from so great a distance; and as their

art and skill improved, they would soon be able to sell it cheaper. The

artificers and manufacturers of such mercantile states, therefore, would

immediately be rivalled in the market of those landed nations, and soon

after undersold and justled out of it altogether. The cheapness of the

manufactures of those landed nations, in consequence of the gradual

improvements of art and skill, would, in due time, extend their sale

beyond the home market, and carry them to many foreign markets, from

which they would, in the same manner, gradually justle out many of the

manufacturers of such mercantile nations.

This continual increase, both of the rude and manufactured produce of

those landed nations, would, in due time, create a greater capital than

could, with the ordinary rate of profit, be employed either in

agriculture or in manufactures. The surplus of this capital would

naturally turn itself to foreign trade, and be employed in exporting, to

foreign countries, such parts of the rude and manufactured produce of

its own country, as exceeded the demand of the home market. In the

exportation of the produce of their own country, the merchants of a

landed nation would have an advantage of the same kind over those of

mercantile nations, which its artificers and manufacturers had over the

artificers and manufacturers of such nations; the advantage of finding

at home that cargo, and those stores and provisions, which the others

were obliged to seek for at a distance. With inferior art and skill in

navigation, therefore, they would be able to sell that cargo as cheap in

foreign markets as the merchants of such mercantile nations; and with

equal art and skill they would be able to sell it cheaper. They would

soon, therefore, rival those mercantile nations in this branch of

foreign trade, and, in due time, would justle them out of it altogether.

According to this liberal and generous system, therefore, the most

advantageous method in which a landed nation can raise up artificers,

manufacturers, and merchants of its own, is to grant the most perfect

freedom of trade to the artificers, manufacturers, and merchants of all

other nations. It thereby raises the value of the surplus produce of its

own land, of which the continual increase gradually establishes a fund,

which, in due time, necessarily raises up all the artificers,

manufacturers, and merchants, whom it has occasion for.

When a landed nation on the contrary, oppresses, either by high duties

or by prohibitions, the trade of foreign nations, it necessarily hurts

its own interest in two different ways. First, by raising the price of

all foreign goods, and of all sorts of manufactures, it necessarily

sinks the real value of the surplus produce of its own land, with which,

or, what comes to the same thing, with the price of which, it purchases

those foreign goods and manufactures. Secondly, by giving a sort of

monopoly of the home market to its own merchants, artificers, and

manufacturers, it raises the rate of mercantile and manufacturing

profit, in proportion to that of agricultural profit; and, consequently,

either draws from agriculture a part of the capital which had before

been employed in it, or hinders from going to it a part of what would

otherwise have gone to it. This policy, therefore, discourages

agriculture in two different ways; first, by sinking the real value of

its produce, and thereby lowering the rate of its profits; and,

secondly, by raising the rate of profit in all other employments.

Agriculture is rendered less advantageous, and trade and manufactures

more advantageous, than they otherwise would be; and every man is

tempted by his own interest to turn, as much as he can, both his capital

and his industry from the former to the latter employments.

Though, by this oppressive policy, a landed nation should be able to

raise up artificers, manufacturers, and merchants of its own, somewhat

sooner than it could do by the freedom of trade; a matter, however,

which is not a little doubtful; yet it would raise them up, if one may

say so, prematurely, and before it was perfectly ripe for them. By

raising up too hastily one species of industry, it would depress another

more valuable species of industry. By raising up too hastily a species

of industry which only replaces the stock which employs it, together

with the ordinary profit, it would depress a species of industry which,

over and above replacing that stock, with its profit, affords likewise a

neat produce, a free rent to the landlord. It would depress productive

labour, by encouraging too hastily that labour which is altogether

barren and unproductive.

In what manner, according to this system, the sum total of the annual

produce of the land is distributed among the three classes above

mentioned, and in what manner the labour of the unproductive class does

no more than replace the value of its own consumption, without

increasing in any respect the value of that sum total, is represented by

Mr Quesnai, the very ingenious and profound author of this system, in

some arithmetical formularies. The first of these formularies, which, by

way of eminence, he peculiarly distinguishes by the name of the

Economical Table, represents the manner in which he supposes this

distribution takes place, in a state of the most perfect liberty, and,

therefore, of the highest prosperity; in a state where the annual

produce is such as to afford the greatest possible neat produce, and

where each class enjoys its proper share of the whole annual produce.

