either from its own mines, or from those of other countries; and, secondly, upon the fertility or barrenness of the mines which may happen at any particular time to supply the commercial world with those metals. The quantity of those metals in the countries most remote from the mines, must be more or less affected by this fertility or barrenness, on account of the easy and cheap transportation of those metals, of their small bulk and great value. Their quantity in China and Indostan must have been more or less affected by the abundance of the mines of America.

sea, by the number of its lakes and rivers, and by what may be called the fertility or barrenness of those seas, lakes, and rivers, as to this sort of rude produce. As population increases, as the annual produce of the land and labour of the country grows greater and greater, there come to be more buyers of fish; and those buyers, too, have a greater quantity and variety of other goods, or, what is the same thing, the price of a greater quantity and variety of other goods, to buy with. But it will generally be impossible to supply the great and extended market, without employing a quantity of labour greater than in proportion So far as their quantity in any particular to what had been requisite for supplying the country depends upon the former of those two narrow and confined one. A market which, circumstances (the power of purchasing), their from requiring only one thousand, comes to real price, like that of all other luxuries and require annually ten thousand ton of fish, can superfluities, is likely to rise with the wealth seldom be supplied, without employing more and improvement of the country, and to fall than ten times the quantity of labour which with its poverty and depression. Countries had before been sufficient to supply it. The which have a great quantity of labour and fish must generally be sought for at a greater subsistence to spare, can afford to purchase distance, larger vessels must be employed, and any particular quantity of those metals at the more expensive machinery of every kind made expense of a greater quantity of labour and use of. The real price of this commodity, subsistence, than countries which have less to therefore, naturally rises in the progress of spare. improvement. It has accordingly done so, I So far as their quantity in any particular believe, more or less in every country. country depends upon the latter of those two Though the success of a particular day's circumstances (the fertility or barrenness of fishing may be a very uncertain matter, yet the mines which happen to supply the comthe local situation of the country being sup-mercial world), their real price, the real quanposed, the general efficacy of industry in bring- tity of labour and subsistence which they will ing a certain quantity of fish to market, tak- purchase or exchange for, will, no doubt, ing the course of a year, or of several years sink more or less in proportion to the fertilitogether, it may, perhaps, be thought is cer- ty, and rise in proportion to the barrenness of tain enough; and it, no doubt, is so. As it those mines. depends more, however, upon the local situation of the country, than upon the state of its wealth and industry; as upon this account it may in different countries be the same in very different periods of improvement, and very different in the same period; its connection with the state of improvement is uncertain; and it is of this sort of uncertainty that I am here speaking.

The fertility or barrenness of the mines, however, which may happen at any particular time to supply the commercial world, is a circumstance which, it is evident, may have no sort of connection with the state of industry in a particular country. It seems even to have no very necessary connection with that of the world in general. As arts and commerce, indeed, gradually spread themselves In increasing the quantity of the different over a greater and a greater part of the earth, minerals and metals which are drawn from the the search for new mines, being extended over bowels of the earth, that of the more precious a wider surface, may have somewhat a better ones particularly, the efficacy of human indus- chance for being successful than when contry seems not to be limited, but to be altoge- fined within narrower bounds. The discovery ther uncertain. of new mines, however, as the old ones come The quantity of the precious metals which to be gradually exhausted, is a matter of the is to be found in any country, is not limited greatest uncertainty, and such as no human by any thing in its local situation, such as the skill or industry can insure. All indications, fertility or barrenness of its own mines. Those it is acknowledged, are doubtful; and the acmetals frequently abound in countries which, tual discovery and successful working of a possess no mines. Their quantity, in every new mine can alone ascertain the reality of its particular country, seems to depend upon two value, or even of its existence. In this search different circumstances; first, upon its power there seem to be no certain limits, either to of purchasing, upon the state of its industry, the possible success, or to the possible disapupon the annual produce of its land and la- pointment of human industry. In the course bour, in consequence of which it can afford of a century or two, it is possible that new to employ a greater or a smaller quantity of mines may be discovered, more fertile than labour and subsistence, in bringing or pur- any that have ever yet been known; and it is chasing such superfluities as gold and silver, just equally possible, that the most fertile mine

