I. BOOK through all the different ftages of his employment. It is reasonable, therefore, that in Europe the wages of mechanics, artificers, and manufacturers, fhould be fomewhat higher than those of common labourers. They are fo accordingly, and their fuperior gains make them in most places be confidered as a fuperior rank of people. This fuperiority, however, is generally very small; the daily or weekly earnings of journeymen in the more common forts of manufactures, fuch as those of plain linen and woollen cloth, computed at an average, are, in most places, very little more than the day wages of common labourers. Their employment, indeed, is more steady and uniform, and the fuperiority of their earnings, taking the whole year together, may be fomewhat greater. It feems evidently, however, to be no greater than what is fufficient to compenfate the fuperior expence of their education. Education in the ingenious arts and in the liberal profeffions, is ftill more tedious and expenfive. The pecuniary recompence, therefore, of painters and sculptors, of lawyers and phyficians, ought to be much more liberal and it is fo accordingly. The profits of stock seem to be very little affected by the eafinefs or difficulty of learning the trade in which it is employed. All the different ways in which stock is commonly employed in great towns feem, in reality, to be almost equally easy and equally difficult to learn. One branch either of foreign or domeftic trade, cannot cannot well be a much more intricate business c HA P. than another. Thirdly, The wages of labour in different occupations vary with the conftancy or inconstancy of employment. Employment is much more conftant in fome trades than in others. In the greater part of manufactures, a journeyman may be pretty fure of employment almost every day in the year that he is able to work. A mafon or bricklayer, on the contrary, can work neither in hard froft nor in foul weather, and his employment at all other times depends upon the occafional calls of his customers. He is liable, in confequence, to be frequently without any. What he earns, therefore, while he is employed, muft not only maintain him while he is idle, but make him fome compenfation for thofe anxious and defponding moments which the thought of fo precarious a fituation muft fometimes occafion. Where the computed earnings of the greater part of manufacturers, accordingly, are nearly upon a level with the day wages of common labourers, thofe of mafons and bricklayers are generally from one half more to double thofe wages. Where common labourers earn four and five fhillings a week, mafons and bricklayers frequently earn feven and eight; where the former earn fix, the latter often earn nine and ten, and where the former earn nine and ten, as in London, the latter commonly earn fifteen and eighteen. No species of skilled labour, however, feems more eafy to learn than that of mafons and bricklayers. Chairmen X. I. BOOK Chairmen in London, during the fummer feafon, are faid sometimes to be employed as bricklayers. The high wages of those workmen, therefore, are not fo much the recompence of their skill, as the compenfation for the inconftancy of their employment. A houfe carpenter feems to exercife rather a nicer and more ingenious trade than a mafon. In moft places, however, for it is not univerfally fo, his day-wages are fomewhat lower. His employment, though it depends much, does not depend fo entirely upon the occasional calls of his customers; and it is not liable to be interrupted by the weather. When the trades which generally afford conftant employment, happen in a particular place not to do fo, the wages of the workmen always rife a good deal above their ordinary proportion to thofe of common labour. In London almoft all journeymen artificers are liable to be called upon and difmiffed by their mafters from day to day, and from week to week, in the fame manner as day-labourers in other places. The loweft order of artificers, journeymen taylors, accord. ingly, earn there half a crown a day, though eighteen pence may be reckoned the wages of common labour. In finall towns and country villages, the wages of journeymen taylors frequently fcarce equal thofe of common labour; but in London they are often many weeks without employment, particularly during the fummer. When When the inconftancy of employment is com- CHAP. bined with the hardship, difagreeableness, and X. dirtinefs of the work, it fometimes raises the wages of the most common labour above thofe of the moft skilful artificers. A collier working by the piece is fuppofed, at Newcastle, to earn commonly about double, and in many parts of Scotland about three times the wages of common labour. His high wages arife altogether from the hardship, difagreeableness, and dirtinefs of his work. His employment may, upon moft occafions, be as conftant as he pleafes. The coal-heavers in London exercife a trade which in hardship, dirtinefs, and difagreeablenefs, almost equals that of colliers; and from the unavoidable irregularity in the arrivals of coalships, the employment of the greater part of them is neceffarily very inconftant. If colliers, therefore, commonly earn double and triple the wages of common labour, it ought not to feem unreasonable that coal-heavers fhould fometimes earn four and five times thofe wages. In the enquiry made into their condition a few years ago, it was found that at the rate at which they were then paid, they could earn from fix to ten fhillings a day. Six fhillings are about four times the wages of common labour in London, and in every particular trade, the lowest common earnings may always be confidered as thofe of the far greater number. How extravagant foever thofe earnings may appear, if they were more than fufficient to compenfate all the dif agreeable circumftances of the business, there would BOOK would foon be fo great a number of competitors I. as, in a trade which has no exclufive privilege, would quickly reduce them to a lower rate. The conftancy or inconftancy of employment cannot affect the ordinary profits of stock in any particular trade. Whether the stock is or is not conftantly employed depends, not upon the trade, but the trader. Fourthly, The wages of labour vary according to the fmall or great trust which must be repofed in the workmen. The wages of goldfmiths and jewellers are every-where fuperior to thofe of many other workmen, not only of equal, but of much fuperior ingenuity; on account of the precious materials with which they are intrusted. We truft our health to the physician; our fortune and fometimes our life and reputation to the lawyer and attorney. Such confidence could not fafely be repofed in people of a very mean or low condition. Their reward must be fuch, therefore, as may give them that rank in the fociety which fo important a truft requires. The long time and the great expence which must be laid out in their education, when combined with this circumftance, neceffarily enhance ftill further the price of their labour. When a perfon employs only his own stock in trade, there is no truft; and the credit which he may get from other people, depends, not upon the nature of his trade, but upon their opinion of his fortune, probity, and prudence. The dif ferent |