Some subsequent formularies represent the manner in which he supposes

this distribution is made in different states of restraint and

regulation; in which, either the class of proprietors, or the barren and

unproductive class, is more favoured than the class of cultivators; and

in which either the one or the other encroaches, more or less, upon the

share which ought properly to belong to this productive class. Every

such encroachment, every violation of that natural distribution, which

the most perfect liberty would establish, must, according to this

system, necessarily degrade, more or less, from one year to another, the

value and sum total of the annual produce, and must necessarily occasion

a gradual declension in the real wealth and revenue of the society; a

declension, of which the progress must be quicker or slower, according

to the degree of this encroachment, according as that natural

distribution, which the most perfect liberty would establish, is more or

less violated. Those subsequent formularies represent the different

degrees of declension which, according to this system, correspond to the

different degrees in which this natural distribution of things is

violated.

Some speculative physicians seem to have imagined that the health of the

human body could be preserved only by a certain precise regimen of diet

and exercise, of which every, the smallest violation, necessarily

occasioned some degree of disease or disorder proportionate to the

degree of the violation. Experience, however, would seem to shew, that

the human body frequently preserves, to all appearance at least, the

most perfect state of health under a vast variety of different regimens;

even under some which are generally believed to be very far from being

perfectly wholesome. But the healthful state of the human body, it would

seem, contains in itself some unknown principle of preservation, capable

either of preventing or of correcting, in many respects, the bad effects

even of a very faulty regimen. Mr Quesnai, who was himself a physician,

and a very speculative physician, seems to have entertained a notion of

the same kind concerning the political body, and to have imagined that

it would thrive and prosper only under a certain precise regimen, the

exact regimen of perfect liberty and perfect justice. He seems not to

have considered, that in the political body, the natural effort which

every man is continually making to better his own condition, is a

principle of preservation capable of preventing and correcting, in many

respects, the bad effects of a political economy, in some degree both

partial and oppressive. Such a political economy, though it no doubt

retards more or less, is not always capable of stopping altogether, the

natural progress of a nation towards wealth and prosperity, and still

less of making it go backwards. If a nation could not prosper without

the enjoyment of perfect liberty and perfect justice, there is not in

the world a nation which could ever have prospered. In the political

body, however, the wisdom of nature has fortunately made ample provision

for remedying many of the bad effects of the folly and injustice of man;

in the same manner as it has done in the natural body, for remedying

those of his sloth and intemperance.

The capital error of this system, however, seems to lie in its

representing the class of artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, as

altogether barren and unproductive. The following observations may serve

to shew the impropriety of this representation:--

First, this class, it is acknowledged, reproduces annually the value of

its own annual consumption, and continues, at least, the existence of

the stock or capital which maintains and employs it. But, upon this

account alone, the denomination of barren or unproductive should seem to

be very improperly applied to it. We should not call a marriage barren

or unproductive, though it produced only a son and a daughter, to

replace the father and mother, and though it did not increase the number

of the human species, but only continued it as it was before. Farmers

and country labourers, indeed, over and above the stock which maintains

and employs them, reproduce annually a neat produce, a free rent to the

landlord. As a marriage which affords three children is certainly more

productive than one which affords only two, so the labour of farmers and

country labourers is certainly more productive than that of merchants,

artificers, and manufacturers. The superior produce of the one class,

however, does not, render the other barren or unproductive.

Secondly, it seems, on this account, altogether improper to consider

artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, in the same light as menial

servants. The labour of menial servants does not continue the existence

of the fund which maintains and employs them. Their maintenance and

employment is altogether at the expense of their masters, and the work

which they perform is not of a nature to repay that expense. That work

consists in services which perish generally in the very instant of their

performance, and does not fix or realize itself in any vendible

commodity, which can replace the value of their wages and maintenance.

The labour, on the contrary, of artificers, manufacturers, and

merchants, naturally does fix and realize itself in some such vendible

commodity. It is upon this account that, in the chapter in which I treat

of productive and unproductive labour, I have classed artificers,

manufacturers, and merchants among the productive labourers, and menial

servants among the barren or unproductive.

Thirdly, it seems, upon every supposition, improper to say, that the

labour of artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, does not increase

the real revenue of the society. Though we should suppose, for example,

as it seems to be supposed in this system, that the value of the daily,

monthly, and yearly consumption of this class was exactly equal to that

of its daily, monthly, and yearly production; yet it would not from

thence follow, that its labour added nothing to the real revenue, to the

real value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the society.