then known may be more barren than any that | nution of their value, however, has not been was wrought before the discovery of the mines owing to the increase of the real wealth of of America. Whether the one or the other of Europe, of the annual produce of its land those two events may happen to take place, is and labour, but to the accidental discovery of of very little importance to the real wealth more abundant mines than any that were and prosperity of the world, to the real value known before. The increase of the quantity of the annual produce of the land and labour of gold and silver in Europe, and the increase of mankind. Its nominal value, the quantity of its manufactures and agriculture, are two of gold and silver by which this annual pro- events which, though they have happened duce could be expressed or represented, would, nearly about the same time, yet have arisen no doubt, be very different; but its real va- from very different causes, and have scarce lue, the real quantity of labour which it could any natural connection with one another. The purchase or command, would be precisely the one has arisen from a mere accident, in which same. A shilling might, in the one case, re- neither prudence nor policy either had or could present no more labour than a penny does at have any share; the other, from the fall of present; and a penny, in the other, might re- the feudal system, and from the establishment present as much as a shilling does now. But of a government which afforded to industry in the one case, he who had a shilling in his the only encouragement which it requires, pocket would be no richer than he who has a some tolerable security that it shall enjoy the penny at present; and in the other, he who fruits of its own labour. Poland, where the had a penny would be just as rich as he who has a shilling now. The cheapness and abundance of gold and silver plate would be the sole advantage which the world could derive from the one event; and the dearness and scarcity of those trifling superfluities, the only inconveniency it could suffer from the other.

feudal system still continues to take place, is
at this day as beggarly a country as it was be-
fore the discovery of America.
The money
price of corn, however, has risen; the real va-
lue of the precious metals has fallen in Po-
land, in the same manner as in other parts of
Europe. Their quantity, therefore, must have
increased there as in other places, and nearly
in the same proportion to the annual produce

Conclusion of the Digression concerning the Va- of its land and labour. This increase of the

riations in the Value of Silver.

quantity of those metals, however, has not, it seems, increased that annual produce, has neither improved the manufactures and agricul ture of the country, nor mended the circumstances of its inhabitants. Spain and Portugal, the countries which possess the mines, are, after Poland, perhaps the two most beggarly countries in Europe. The value of the precious metals, however, must be lower in Spain and Portugal than in any other part of Europe, as they come from those countries to all other parts of Europe, loaded, not only with a freight and an insurance, but with the expense of smuggling, their exportation being either prohibited or subjected to a duty. In proportion to the annual produce of the land and labour, therefore, their quantity must be greater in those countries than in any other part of Europe; those countries, however, are poorer than the greater part of Europe. Though the feudal system has been abolished in Spain and Portugal, it has not been succeeded by a much better.

The greater part of the writers who have collected the money price of things in ancient times, seem to have considered the low money price of corn, and of goods in general, or, in other words, the high value of gold and sil ver, as a proof, not only of the scarcity of those metals, but of the poverty and barbarism of the country at the time when it took place. This notion is connected with the system of political economy, which represents national wealth as consisting in the abundance and national poverty in the scarcity, of gold and silver; a system which I shall endeavour to explain and examine at great length in the fourth book of this Inquiry. I shall only observe at present, that the high value of the precious metals can be no proof of the poverty or barbarism of any particular country at the time when it took place. It is a proof only of the barrennes of the mines which happened at that time to supply the commercial world. A poor country, as it cannot afford to buy more, so it can as little afford to pay dearer for gold and silver than a rich one; and the value of those metals, therefore, is not likely to be higher in the former than in the latter. In China, a country much richer than any part of Europe, the value of the precious metals is much higher than in any part of Eu- But though the low money price, either of rope. As the wealth of Europe, indeed, has goods in general, or of corn in particular, be increased greatly since the discovery of the no proof of the poverty or barbarism of the mines of America, so the value of gold and times, the low money price of some particusilver has gradually diminished. This dimi-lar sorts of goods, such as cattle, poultry,

As the low value of gold and silver, therefore, is no proof of the wealth and flourishing state of the country where it takes place; so neither is their high value, or the low money price either of goods in general, or of corn in particular, any proof of its poverty and barbarism.

As to the high price of corn during these last ten or twelve years, it can be sufficiently accounted for from the badness of the seasons, without supposing any degradation in the value of silver.

