contribute, for some little time, to support its desire of bettering our condition; a desire consumption in adversity. The exportation of gold and silver is, in this case, not the cause, but the effect of its declension, and may even, for some little time, alleviate the misery of that declension. which, though generally calm and dispassion. ate, comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us till we go into the grave. In the whole interval which separates those two moments, there is scarce, perhaps, a single inThe quantity of money, on the contrary, stance, in which any man is so perfectly and must in every country naturally increase as completely satisfied with his situation, as to be the value of the annual produce increases. without any wish of alteration or improveThe value of the consumable goods annually ment of any kind. An augmentation of forcirculated within the society being greater, tune is the means by which the greater part will require a greater quantity of money to cir- of men propose and wish to better their con culate them. A part of the increased produce, dition. It is the means the most vulgar and therefore, will naturally be employed in pur- the most obvious; and the most likely way of chasing, wherever it is to be had, the additional | augmenting their fortune, is to save and accuquantity of gold and silver necessary for cir- mulate some part of what they acquire, either culating the rest. The increase of those me- regularly and annually, or upon some extratals will, in this case, be the effect, not the ordinary occasion. Though the principle of cause, of the public prosperity. Gold and sil- expense, therefore, prevails in almost all men ter are purchased everywhere in the same upon some occasions, and in some men upon manner. The food, clothing, and lodging, the almost all occasions; yet in the greater part of revenue and maintenance, of all those whose men, taking the whole course of their life at labour or stock is employed in bringing them an average, the principle of frugality seems from the mine to the market, is the price paid not only to predominate, but to predominate for them in Peru as well as in England. The very greatly. country which has this price to pay, will never be long without the quantity of those metals which it has occasion for; and no country will ever long retain a quantity which it has no occasion for. With regard to misconduct, the number of prudent and successful undertakings is everywhere much greater than that of injudicious and unsuccessful ones. After all our complaints of the frequency of bankruptcies, the Whatever, therefore, we may imagine the unhappy men who fall into this misfortune, real wealth and revenue of a country to con- make but a very small part of the whole numsist in, whether in the value of the annual pro- ber engaged in trade, and all other sorts of duce of its land and labour, as plain reason business; not much more, perhaps, than one seems to dictate, or in the quantity of the pre- in a thousand. Bankruptcy is, perhaps, the cious metals which circulate within it, as vulgar greatest and most humiliating calamity which prejudices suppose; in either view of the mat- can befal an innocent man. The greater part ter, every prodigal appears to be a public ene- of men, therefore, are sufficiently careful to my, and every frugal man a public benefac-avoid it. tor. Some, indeed, do not avoid it; as some do not avoid the gallows. The effects of misconduct are often the Great nations are never impoverished by same as those of prodigality. Every injudi- private, though they sometimes are by public cious and unsuccessful project in agriculture, prodigality and misconduct. The whole, or mines, fisheries, trade, or manufactures, tends almost the whole public revenue is, in most in the same manner to diminish the funds des- countries, employed in maintaining unproduc. tined for the maintenance of productive labour. tive hands. Such are the people who compose In every such project, though the capital is a numerous and splendid court, a great eccleconsumed by productive hands only, yet as, siastical establishment, great fleets and armies, by the injudicious manner in which they are who in time of peace produce nothing, and in employed, they do not reproduce the full va- time of war acquire nothing which can com lue of their consumption, there must always pensate the expense of maintaining them, even be some diminution in what would otherwise while the war lasts. Such people, as they have been the productive funds of the society. themselves produce nothing, are all maintainIt can seldom happen, indeed, that the cir-ed by the produce of other men's labour. cumstances of a great nation can be much af- When multiplied, therefore, to an unnecessary fected either by the prodigality or misconduct number, they may in a particular year conof individuals; the profusion or imprudence sume so great a share of this produce, as not of some being always more than compensated to leave a sufficiency for maintaining the proby the frugality and good conduct of others. ductive labourers, who should reproduce it With regard to profusion, the principle next year. The next year's produce, therewhich prompts to expense is the passion for fore, will be less than that of the foregoing; present enjoyment; which, though sometimes and if the same disorder should continue, that violent and very difficult to be restrained, is in of the third year will be still less than that of general only momentary and occasional. But the second. Those unproductive bands who the principle which prompts to save, is the should be maintained by a part only of the spare revenue of the people, may consume so the private misconduct of others, or by the great a share of their whole revenue, and there- public extravagance of government. But we by oblige so great a number to encroach upon their capitals, upon the funds destined for the maintenance of productive labour, that all the frugality and good conduct of individuals may not be able to compensate the waste and degradation of produce occasioned