An artificer, for example, who, in the first six months after harvest,

executes ten pounds worth of work, though he should, in the same time,

consume ten pounds worth of corn and other necessaries, yet really adds

the value of ten pounds to the annual produce of the land and labour of

the society. While he has been consuming a half-yearly revenue of ten

pounds worth of corn and other necessaries, he has produced an equal

value of work, capable of purchasing, either to himself, or to some

other person, an equal half-yearly revenue. The value, therefore, of

what has been consumed and produced during these six months, is equal,

not to ten, but to twenty pounds. It is possible, indeed, that no more

than ten pounds worth of this value may ever have existed at any one

moment of time. But if the ten pounds worth of corn and other

necessaries which were consumed by the artificer, had been consumed by a

soldier, or by a menial servant, the value of that part of the annual

produce which existed at the end of the six months, would have been ten

pounds less than it actually is in consequence of the labour of the

artificer. Though the value of what the artificer produces, therefore,

should not, at any one moment of time, be supposed greater than the

value he consumes, yet, at every moment of time, the actually existing

value of goods in the market is, in consequence of what he produces,

greater than it otherwise would be.

When the patrons of this system assert, that the consumption of

artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, is equal to the value of what

they produce, they probably mean no more than that their revenue, or the

fund destined for their consumption, is equal to it. But if they had

expressed themselves more accurately, and only asserted, that the

revenue of this class was equal to the value of what they produced, it

might readily have occurred to the reader, that what would naturally be

saved out of this revenue, must necessarily increase more or less the

real wealth of the society. In order, therefore, to make out something

like an argument, it was necessary that they should express themselves

as they have done; and this argument, even supposing things actually

were as it seems to presume them to be, turns out to be a very

inconclusive one.

Fourthly, farmers and country labourers can no more augment, without

parsimony, the real revenue, the annual produce of the land and labour

of their society, than artificers, manufacturers, and merchants. The

annual produce of the land and labour of any society can be augmented

only in two ways; either, first, by some improvement in the productive

powers of the useful labour actually maintained within it; or, secondly,

by some increase in the quantity of that labour.

The improvement in the productive powers of useful labour depends,

first, upon the improvement in the ability of the workman; and,

secondly, upon that of the machinery with which he works. But the labour

of artificers and manufacturers, as it is capable of being more

subdivided, and the labour of each workman reduced to a greater

simplicity of operation, than that of farmers and country labourers; so

it is likewise capable of both these sorts of improvement in a much

higher degree.[43] In this respect, therefore, the class of cultivators

can have no sort of advantage over that of artificers and manufacturers.

The increase in the quantity of useful labour actually employed within

any society must depend altogether upon the increase of the capital

which employs it; and the increase of that capital, again, must be

exactly equal to the amount of the savings from the revenue, either of

the particular persons who manage and direct the employment of that

capital, or of some other persons, who lend it to them. If merchants,

artificers, and manufacturers are, as this system seems to suppose,

naturally more inclined to parsimony and saving than proprietors and

cultivators, they are, so far, more likely to augment the quantity of

useful labour employed within their society, and consequently to

increase its real revenue, the annual produce of its land and labour.

Fifthly and lastly, though the revenue of the inhabitants of every

country was supposed to consist altogether, as this system seems to

suppose, in the quantity of subsistence which their industry could

procure to them; yet, even upon this supposition, the revenue of a

trading and manufacturing country must, other things being equal, always

be much greater than that of one without trade or manufactures. By means

of trade and manufactures, a greater quantity of subsistence can be

annually imported into a particular country, than what its own lands, in

the actual state of their cultivation, could afford. The inhabitants of

a town, though they frequently possess no lands of their own, yet draw

to themselves, by their industry, such a quantity of the rude produce of

the lands of other people, as supplies them, not only with the materials

of their work, but with the fund of their subsistence. What a town

always is with regard to the country in its neighbourhood, one

independent state or country may frequently be with regard to other

independent states or countries. It is thus that Holland draws a great

part of its subsistence from other countries; live cattle from Holstein

and Jutland, and corn from almost all the different countries of Europe.

A small quantity of manufactured produce, purchases a great quantity of

rude produce. A trading and manufacturing country, therefore, naturally

purchases, with a small part of its manufactured produce, a great part

of the rude produce of other countries; while, on the contrary, a

country without trade and manufactures is generally obliged to purchase,

at the expense of a great part of its rude produce, a very small part of

the manufactured produce of other countries. The one exports what can

subsist and accommodate but a very few, and imports the subsistence and

accommodation of a great number. The other exports the accommodation and

subsistence of a great number, and imports that of a very few only. The

inhabitants of the one must always enjoy a much greater quantity of

subsistence than what their own lands, in the actual state of their

cultivation, could afford. The inhabitants of the other most always

enjoy a much smaller quantity.