The opinion, therefore, tnat silver is continually sinking in its value, seems not to be founded upon any good observations, either upon the prices of corn, or upon those of other provisions.

game of all kinds, &c. in proportion to that | ferent markets in France, which have been of corn, is a most decisive one. It clearly de-collected with great diligence and fidelity by monstrates, first, their great abundance in pro- Mr Messance, and by Mr Dupré de St Maur. portion to that of corn, and, consequently, the The evidence is more complete than could great extent of the land which they occupied well have been expected in a matter which is in proportion to what was occupied by corn; naturally so very difficult to be ascertained. and, secondly, the low value of this land in proportion to that of corn land, and, consequently, the uncultivated and unimproved state of the far greater part of the lands of the country. It clearly demonstrates, that the stock and population of the country did not bear the same proportion to the extent of its territory, which they commonly do in civilized countries; and that society was at that time, and in that country, but in its infancy. From the high or low money price, either of goods in general, or of corn in particular, we can infer only, that the mines, which at that time happened to supply the commercial world with gold and silver, were fertile or barren, not that the country was rich or poor. But from the high or low money price of some sorts of goods in proportion to that of others, we can infer, with a degree of probability that approaches almost to certainty, that it was rich or poor, that the greater part of its lands were improved or unimproved, and that it was either in a more or less barbarous state, or in a more or less civilized one.

The same quantity of silver, it may perhaps be said, will, in the present times, even according to the account which has been here given, purchase a much smaller quantity of several sorts of provisions than it would have done during some part of the last century; and to ascertain whether this change be owing to a rise in the value of those goods, or to a fall in the value of silver, is only to establish a vain and useless distinction, which can be of no sort of service to the man who has only a certain quantity of silver to go to market with, or a certain fixed revenue in money. I certainly do not pretend that the knowledge of this distinction will enable him to buy cheaper. It may not, however, upon that account be altogether useless.

Any rise in the money price of goods which proceeded altogether from the degradation of the value of silver, would affect all sorts of goods equally, and raise their price universally, It may be of some use to the public, by afa third, or a fourth, or a fifth part higher, ac- fording an easy proof of the prosperous con-cording as silver happened to lose a third, or dition of the country. If the rise in the price a fourth, or a fifth part of its former value. of some sorts of provisions be owing altogethBut the rise in the price of provisions, which er to a fall in the value of silver, it is owing has been the subject of so much reasoning to a circumstance, from which nothing can be and conversation, does not affect all sorts of inferred but the fertility of the American provisions equally. Taking the course of the mines. The real wealth of the country, the present century at an average, the price of annual produce of its land and labour, may, corn, it is acknowledged, even by those who notwithstanding this circumstance, be either account for this rise by the degradation of the gradually declining, as in Portugal and Polvalue of silver, has risen much less than that and; or gradually advancing, as in most other of some other sorts of provisions. The rise parts of Europe. But if this rise in the price in the price of those other sorts of provisions, of some sorts of provisions be owing to a rise therefore, cannot be owing altogether to the in the real value of the land which produces degradation of the value of silver. Some them, to its increased fertility, or, in conseother causes must be taken into the account;quence of more extended improvement and and those which have been above assigned, good cultivation, to its having been rendered will, perhaps, without having recourse to the supposed degradation of the value of silver, sufficiently explain this rise in those particular sorts of provisions, of which the price has actually risen in proportion to that of corn.

As to the price of corn itself, it has, during the sixty-four first years of the present century, and before the late extraordinary course of bad seasons, been somewhat lower than it was during the sixty-four last years of the preceding century. This fact is attested, not only by the accounts of Windsor market, but by the public fiars of all the different counties of Scotland, and by the accounts of several dif

fit for producing corn; it is owing to a circumstance which indicates, in the clearest manner, the prosperous and advancing state of the country. The land constitutes by far the greatest, the most important, and the most durable part of the wealth of every extensive country. It may surely be of some use, or, at least, it may give some satisfaction to the public, to have so decisive a proof of the increasing value of by far the greatest, the most important, and the most durable part of its wealth.

It may, too, be of some use to the public, in regulating the pecuniary reward of some of

its inferior servants.