by this violent and forced encroachment. shall find this to have been the case of almost all nations, in all tolerably quiet and peace. able times, even of those who have not enjoyed the most prudent and parsimonious governments. To form a right judgment of it, indeed, we must compare the state of the country at periods somewhat distant from one anoThis frugality and good conduct, however, ther. The progress is frequently so gradual, is, upon most occasions, it appears from expe- that, at near periods, the improvement is not rience, sufficient to compensate, not only the only not sensible, but, from the declension ei. private prodigality and misconduct of indivi- ther of certain branches of industry, or of cerduals, but the public extravagance of govern- tain districts of the country, things which ment. The uniform, constant, and uninter-sometimes happen, though the country in gerupted effort of every man to better his condi- neral is in great prosperity, there frequently tion, the principle from which public and na- arises a suspicion, that the riches and industry tional, as well as private opulence is original- of the whole are decaying. ly derived, is frequently powerful enough to The annual produce of the land and labour maintain the natural progress of things to- of England, for example, is certainly much wards improvement, in spite both of the ex-greater than it was a little more than a centravagance of government, and of the greatest tury ago, at the restoration of Charles II. errors of administration. Like the unknown Though at present few people, I believe, principle of animal life, it frequently restores doubt of this, yet during this period five years health and vigour to the constitution, in spite have seldom passed away, in which some book not only of the disease, but of the absurd pre- or pamphlet has not been published, written, scriptions of the doctor. too, with such abilities as to gain some autho rity with the public, and pretending to demonstrate that the wealth of the nation was fast declining; that the country was depopulated, agriculture neglected, manufactures decaying, and trade undone. Nor have tnese publications been all party pamphlets, the wretched offspring of falsehood and venality. Many of them have been written by very candid and very intelligent people, who wrote nothing but what they believed, and for no other reason but because they believed it. At this period, The annual produce of the land and labour of any nation can be increased in its value by no other means, but by increasing either the number of its productive labourers, or the productive powers of those labourers who had before been employed. The number of its productive labourers, it is evident, can never De much increased, but in consequence of an increase of capital, or of the funds destined for maintaining them. The productive powers of the same number of labourers cannot be increased, but in consequence either of some The annual produce of the land and labour addition and improvement to those machines of England, again, was certainly much greatand instruments which facilitate and abridge er at the Restoration than we can suppose it labour, or of more proper division and distri- to have been about a hundred years before, at bution of employment. In either case, an ad- the accession of Elizabeth. ditional capital is almost always required. It too, we have all reason to believe, the country is by means of an additional capital only, that was much more advanced in improvement, the undertaker of any work can either provide than it had been about a century before, tohis workmen with better machinery, or make wards the close of the dissensions between the a more proper distribution of employment houses of York and Lancaster. Even then it among them. When the work to be done was, probably, in a better condition than it consists of a number of parts, to keep every had been at the Norman conquest; and at the man constantly employed in one way, requires Norman conquest, than during the confusion a much greater capital than where every man is occasionally employed in every different part of the work. When we compare, therefore, the state of a nation at two different periods, and find that the annual produce of its land and labour is evidently greater at the latIn each of those periods, however, there ter than at the former, that its lands are better was not only much private and public profucultivated, its manufactures more numerous sion, many expensive and unnecessary wars, and more flourishing, and its trade more ex-great perversion of the annual produce from tensive; we may be assured that its capital maintaining productive to maintain unproducmust have increased during the interval be- tive hands; but sometimes, in the confusion tween those two periods, and that more must of civil discord, such absolute waste and dehave been added to it by the good conduct of struction of stock, as might be supposed, not some, than had been taken from it either by only to retard, as it certainly did, the natural of the Saxon heptarchy. Even at this early period, it was certainly a more improved country than at the invasion of Julius Cæsar, when its inhabitants were nearly in the same state with the savages in North America. accumulation of riches, but to have left the | ment in almost all former times, and which, As frugality increases, and prodigality diminishes, the public capital, so the conduct of those whose expense just equals their revenue, without either accumulating or encroaching, neither increases nor diminishes it. Some modes of expense, however, seem to contribute more to the growth of public opulence than others. ther alleviate nor support that of another; or it maintaining a great number of menial ser vants, and a multitude of dogs and horses; or, contenting himself with a frugal table, and few attendants, he may lay out the great er part of it in adorning his house or his country villa, in useful or ornamental buildings, in useful or ornamental furniture, in collecting books, statues, pictures; or in things more