III. manufactures that were carried on, required but CHAP. very small capitals. These, however, must have yielded very large profits. The rate of interest was no-where less that ten per cent., and their profits must have been sufficient to afford this great interest. At present the rate of intereft, in the improved parts of Europe, is no-where higher than fix per cent. and in some of the most improved it is so low as four, three, and two per cent. Though that part of the revenue of the inhabitants which is derived from the profits of stock is always much greater in rich than in poor countries, it is because the stock is much greater: in proportion to the stock the profits are generally much less. That part of the annual produce, therefore, which, as foon as it comes either from the ground, or from the hands of the productive labourers, is destined for replacing a capital, is not only much greater in rich than in poor countries, but bears a much greater proportion to that which is immediately destined for conftituting a revenue either as rent or as profit. The funds destined for the maintenance of productive labour, are not only much greater in the former than in the latter, but bear a much greater proportion to those which, though they may be employed to maintain either productive or unproductive hands, have generally a predilection for the latter. The proportion between those different funds necessarily determines in every country the general character of the inhabitants as to industry or idleness. We are more industrious than our forefathers; 4 II. воок forefathers; because in the present times the funds destined for the maintenance of industry, are much greater in proportion to those which are likely to be employed in the maintenance of idleness, than they were two or three centuries ago. Our ancestors were idle for want of a fufficient encouragement to industry. It is better, fays the proverb, to play for nothing, than to work for nothing. In mercantile and manufacturing towns, where the inferior ranks of people are chiefly maintained by the employment of capital, they are in general industrious, fober, and thriving; as in many English, and in most Dutch towns. In those towns which are principally fupported by the constant or occafional refidence of a court, and in which the inferior ranks of people are chiefly maintained by the spending of revenue, they are in general idle, diffolute, and poor; as at Rome, Versailles, Compeigne, and Fontainbleau. If you except Rouen and Bourdeaux, there is little trade or industry in any of the parliament towns of France; and the inferior ranks of people, being chiefly maintained by the expence of the members of the courts of justice, and of those who come to plead before them, are in general idle and poor. The great trade of Rouen and Bourdeaux seems to be altogether the effect of their situation. Rouen is neceffarily the entrepôt of almost all the goods which are brought either from foreign countries, or from the maritime provinces of France, for the confumption of the great city of Paris. Bourdeaux is in the fame manner the entrepôt of the wines III. which grow upon the banks of the Garonne, and CHAP. of the rivers which run into it, one of the richest wine countries in the world, and which feems to produce the wine fittest for exportation, or best suited to the taste of foreign nations. Such advantageous fituations neceffarily attract a great capital by the great employment which they afford it; and the employment of this capital is the cause of the industry of those two cities. In the other parliament towns of France, very little more capital feems to be employed that what is neceffary for fupplying their own confumption; that is, little more than the smallest capital which can be employed in them. The fame thing may be faid of Paris, Madrid, and Vienna. Of those three cities, Paris is by far the most industrious: but Paris itself is the principal market of all the manufactures established at Paris, and its own confumption is the principal object of all the trade which it carries on. London, Lifbon, and Copenhagen, are, perhaps, the only three cities in Europe, which are both the constant refidence of a court, and can at the fame time be confidered as trading cities, or as cities which trade not only for their own confumption, but for that of other cities and countries. The fituation of all the three is extremely advantageous, and naturally fits them to be the entrepôts of a great part of the goods destined for the confumption of diftant places. In a city where a great revenue is spent, to employ with advantage a capital for any other purpose than for fupplying the confumption of that city, is probably воок probably more difficult than in one in which the II. inferior ranks of people have no other mainte. nance but what they derive from the employment of fuch a capital. The idleness of the greater part of the people who are maintained by the expence of revenue, corrupts, it is probable, the industry of those who ought to be maintained by the employment of capital, and renders it lefs advantageous to employ a capital there than in other places. There was little trade or industryin Edinburgh before the Union. When the Scotch parliament was no longer to be assembled in it, when it ceased to be the necessary refidence of the principal nobility and gentry of Scotland, it became a city of fome trade and industry. It still continues, however, to be the residence of the principal courts of justice in Scotland, of the boards of customs and excife, &c. A confiderable revenue, therefore, still continues to be spent in it. In trade and industry it is much inferior to Glasgow, of which the inhabitants are chiefly maintained by the employment of capital. The inhabitants of a large village, it has fometimes been obferved, after having made confiderable progress in manufactures, have become idle and poor, in consequence of a great lord's having taken up his refidence in their neighbourhood. The proportion between capital and revenue, therefore, feems every-where to regulate the proportion between industry and idleness. Whereever capital predominates, industry prevails : wherever revenue, idleness. Every increase or diminution diminution of capital, therefore, naturally tends CHAP. to increase or diminish the real quantity of industry, the number of productive hands, and confequently the exchangeable value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the country, the real wealth and revenue of all its inhabitants. Capitals are increased by parfimony, and diminished by prodigality and misconduct. Whatever a person saves from his revenue he adds to his capital, and either employs it himself in maintaining an additional number of productive hands, or enables fome other perfon to do fo, by lending it to him for an interest, that is, for a share of the profits. As the capital of an individual can be increased only by what he faves from his annual revenue or his annual gains, fo the capital of a fociety, which is the fame with that of all the individuals who compose it, can be increased only in the fame manner. Parfimony, and not industry, is the immediate cause of the increase of capital. Industry, indeed, provides the fubject which parfimony accumulates. But whatever industry might acquire, if parfimony did not fave and store up, the capital would never be the greater. Parfimony, by increasing the fund which is destined for the maintenance of productive hands, tends to increase the number of those hands whofe labour adds to the value of the fubject upon which it is bestowed. It tends therefore to increase the exchangeable value of the annual pro duce |