If this rise in the price rise in the price of any other sort of rude proof some sorts of provisions be owing to a fall duce cannot much affect them. They suffer in the value of silver, their pecuniary reward, more, perhaps, by the artificial rise which has provided it was not too large before, ought been occasioned by taxes in the price of some certainly to be augmented in proportion to manufactured commodities, as of salt, soap, the extent of this fall. If it is not augment-leather, candles, malt, beer, ale, &c.

of the Progress of Improvement upon the real Price of Manufactures.

ed, their real recompence will evidently be so much diminished. But if this rise of price is owing to the increased value, in consequence Effects of the improved fertility of the land which produces such provisions, it becomes a much nicer matter to judge, either in what propor- It is the natural effect of improvement, tion any pecuniary reward ought to be aug- however, to diminish gradually the real price mented, or whether it ought to be augmented of almost all manufactures. That of the maat all. The extension of improvement and nufacturing workmanship diminishes, perhaps, cultivation, as it necessarily raises more or less, in all of them without exception. In consein proportion to the price of corn, that of quence of better machinery, of greater dexteevery sort of animal food, so it as necessarily rity, and of a more proper division and distrilowers that of, I believe, every sort of vege-bution of work, all of which are the natural table food. It raises the price of animal effects of improvement, a much smaller quanfood; because a great part of the land which tity of labour becomes requisite for executing produces it, being rendered fit for producing any particular piece of work; and though, in corn, must afford to the landlord and farmer consequence of the flourishing circumstances the rent and profit of corn land. It lowers of the society, the real price of labour should the price of vegetable food; because, by in-rise very considerably, yet the great diminucreasing the fertility of the land, it increases tion of the quantity will generally much more its abundance. The improvements of agri- than compensate the greatest rise which can culture, too, introduce many sorts of vegetable happen in the price.

food, which requiring less land, and not more There are, indeed, a few manufactures, in labour than corn, come much cheaper to mar-which the necessary rise in the real price of ket. Such are potatoes and maize, or what is the rude materials will more than compensate called Indian corn, the two most important all the advantages which improvement can inimprovements which the agriculture of Eu- troduce into the execution of the work. In rope, perhaps, which Europe itself, has receiv- carpenters' and joiners' work, and in the ed from the great extension of its commerce coarser sort of cabinet work, the necessary and navigation. Many sorts of vegetable food, rise in the real price of barren timber, in conbesides, which in the rude state of agriculture sequence of the improvement of land, will are confined to the kitchen-garden, and raised more than compensate all the advantages only by the spade, come, in its improved state, which can be derived from the best machinery, to be introduced into common fields, and to the greatest dexterity, and the most proper be raised by the plough; such as turnips, car-division and distribution of work. rots, cabbages, &c. If, in the progress of im- But in all cases in which the real price of provement, therefore, the real price of one the rude material either does not rise at all, species of food necessarily rises, that of anoth- or does not rise very much, that of the maer as necessarily falls; and it becomes a mat-nufactured commodity sinks very considerter of more nicety to judge how far the rise ably. in the one may be compensated by the fall in This diminution of price has, in the course the other. When the real price of butcher's of the present and preceding century, been meat has once got to its height (which, with most remarkable in those manufactures of regard to every sort, except perhaps that of which the materials are the coarser metals. A hogs flesh, it seems to have done through a better movement of a watch, than about the great part of England more than a century middle of the last century could have been ago), any rise which can afterwards happen in bought for twenty pounds, may now perhaps that of any other sort of animal food, cannot be had for twenty shillings. In the work of much affect the circumstances of the inferior cutlers and locksmiths, in all the toys which ranks of people. The circumstances of the are made of the coarser metals, and in all poor, through a great part of England, cannot those goods which are commonly known by surely be so much distressed by any rise in the name of Birmingham and Sheffield ware, the price of poultry, fish, wild-fowl, or veni- there has been, during the same period, a son, as they must be relieved by the fall in very great reduction of price, though not althat of potatoes. together so great as in watch-work. It has, In the present season of scarcity, the high however, been sufficient to astonish the workprice of corn no doubt distresses the poor. men of every other part of Europe, who in But in times of moderate plenty, when corn many cases acknowledge that they can prois at its ordinary or average price, the natural duce no work of equal goodness for double,

or even for triple the price. There are per- those times, have been equal to at least three haps no manufactures, in which the division pounds six shillings and sixpence of our preof labour can be carried further, or in which sent money. The man who bought it must the machinery employed admits of a greater have parted with the command of a quantity variety of improvements, than those of which of labour and subsistence equal to what that the materials are the coarser metals. sum would purchase in the present times.