This system, however, with all its imperfections, is perhaps the nearest

approximation to the truth that has yet been published upon the subject

of political economy; and is upon that account, well worth the

consideration of every man who wishes to examine with attention the

principles of that very important science. Though in representing the

labour which is employed upon land as the only productive labour, the

notions which it inculcates are, perhaps, too narrow and confined; yet

in representing the wealth of nations as consisting, not in the

unconsumable riches of money, but in the consumable goods annually

reproduced by the labour of the society, and in representing perfect

liberty as the only effectual expedient for rendering this annual

reproduction the greatest possible, its doctrine seems to be in every

respect as just as it is generous and liberal. Its followers are very

numerous; and as men are fond of paradoxes, and of appearing to

understand what surpasses the comprehensions of ordinary people, the

paradox which it maintains, concerning the unproductive nature of

manufacturing labour, has not, perhaps, contributed a little to increase

the number of its admirers. They have for some years past made a pretty

considerable sect, distinguished in the French republic of letters by

the name of the Economists. Their works have certainly been of some

service to their country; not only by bringing into general discussion,

many subjects which had never been well examined before, but by

influencing, in some measure, the public administration in favour of

agriculture. It has been in consequence of their representations,

accordingly, that the agriculture of France has been delivered from

several of the oppressions which it before laboured under. The term,

during which such a lease can be granted, as will be valid against every

future purchaser or proprietor of the land, has been prolonged from nine

to twenty-seven years. The ancient provincial restraints upon the

transportation of corn from one province of the kingdom to another, have

been entirely taken away; and the liberty of exporting it to all foreign

countries, has been established as the common law of the kingdom in all

ordinary cases. This sect, in their works, which are very numerous, and

which treat not only of what is properly called Political Economy, or of

the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, but of every other

branch of the system of civil government, all follow implicitly, and

without any sensible variation, the doctrine of Mr. Quesnai. There is,

upon this account, little variety in the greater part of their works.

The most distinct and best connected account of this doctrine is to be

found in a little book written by Mr. Mercier de la Riviere, some time

intendant of Martinico, entitled, The natural and essential Order of

Political Societies. The admiration of this whole sect for their master,

who was himself a man of the greatest modesty and simplicity, is not

inferior to that of any of the ancient philosophers for the founders of

their respective systems. 'There have been since the world began,' says

a very diligent and respectable author, the Marquis de Mirabeau, 'three

great inventions which have principally given stability to political

societies, independent of many other inventions which have enriched and

adorned them. The first is the invention of writing, which alone gives

human nature the power of transmitting, without alteration, its laws,

its contracts, its annals, and its discoveries. The second is the

invention of money, which binds together all the relations between

civilized societies. The third is the economical table, the result of

the other two, which completes them both by perfecting their object; the

great discovery of our age, but of which our posterity will reap the

benefit.'

As the political economy of the nations of modern Europe has been more

favourable to manufactures and foreign trade, the industry of the towns,

than to agriculture, the industry of the country; so that of other

nations has followed a different plan, and has been more favourable to

agriculture than to manufactures and foreign trade.

The policy of China favours agriculture more than all other employments.

In China, the condition of a labourer is said to be as much superior to

that of an artificer, as in most parts of Europe that of an artificer is

to that of a labourer. In China, the great ambition of every man is to

get possession of a little bit of land, either in property or in lease;

and leases are there said to be granted upon very moderate terms, and to

be sufficiently secured to the lessees. The Chinese have little respect

for foreign trade. Your beggarly commerce! was the language in which the

mandarins of Pekin used to talk to Mr. De Lange, the Russian envoy,

concerning it[44]. Except with Japan, the Chinese carry on, themselves,

and in their own bottoms, little or no foreign trade; and it is only

into one or two ports of their kingdom that they even admit the ships of

foreign nations. Foreign trade, therefore, is, in China, every way

confined within a much narrower circle than that to which it would

naturally extend itself, if more freedom was allowed to it, either in

their own ships, or in those of foreign nations.