But though the profusion of government frivolous, jewels, baubles, ingenious trinkets must undoubtedly have retarded the natural of different kinds; or, what is most trifling progress of England towards wealth and im- of all, in amassing a great wardrobe of fine provement, it has not been able to stop it. clothes, like the favourite and minister of a The annual produce of its land and labour is great prince who died a few years ago. Were undoubtedly much greater at present than it two men of equal fortune to spend their revewas either at the Restoration or at the Revo-nue, the one chiefly in the one way, the other lution. The capital, therefore, annually em- in the other, the magnificence of the person ployed in cultivating this land, and in main- whose expense had been chiefly in durable taining this labour, must likewise be much commodities, would be continually increasing, greater. In the midst of all the exactions of every day's expense contributing something government, this capital has been silently and to support and heighten the effect of that of gradually accumulated by the private fruga- the following day; that of the other, on the uty and good conduct of individuals, by their contrary, would be no greater at the end of universal, continual, and uninterrupted effort the period than at the beginning. The forto better their own condition. It is this effort, mer too would, at the end of the period, be protected by law, and allowed by liberty to the richer man of the two. He would have exert itself in the manner that is most advan- a stock of goods of some kind or other, which, tageous, which has maintained the progress though it might not be worth all that it cost, of England towards opulence and improve- | would always be worth something. No trace 2 or vestige of the expense of the latter would remain, and the effects of ten or twenty years' profusion would be as completely annihilated as if they had never existed. posed to imply soine acknowledgment of preceding bad conduct. Few, therefore, of those who have once been so unfortunate as to launch out too far into this sort of expense, have af terwards the courage to reform, till ruin and bankruptcy oblige them. But if a person has, at any time, been at too great an expense in building, in furniture, in books, or pictures, no imprudence can be inferred from his chang ing his conduct. These are things in which further expense is frequently rendered unnecessary by former expense; and when a person stops short, he appears to do so, not because he has exceeded his fortune, but because he has satisfied his fancy. As the one mode of expense is more favourable than the other to the opulence of an individual, so is it likewise to that of a nation. The houses, the furniture, the clothing of the rich, in a little time, become useful to the inferior and middling ranks of people. They are able to purchase them when their superiors grow weary of them; and the general accommodation of the whole people is thus gradually improved, when this mode of expense becomes universal among men of fortune. In countries which have long been rich, you will The expense, besides, that is laid out in frequently find the inferior ranks of people in durable commodities, gives maintenance, compossession both of houses and furniture per-monly, to a greater number of people than fectly good and entire, but of which neither that which is employed in the most profuse the one could have been built, nor the other hospitality. Of two or three hundred weight have been made for their use. What was for- of provisions, which may sometimes be served merly a seat of the family of Seymour, is now up at a great festival, one half, perhaps, is an inn upon the Bath road. The marriage-thrown to the dunghill, and there is always a bed of James I. of Great Britain, which his great deal wasted and abused. But if the exqueen brought with her from Denmark, as a pense of this entertainment had been employed present fit for a sovereign to make to a sove-in setting to work masons, carpenters, upholreign, was, a few years ago, the ornament of sterers, mechanics, &c. a quantity of provisions an alehouse at Dunfermline. In some an- of equal value would have been distributed cient cities, which either have been long sta-among a still greater number of people, who tionary, or have gone somewhat to decay, you will sometimes scarce find a single house which could have been built for its present inhabitants. If you go into those houses, too, you will frequently find many excellent, though antiquated pieces of furniture, which are still very fit for use, and which could as little have been made for them. Noble palaces, magnificent villas, great collections of books, statues, pictures, and other curiosities, I would not, however, by all this, be unare frequently both an ornament and an hon-derstood to mean, that the one species of exour, not only to the neighbourhood, but to pense always betokens a more liberal or genethe whole country to which they belong. Ver- rous spirit than the other. When a man of sailles is an ornament and an honour to France, fortune spends his revenue chiefly in hospita.. Stowe and Wilton to England. Italy still lity, he shares the greater part of it with his continues to command some sort of venera- friends and companions; but when he emtion, by the number of monuments of this ploys it in purchasing such durable commo kind which it possesses, though the wealth dities, he often spends the whole upon his which produced them has decayed, and though own person, and gives nothing to any body the genius which planned them seems to be without an equivalent. The latter species of extinguished, perhaps from not having the expense, therefore, especially when directed same employment. towards frivolous objects, the little ornaments of dress and furniture, jewels, trinkets, gewgaws, frequently indicates, not only a trifling, but a base and selfish disposition. All that mean is, that the one sort of expense, as it always occasions some accumulation of valuable commodities, as it is more favourable to private