BOOK their workmen. It will be found, I believe, in

I.

every fort of trade, that the man who works fo moderately, as to be able to work constantly, not only preferves his health the longest, but, in the course of the year, executes the greatest quantity of work.

In cheap years, it is pretended, workmen are generally more idle, and in dear ones more industrious than ordinary. A plentiful subsistence therefore, it has been concluded, relaxes, and a fcanty one quickens their induftry. That a little more plenty than ordinary may render fome workmen idle, cannot well be doubted; but that it should have this effect upon the greater part, or that men in general fhould work better when they are ill fed than when they are well fed, when they are disheartened than when they are in good fpirits, when they are frequently fick than when they are generally in good health, seems not very probable. Years of dearth, it is to be observed, are generally among the common people years of fickness and mortality, which cannot fail to diminish the produce of their induftry.

In years of plenty, fervants frequently leave their masters, and trust their fubfiftence to what they can make by their own induftry. But the fame cheapnefs of provifions, by increafing the fund which is deftined for the maintenance of fervants, encourages masters, farmers especially, to employ a greater number. Farmers upon fuch occafions expect more profit from their corn by maintaining a few more labouring fervants, than

by

VIII.

by felling it at a low price in the market.. The CHA P. demand for fervants increafes, while the number of those who offer to fupply that demand di minishes. The price of labour, therefore, frequently rifes in cheap years.

In years of fcarcity, the difficulty and uncertainty of fubfiftence make all fuch people eager to return to service. But the high price of provifions, by diminishing the funds deftined for the maintenance of fervants, difpofes mafters rather to diminish than to increase the number of those they have. In dear years too, poor independent workmen frequently confume the little stocks with which they had ufed to fupply themselves with the materials of their work, and are obliged to become journeymen for fubfiftence. More people want employment that can easily get it; many are willing to take it upon lower terms than ordinary, and the wages of both fervants and journeymen frequently fink in dear years.

Masters of all forts, therefore, frequently make better bargains with their fervants in dear than in cheap years, and find them more humble and dependent in the former than in the latter. They naturally, therefore, commend the former as more favourable to industry. Landlords and farmers, befides, two of the largeft claffes of masters, have another reafon for being pleafed with dear years. The rents of the one and the profits of the other depend very much upon the price of provifions. Nothing can be more ab furd, however, than to imagine that men in general

4

I.

BOOK neral should work lefs when they work for themfelves, than when they work for other people. A poor independent workman will generally be more industrious than even a journeyman who works by the piece. The one enjoys the whole produce of his own induftry; the other shares it with his master. The one, in his feparate independent state, is less liable to the temptations of bad company, which in large manufactories fo frequently ruin the morals of the other. The fuperiority of the independent workman over thofe fervants who are hired by the month or by the year, and whofe wages and maintenance are the fame whether they do much or do little, is likely to be still greater. Cheap years tend to increase the proportion of independent workmen to journeymen and fervants of all kinds, and dear years to diminish it.

A French author of great knowledge and ingenuity, Mr. Meffance, receiver of the taillies in the election of St. Etienne, endeavours to fhow that the poor do more work in cheap than in dear years, by comparing the quantity and value of the goods made upon thofe different occafions in three different manufactures; one of coarfe woollens carried on at Elbeuf; one of linen, and another of filk, both which extend through the whole generality of Rouen. It ap pears from his account, which is copied from the registers of the public offices, that the quantity and value of the goods made in all those three manufactures has generally been greater in cheap than in dear years; and that it has always

VIII.

been greatest in the cheapest, and least in the C HA P. deareft years. All the three feem to be stationary manufactures, or which, though their produce may vary fomewhat from year to year, are upon the whole neither going backwards nor forwards.

The manufacture of linen in Scotland, and, that of coarse woollens in the weft riding of Yorkshire, are growing manufactures, of which the produce is generally, though with fome variations, increasing both in quantity and value. Upon examining, however, the accounts which have been published of their annual produce, I have not been able to obferve that its variations have had any fenfible connection with the dearnefs or cheapnefs of the feafons. In 1740, a year. of great fcarcity, both manufactures, indeed, appear to have declined very confiderably. But in 1756, another year of great fcarcity, the Scotch manufacture made more than ordinary advances. The Yorkshire manufacture, indeed, declined, and its produce did not rise to what it had been in 1755 till 1766, after the repeal of the American stamp act. In that and the following year it greatly exceeded what it had ever been before, and it has continued to advance ever fince.

The produce of all great manufactures for dif tant fale muft neceffarily depend, not so much upon the dearnefs or cheapnefs of the feafons in the countries where they are carried on, as upon the circumstances which affect the demand in the countries where they are confumed; upon peace or war, upon the profperity or declenfion of

VOL. II.

K

other

BOOK other rival manufactures, and upon the good or I. bad humour of their principal customers. A

great part of the extraordinary work, befides, which is probably done in cheap years, never enters the public regifters of manufactures. The men fervants who leave their masters become independent labourers. The women return to their parents, and commonly spin in order to make cloaths for themselves and their families. Even the independent workmen do not always work for public fale, but are employed by fome of their neighbours in manufactures for family ufe. The produce of their labour, therefore, frequently makes no figure in thofe public regifters of which the records are fometimes published with fo much parade, and from which our merchants and manufacturers would often vainly pretend to announce the profperity or declenfion of the greatest empires.

Though the variations in the price of labour, not only do not always correfpond with those in the price of provifions, but are frequently quite oppofite, we must not, upon this account, imagine that the price of provifions has no influ ence upon that of labour. The money price of. labour is neceffarily regulated by two circumftances; the demand for labour, and the price of the neceffaries and conveniences of life. The demand for labour, according as it happens to be increasing, stationary, or declining, or to require an increasing, stationary, or declining population, determines the quantity of the neceffaries and conveniences of life which must be