Manufactures, as in a small bulk they frequently contain a great value,

and can upon that account be transported at less expense from one

country to another than most parts of rude produce, are, in almost all

countries, the principal support of foreign trade. In countries,

besides, less extensive, and less favourably circumstanced for inferior

commerce than China, they generally require the support of foreign

trade. Without an extensive foreign market, they could not well

flourish, either in countries so moderately extensive as to afford but a

narrow home market, or in countries where the communication between one

province and another was so difficult, as to render it impossible for

the goods of any particular place to enjoy the whole of that home market

which the country could afford. The perfection of manufacturing

industry, it must be remembered, depends altogether upon the division of

labour; and the degree to which the division of labour can be introduced

into any manufacture, is necessarily regulated, it has already been

shewn, by the extent of the market. But the great extent of the empire

of China, the vast multitude of its inhabitants, the variety of climate,

and consequently of productions in its different provinces, and the easy

communication by means of water-carriage between the greater part of

them, render the home market of that country of so great extent, as to

be alone sufficient to support very great manufactures, and to admit of

very considerable subdivisions of labour. The home market of China is,

perhaps, in extent, not much inferior to the market of all the different

countries of Europe put together. A more extensive foreign trade,

however, which to this great home market added the foreign market of all

the rest of the world, especially if any considerable part of this trade

was carried on in Chinese ships, could scarce fail to increase very much

the manufactures of China, and to improve very much the productive

powers of its manufacturing industry. By a more extensive navigation,

the Chinese would naturally learn the art of using and constructing,

themselves, all the different machines made use of in other countries,

as well as the other improvements of art and industry which are

practised in all the different parts of the world. Upon their present

plan, they have little opportunity of improving themselves by the

example of any other nation, except that of the Japanese.

The policy of ancient Egypt, too, and that of the Gentoo government of

Indostan, seem to have favoured agriculture more than all other

employments.

Both in ancient Egypt and Indostan, the whole body of the people was

divided into different casts or tribes each of which was confined, from

father to son, to a particular employment, or class of employments. The

son of a priest was necessarily a priest; the son of a soldier, a

soldier; the son of a labourer, a labourer; the son of a weaver, a

weaver; the son of a tailor, a tailor, &c. In both countries, the cast

of the priests holds the highest rank, and that of the soldiers the

next; and in both countries the cast of the farmers and labourers was

superior to the casts of merchants and manufacturers.

The government of both countries was particularly attentive to the

interest of agriculture. The works constructed by the ancient sovereigns

of Egypt, for the proper distribution of the waters of the Nile, were

famous in antiquity, and the ruined remains of some of them are still

the admiration of travellers. Those of the same kind which were

constructed by the ancient sovereigns of Indostan, for the proper

distribution of the waters of the Ganges, as well as of many other

rivers, though they have been less celebrated, seem to have been equally

great. Both countries accordingly, though subject occasionally to

dearths, have been famous for their great fertility. Though both were

extremely populous, yet, in years of moderate plenty, they were both

able to export great quantities of grain to their neighbours.

The ancient Egyptians had a superstitious aversion to the sea; and as

the Gentoo religion does not permit its followers to light a fire, nor

consequently to dress any victuals, upon the water, it, in effect,

prohibits them from all distant sea voyages. Both the Egyptians and

Indians must have depended almost altogether upon the navigation of

other nations for the exportation of their surplus produce; and this

dependency, as it must have confined the market, so it must have

discouraged the increase of this surplus produce. It must have

discouraged, too, the increase of the manufactured produce, more than

that of the rude produce. Manufactures require a much more extensive

market than the most important parts of the rude produce of the land. A

single shoemaker will make more than 300 pairs of shoes in the year;

and his own family will not, perhaps, wear out six pairs. Unless,

therefore, he has the custom of, at least, 50 such families as his own,

he cannot dispose of the whole produce of his own labour. The most

numerous class of artificers will seldom, in a large country, make more

than one in 50, or one in a 100, of the whole number of families

contained in it. But in such large countries, as France and England, the

number of people employed in agriculture has, by some authors, been

computed at a half, by others at a third, and by no author that I know

of, at less than a fifth of the whole inhabitants of the country. But as

the produce of the agriculture of both France and England is, the far

greater part of it, consumed at home, each person employed in it must,

according to these computations, require little more than the custom of

one, two, or, at most, of four such families as his own, in order in

dispose of the whole produce of his own labour. Agriculture, therefore,

can support itself under the discouragement of a confined market much

better than manufactures. In both ancient Egypt and Indostan, indeed,

the confinement of the foreign market was in some measure compensated by

the conveniency of many inland navigations, which opened, in the most

advantageous manner, the whole extent of the home market to every part

of the produce of every different district of those countries. The great

extent of Indostan, too, rendered the home market of that country very

great, and sufficient to support a great variety of manufactures. But

the small extent of ancient Egypt, which was never equal to England,

must at all times, have rendered the home market of that country too

narrow for supporting any great variety of manufactures. Bengal

accordingly, the province of Indostan which commonly exports the

greatest quantity of rice, has always been more remarkable for the

exportation of a great variety of manufactures, than for that of its

grain. Ancient Egypt, on the contrary, though it exported some

manufactures, fine linen in particular, as well as some other goods, was

always most distinguished for its great exportation of grain. It was

long the granary of the Roman empire.