frugality, and, consequently, to the increase of the public capital, and as it maintains productive rather than unproductive hands, conduces more than the other to the growth of public opulence. Notes 17, 18. The expense, too, which is laid out in durable commodities, is favourable not only to accumulation, but to frugality. If a person should at any time exceed in it, he can easily reform without exposing himself to the censure of the public. To reduce very much the number of his servants, to reform his table from great profusion to great frugality, to lay down his equipage after he has once set it up, are changes which cannot escape the observa tion of his neighbours, and which are sup would have bought them in pennyworths and CHAP. XI. OF THE RENT OF LAND. Note 13. endeavours to bring under strict regulations, size occasioned no sensible inconveniency; what in its own nature seems incapable of mi-and the establishment of one in the few places nute limitation; for if all persons in the same where it has yet taken place has produced no kind of work were to receive equal wages, sensible advantage. In the greater part of the there would be no emulation, and no room towns in Scotland, however, there is an inleft for industry or ingenuity.' corporation of bakers, who claim exclusive Particular acts of parliament, however, still privileges, though they are not very strictly attempt sometimes to regulate wages in parti- guarded. cular trades, and in particular places. Thus The proportion between the different rates, the 8th of George III. prohibits, under heavy both of wages and profit, in the different empenalties, all master tailors in London, and ployments of labour and stock, seems not to five miles round it, from giving, and their be much affected, as has already been ob workmen from accepting, more than two shil-served, by the riches or poverty, the advancing, lings and sevenpence halfpenny a-day, except stationary, or declining state of the society. in the case of a general mourning. When- Such revolutions in the public welfare, though ever the legislature attempts to regulate the they affect the general rates both of wages and differences between masters and their work-profit, must, in the end, affect them equally in men, its counsellors are always the masters. all different employments. The proportion When the regulation, therefore, is in favour between them, therefore, must remain the of the workmen, it is always just and equit. same, and cannot well be altered, at least for able; but it is sometimes otherwise when in any considerable time, by any such revolutions. favour of the masters. Thus the law which obliges the masters in several different trades to pay their workmen in money, and not in goods, is quite just and equitable. It imposes no real hardship upon the masters. It only obliges them to pay that value in money, which they pretended to pay, but did not always really pay, in goods. This law is in favour of the workmen; but the 8th of George III. is in favour of the masters. When masters com- RENT, considered as the price paid for the use bine together, in order to reduce the wages of of land, is naturally the highest which the their workmen, they commonly enter into a tenant can afford to pay in the actual circumprivate bond or agreement, not to give more stances of the land. In adjusting the terms than a certain wage, under a certain penalty. of the lease, the landlord endeavours to leave Were the workmen to enter into a contrary him no greater share of the produce than what combination of the same kind, not to accept is sufficient to keep up the stock from which of a certain wage, under a certain penalty, the he furnishes the seed, pays the labour, and law would punish them very severely; and, purchases and maintains the cattle and other if it dealt impartially, it would treat the mas- instruments of husbandry, together with the ters in the same manner. But the 8th of ordinary profits of farming stock in the neighGeorge III. enforces by law that very regula-bourhood. This is evidently the smallest share tion which masters sometimes attempt to esta- with which the tenant can content himself, blish by such combinations. The complaint without being a loser, and the landlord selof the workmen, that it puts the ablest and dom means to leave him any more. Whatmost industrious upon the same footing with ever part of the produce, or, what is the same an ordinary workman, scems perfectly well thing, whatever part of its price, is over and founded. above this share, he naturally endeavours to In ancient times, too, it was usual to at- reserve to himself as the rent of his land, tempt to regulate the profits of merchants and which is evidently the highest the tenant can other dealers, by regulating the price of pro- afford to pay in the actual circumstances of visions and other goods. The assize of bread the land. Sometimes, indeed, the liberality, is, so far as I know, the only remnant of this more frequently the ignorance, of the landancient usage. Where there is an exclusive lord, makes him accept of somewhat less than corporation, it may, perhaps, be proper to re- this portion; and sometimes, too, though more gulate the price of the first necessary of life; rarely, the ignorance of the tenant makes him but, where there is none, the competition will undertake to pay somewhat more, or to conregulate it much better than any assize. The tent himself with somewhat less, than the or method of fixing the assize of bread, establish- dinary profits of farming stock in the neigh ed by the 31st of George II. could not be put bourhood. This portion, however, may still in practice in Scotland, on account of a defect be considered as the natural rent of land, or in the law, its execution depending upon the the rent at which it is naturally meant that office of clerk of the market, which does not land should, for the most part, be let. exist there. This defect was not remedied till The rent of land, it may be thought, is fre the third of George III. The want of an as-quently no more than a reasonable profit or |