BOOK I CONCLUSION of the CHAPTER. SHALL conclude this very long chapter with obferving that every improvement in the circumstances of the fociety tends either directly or indirectly to raise the real rent of land, to increase the real wealth of the landlord, his power of purchafing the labour, or the produce of the labour of other people. THE extension of improvement and cultivation tends to raise it directly. The landlord's fhare of the produce neceffarily increases with the increafe of the produce. THAT rife in the real price of those parts of the rude produce of land, which is first the effect of extended improvement and cultivation, and afterwards the cause of their being still further extended, the rife in the price of cattle, for example, tends too to raise the rent of land directly, and in a still greater proportion. The real value of the landlord's fhare, his real command of the labour of other people, not only rifes with the real value of the produce, but the proportion of his fhare to the whole produce rifes with it. That produce, after the rife in its real price, requires no more labour to collect it than before. A fmaller proportion of it will, therefore, be fufficient to replace, with the ordinary profit, the ftock which employs that labour. A greater proportion of it must, confequently, belong to the landlord. ALL . XI. ALL thofe improvements in the productive CHAP powers of labour, which tend directly to reduce the real price of manufactures, tend indirectly to raise the real rent of land. The landlord exchanges that part of his rude produce, which is over and above his own confumption, or what comes to the fame thing, the price of that part of it, for manufactured produce. Whatever reduces the real price of the latter, raises that of the former. An equal quantity of the former becomes thereby equivalent to a greater quantity of the latter; and the landlord is enabled to. purchase a greater quantity of the conveniencies, ornaments, or luxuries, which he has occafion for. quantity of ufeful EYERY increase in the real wealth of the fociety, every increafe in the labour employed within it, raise the real rent of land. tion of this labour naturally goes to the land. A greater number of men and cattle are employed in its cultivation, the produce increases with the increase of the ftock which is thus employed in raifing it, and the rent increases with the produce. THE contrary circumstances, the neglect of cultivation and improvement, the fall in the real price of any part of the rude produce of land, the rife in the real price of manufactures from the decay of manufacturing art and industry, the declenfion of the real wealth of the fociety, all tend, on the other hand, to lower the real rent of BOOK of land, to reduce the real wealth of the land I. lord, to diminish his power of purchasing either the labour, or the produce of the labour of other people. THE whole annual produce of the land and labour of every country, or what comes to the fame thing, the whole price of that annual produce, naturally divides itself, it has already been obferved, into three parts; the rent of land, the wages of labour, and the profits of ftock; and conftitutes a revenue to three different orders of people; to thofe who live by rent, to those who live by wages, and to those who live by profit, Thefe are the three great, original and conftituent orders of every civilized fociety, from whofe revenue that of every other order is ultimately derived. THE intereft of the firft of thofe three great orders, it appears from what has been juft now faid, is ftrictly and infeparably connected with the general intereft of the fociety. Whatever either promotes or obftructs the one, neceffarily promotes or obftructs the other. When the public deliberates concerning any regulation of commerce or police, the proprietors of land never can mislead it, with a view to promote the intereft of their own particular order; at leaft, if they have any tolerable knowledge of that intereft. They are, indeed, too often defective in this tolerable knowledge. They are the only one of the three orders whofe revenue costs them neither labour nor care, but comes to them, as it were, of its own accord, and independent of CHA P.. That indo any plan or project of their own. THE intereft of the fecond order, that of those who live by wages, is as ftrictly connected with the interest of the fociety as that of the first. The wages of the labourer, it has already been fhewn, are never fo high as when the demand for labour is continually rifing, or when the quantity employed is every year increafing confiderably. When this real wealth of the fociety becomes stationary, his wages are foon reduced to what is barely enough to enable him to bring up a family, or to continue the race of labourers. When the fociety declines, they fall even below this. The order of proprietors may, perhaps, gain more by the profperity of the fociety, than that of labourers: but there is no order that fuffers fo cruelly from its decline. But though the intereft of the labourer is ftrictly connected with that of the fociety, he is incapable either of comprehending that intereft, or of understanding its connexion with his own. His condition leaves him no time to receive the neceffary information, and his education and habits are commonly fuch as to render him unfit to judge even though he was fully informed. In the XI. BOOK public deliberations, therefore, his voice is little I. heard and less regarded, except upon fome particular occafions, when his clamour is animated, fet on, and supported by his employers, not for his, but their own particular purposes. His employers conftitute the third order, that of those who live by profit. It is the stock that is employed for the fake of profit, which puts into motion the greater part of the useful labour of every fociety. The plans and projects of the employers of stock regulate and direct all the molt important operations of labour, and profit is the end proposed by all thofe plans and projects. But the rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rife with the profperity, and fall with the declenfion of the fociety. On the contrary, it is naturally low in rich, and high in poor countries, and it is always higheft in the countries which are going fastest to ruin. The intereft of this third order, therefore, has not the fame connexion with the general intereft of the fociety as that of the other two. Merchants and master manufacturers are, in this order, the two claffes of people who commonly employ the largest capitals, and who by their wealth draw to themselves the greatest fhare of the public confideration. As during their whole lives they are engaged in plans and projects, they have frequently more acuteness of understanding than the greater part of country gentlemen. As their thoughts, however, are commonly exercised rather about the intereft of their own particular branch of |