In the clothing manufacture there has, dur- The reduction in the real price of the coarse ing the same period, been no such sensible re- manufacture, though considerable, has not duction of price. The price of superfine been so great as in that of the fine. cloth, I have been assured, on the contrary, In 1463, being the 3d of Edward IV. it has, within these five-and-twenty or thirty was enacted, tha "no servant in husbandry years, risen somewhat in proportion to its nor common labourer, nor servant to any arquality, owing, it was said, to a considerable tificer inhabiting out of a city or burgh, shall rise in the price of the material, which con-use or wear in their clothing any cloth above sists altogether of Spanish wool. That of the two shillings the broad yard." In the 3d of Yorkshire cloth, which is made altogether of Edward IV., two shillings contained very English wool, is said, indeed, during the nearly the same quantity of silver as four of course of the present century, to have fallen a our present money. But the Yorkshire cloth good deal in proportion to its quality. Qua- which is now sold at four shillings the yard, lity, however, is so very disputable a matter, is probably much superior to any that was that I look upon all information of this kind then made for the wearing of the very poorest as somewhat uncertain. In the clothing ma- order of common servants. Even the money nufacture, the division of labour is nearly the price of their clothing, therefore, may, in prosame now as it was a century ago, and the portion to the quality, be somewhat cheaper machinery employed is not very different. in the present than it was in those ancient There may, however, have been some small times. The real price is certainly a good deal improvements in both, which may have occa-cheaper. Tenpence was then reckoned what sioned some reduction of price.

But the reduction will appear much more sensible and undeniable, if we compare the price of this manufacture in the present times with what it was in a much remoter period, towards the end of the fifteenth century, when the labour was probably much less subdivided, and the machinery employed much more imperfect, than it is at present.

is called the moderate and reasonable price of a bushel of wheat. Two shillings, therefore, was the price of two bushels and near two pecks of wheat, which in the present times, at three shillings and sixpence the bushel, would be worth eight shillings and ninepence. For a yard of this cloth the poor servant must have parted with the power of purchasing a quantity of subsistence equal to what eight shillings and ninepence would purchase in the present times. This is a sumptuary law, too, restraining the luxury and extravagance of the poor. Their clothing, therefore, had commonly been much more expensive.

In 1487, being the 4th of Henry VII., it was enacted, that "whosoever shall sell by retail a broad yard of the finest scarlet grained, or of other grained cloth of the finest making, above sixteen shillings, shall forfeit forty shillings for every yard so sold." Sixteen shil- The same order of people are, by the same lings, therefore, containing about the same law, prohibited from wearing hose, of which quantity of silver as four-and-twenty shillings the price should exceed fourteen-pence the of our present money, was, at that time, reck-pair, equal to about eight-and-twenty pence of oned not an unreasonable price for a yard of our present money. But fourteen-pence was the finest cloth; and as this is a sumptuary in those times the price of a bushel and near law, such cloth, it is probable, had usually two pecks of wheat; which in the present been sold somewhat dearer. A guinea may be reckoned the highest price in the present times. Even though the quality of the cloths, therefore, should be supposed equal, and that of the present times is most probably much superior, yet, even upon this supposition, the money price of the finest cloth appears to have been considerably reduced since the end of the In the time of Edward IV. the art of knitfifteenth century. But its real price has been ting stockings was probably not known in any much more reduced. Six shillings and eight-part of Europe. Their hose were made of pence was then, and long afterwards, reckon-common cloth, which may have been one of ed the average price of a quarter of wheat. the causes of their dearness. The first perSixteen shillings, therefore, was the price of son that wore stockings in England is said to two quarters and more than three bushels of have been Queen Elizabeth. She received wheat. Valuing a quarter of wheat in the them as a present from the Spanish ambassapresent times at eight-and-twenty shillings, dor. the real price of a yard of fine cloth must, in

times, at three and sixpence the bushel, would cost five shillings and threepence. We should in the present times consider this as a very high price for a pair of stockings to a servant of the poorest and lowest order. He must, however, in those times, have paid what was really equivalent to this price for them.

Both in the coarse and in the fine woollen