The sovereigns of China, of ancient Egypt, and of the different kingdoms

into which Indostan has, at different times, been divided, have always

derived the whole, or by far the most considerable part, of their

revenue, from some sort of land tax or land rent. This land tax, or land

rent, like the tithe in Europe, consisted in a certain proportion, a

fifth it is said, of the produce of the land, which was either delivered

in kind, or paid in money, according to a certain valuation, and which,

therefore, varied from year to year, according to all the variations of

the produce. It was natural, therefore, that the sovereigns of those

countries should be particularly attentive to the interests of

agriculture, upon the prosperity or declension of which immediately

depended the yearly increase or diminution of their own revenue.

The policy of the ancient republics of Greece, and that of Rome, though

it honoured agriculture more than manufactures or foreign trade, yet

seems rather to have discouraged the latter employments, than to have

given any direct or intentional encouragement to the former. In several

of the ancient states of Greece, foreign trade was prohibited

altogether; and in several others the employments of artificers and

manufacturers were considered as hurtful to the strength and agility of

the human body, as rendering it incapable of those habits which their

military and gymnastic exercises endeavoured to form in it, and as

thereby disqualifying it, more or less, for undergoing the fatigues and

encountering the dangers of war. Such occupations were considered as fit

only for slaves, and the free citizens of the states were prohibited

from exercising them. Even in those states where no such prohibition

took place, as in Rome and Athens, the great body of the people were in

effect excluded from all the trades which are now commonly exercised by

the lower sort of the inhabitants of towns. Such trades were, at Athens

and Rome, all occupied by the slaves of the rich, who exercised them for

the benefit of their masters, whose wealth, power, and protection, made

it almost impossible for a poor freeman to find a market for his work,

when it came into competition with that of the slaves of the rich.

Slaves, however, are very seldom inventive; and all the most important

improvements, either in machinery, or in the arrangement and

distribution of work, which facilitate and abridge labour have been the

discoveries of freemen. Should a slave propose any improvement of this

kind, his master would be very apt to consider the proposal as the

suggestion of laziness, and of a desire to save his own labour at the

master's expense. The poor slave, instead of reward would probably meet

with much abuse, perhaps with some punishment. In the manufactures

carried on by slaves, therefore, more labour must generally have been

employed to exercise the same quantity of work, than in those carried on

by freemen. The work of the former must, upon that account, generally

have been dearer than that of the latter. The Hungarian mines, it is

remarked by Mr. Montesquieu, though not richer, have always been wrought

with less expense, and therefore with more profit, than the Turkish

mines in their neighbourhood. The Turkish mines are wrought by slaves;

and the arms of those slaves are the only machines which the Turks have

ever thought of employing. The Hungarian mines are wrought by freemen,

who employ a great deal of machinery, by which they facilitate and

abridge their own labour. From the very little that is known about the

price of manufactures in the times of the Greeks and Romans, it would

appear that those of the finer sort were excessively dear. Silk sold for

its weight in gold. It was not, indeed, in those times an European

manufacture; and as it was all brought from the East Indies, the

distance of the carriage may in some measure account for the greatness

of the price. The price, however, which a lady, it is said, would

sometimes pay for a piece of very fine linen, seems to have been equally

extravagant; and as linen was always either an European, or at farthest,

an Egyptian manufacture, this high price can be accounted for only by

the great expense of the labour which must have been employed about it,

and the expense of this labour again could arise from nothing but the

awkwardness of the machinery which is made use of. The price of fine

woollens, too, though not quite so extravagant, seems, however, to have

been much above that of the present times. Some cloths, we are told by

Pliny[45], dyed in a particular manner, cost a hundred denarii, or

L.3 6s. 8d. the pound weight. Others, dyed in another manner, cost a

thousand denarii the pound weight, or L.33 6s. 8d. The Roman pound, it

must be remembered, contained only twelve of our avoirdupois ounces.

This high price, indeed, seems to have been principally owing to the

dye. But had not the cloths themselves been much dearer than any which

are made in the present times, so very expensive a dye would not

probably have been bestowed upon them. The disproportion would have been

too great between the value of the accessory and that of the principal.

The price mentioned by the same author[46], of some triclinaria, a sort

of woollen pillows or cushions made use of to lean upon as they reclined

upon their couches at table, passes all credibility; some of them being

said to have cost more than L.30,000, others more than L.300,000. This

high price, too, is not said to have arisen from the dye. In the dress

of the people of fashion of both sexes, there seems to have been much

less variety, it is observed by Dr. Arbuthnot, in ancient than in modern

times; and the very little variety which we find in that of the ancient

statues, confirms his observation. He infers from this, that their dress

must, upon the whole, have been cheaper than ours; but the conclusion

does not seem to follow. When the expense of fashionable dress is very

great, the variety must be very small. But when, by the improvements in

the productive powers of manufacturing art and industry, the expense of

any one dress comes to be very moderate, the variety will naturally be

very great. The rich, not being able to distinguish themselves by the

expense of any one dress, will naturally endeavour to do so by the

multitude and variety of their dresses.

The greatest and most important branch of the commerce of every nation,

it has already been observed, is that which is carried on between the

inhabitants of the town and those of the country. The inhabitants of the

town draw from the country the rude produce, which constitutes both the

materials of their work and the fund of their subsistence; and they pay

for this rude produce, by sending back to the country a certain portion

of it manufactured and prepared for immediate use. The trade which is

carried on between these two different sets of people, consists

ultimately in a certain quantity of rude produce exchanged for a certain

quantity of manufactured produce. The dearer the latter, therefore, the

cheaper the former; and whatever tends in any country to raise the price

of manufactured produce, tends to lower that of the rude produce of the

land, and thereby to discourage agriculture. The smaller the quantity of

manufactured produce, which any given quantity of rude produce, or, what

comes to the same thing, which the price of any given quantity of rude

produce, is capable of purchasing, the smaller the exchangeable value of

that given quantity of rude produce; the smaller the encouragement which

either the landlord has to increase its quantity by improving, or the

farmer by cultivating the land. Whatever, besides, tends to diminish in

any country the number of artificers and manufacturers, tends to

diminish the home market, the most important of all markets, for the

rude produce of the land, and thereby still further to discourage

agriculture.

Those systems, therefore, which preferring agriculture to all other

employments, in order to promote it, impose restraints upon manufactures

and foreign trade, act contrary to the very end which they propose, and

indirectly discourage that very species of industry which they mean to

promote. They are so far, perhaps, more inconsistent than even the

mercantile system. That system, by encouraging manufactures and foreign

trade more than agriculture, turns a certain portion of the capital of

the society, from supporting a more advantageous, to support a less

advantageous species of industry. But still it really, and in the end,

encourages that species of industry which it means to promote. Those

agricultural systems, on the contrary, really, and in the end,

discourage their own favourite species of industry.

It is thus that every system which endeavours, either, by extraordinary

encouragements to draw towards a particular species of industry a

greater share of the capital of the society than what would naturally go

to it, or, by extraordinary restraints, to force from a particular

species of industry some share of the capital which would otherwise be

employed in it, is, in reality subversive of the great purpose which it

means to promote. It retards, instead of accelerating, the progress of

the society towards real wealth and greatness; and diminishes, instead

of increasing, the real value of the annual produce of its land and

labour.

All systems, either of preference or of restraint, therefore, being thus

completely taken away, the obvious and simple system of natural liberty

establishes itself of its own accord. Every man, as long as he does not

violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own

interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into

competition with those of any other man, or order of men. The sovereign

is completely discharged from a duty, in the attempting to perform which

he must always be exposed to innumerable delusions, and for the proper

performance of which, no human wisdom or knowledge could ever be

sufficient; the duty of superintending the industry of private people,

and of directing it towards the employments most suitable to the

interest of the society. According to the system of natural liberty, the

sovereign has only three duties to attend to; three duties of great

importance, indeed, but plain and intelligible to common understandings:

first, the duty of protecting the society from violence and invasion of

other independent societies; secondly, the duty of protecting, as far as

possible, every member of the society from the injustice or oppression

of every other member of it, or the duty of establishing an exact

administration of justice; and, thirdly, the duty of erecting and

maintaining certain public works, and certain public institutions, which

it can never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of

individuals to erect and maintain; because the profit could never repay

the expense to any individual, or small number of individuals, though it

may frequently do much more than repay it to a great society.

The proper performance of those several duties of the sovereign

necessarily supposes a certain expense; and this expense again

necessarily requires a certain revenue to support it. In the following

book, therefore, I shall endeavour to explain, first, what are the

necessary expenses of the sovereign or commonwealth; and which of those

expenses 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 the society; secondly, what are the different

methods in which the whole society may be made to contribute towards

defraying the expenses incumbent on the whole society; and what are the

principal advantages and inconveniences of each of those methods; and

thirdly, 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. The

following book, therefore, will naturally be divided into three

chapters.

INDEX.

The two following accounts are subjoined, in order to illustrate and

confirm what is said in the fifth chapter of the fourth book, concerning

the Tonnage Bounty to the White-herring Fishery. The reader, I believe,

may depend upon the accuracy of both accounts.

_An Account of Busses fitted out in Scotland for eleven Years, with

the Number of empty Barrels carried out, and the Number of Barrels

of Herrings caught; also the Bounty, at a Medium, on each Barrel of

Sea-sticks, and on each Barrel when fully packed._

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

|Years.|Number of|Empty Barrels| Barrels of | Bounty paid on |

| | Busses. |carried out. |Herrings caught.| the Busses. |

+------+---------+-------------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | | L. s. d.|

| 1771 | 29 | 5,948 | 2,832 | 2,885 0 0 |

| 1772 | 168 | 41,316 | 22,237 | 11,055 7 6 |

| 1773 | 190 | 42,333 | 42,055 | 12,510 8 6 |

| 1774 | 240 | 59,303 | 56,365 | 26,952 2 6 |

| 1775 | 275 | 69,144 | 52,879 | 19,315 15 0 |

| 1776 | 294 | 76,329 | 51,863 | 21,290 7 6 |

| 1777 | 240 | 62,679 | 45,313 | 17,592 2 6 |

| 1778 | 220 | 56,390 | 40,958 | 16,316 2 6 |

| 1779 | 206 | 55,194 | 29,367 | 15,287 0 0 |

| 1780 | 181 | 48,315 | 19,885 | 13,445 12 6 |

| 1781 | 135 | 33,992 | 16,593 | 9,613 15 6 |

+------+---------+-------------+----------------+-------------------+

| Total, 2,186 | 550,943 | 378,347 |L.165,463 14 0 |

+----------------+-------------+----------------+-------------------+

Sea-sticks, 378,347

1-3d deducted, 126,115-2/3

-----------

Barrels fully packed, 252,231-1/3

Bounty, at a medium, for each barrel of sea-sticks, L.0 8 2-1/4

But a barrel of sea-sticks being only reckoned two

thirds of a barrel fully packed, one third is to

be deducted, which brings the bounty to L.0 12 3-3/4

And if the herrings are exported, there is besides,

a premium of L.0 2 8

--------------

So that the bounty paid by government in money, for

each barrel, is L.0 14 11-3/4

But if to this, the duty of the salt usually taken

credit for as expended in curing each barrel, which,

at a medium, is, of foreign, one bushel and one-fourth

of a bushel, at 10s. a-bushel, be added. viz. 0 12 6

--------------

the bounty on each barrel would amount to L.1 7 5-3/4

--------------

If the herrings are cured with British salt, it will stand thus, viz.

Bounty, as before L.0 14 11-3/4

But if to this bounty, the duty on two bushels of

Scotch salt, at 1s. 6d. per bushel, supposed to be

the quantity, at a medium, used in curing each barrel,

is added, viz. 0 3 0

--------------

the bounty on each barrel will amount to L.0 17 11-3/4

--------------

And when buss herrings are entered for home consumption

in Scotland, and pay the shilling a-barrel of duty, the

bounty stands thus, to wit, as before L.0 12 3

From which the 1s. a-barrel is to be deducted 0 1 0

--------------

L.0 11 3-3/4

But to that there is to be added again, the duty of the

foreign salt used in curing a barrel of herrings, viz. 0 12 6

--------------

So that the premium allowed for each barrel of herrings

entered for home consumption is L.1 3 9-3/4

--------------

If the herrings are cured with British salt, it will stand as follows,

viz.

Bounty on each barrel brought in by the busses, as above L.0 12 3-3/4

From which deduct the 1s. a-barrel, paid at the time they

are entered for home consumption 0 1 0

--------------

L.0 11 3-3/4

But if to the bounty, the duty on two bushels of Scotch

salt, at 1s. 6d. per bushel, supposed to be the quantity,

at a medium, used in curing each barrel, is added, viz. 0 3 0

--------------

the premium for each barrel entered for home consumption

will be L.0 14 3-3/4

Though the loss of duties upon herrings exported cannot, perhaps,

properly be considered as bounty, that upon herrings entered for home

consumption certainly may.

_An Account of the Quantity of Foreign Salt imported into Scotland,

and of Scotch Salt delivered Duty-free from the Works there, for the

Fishery, from the 5th of April 1771 to the 5th of April 1782, with

the Medium of both for one Year._

+-----------------------------------+-------------+----------------+

| | | Scotch Salt |

| | Foreign Salt| delivered from |

| PERIOD. | imported. | the Works. |

| +-------------+----------------+

| | Bushels | Bushels |

+-----------------------------------+-------------+----------------+

|From the 5th of April 1771 to the }| | |

| 5th April 1782. }| 936,974 | 168,226 |

| +-------------+----------------+

|Medium for one year | 85,179-5/11 | 15,293-3/11 |

+-----------------------------------+-------------+----------------+

It is to be observed, that the bushel of foreign salt weighs 48lb. that

of British salt, 56lb. only.