X. neighbourhood, the average and ordinary rates C H A P. of profit in the different employments of stock fhould be more nearly upon a level than the pecuniary wages of the different forts of labour. They are fo accordingly. The difference. between the earnings of a common labourer and thofe of a well employed lawyer or phyfician, is evidently much greater than that between the ordinary profits in any two different branches of trade. The apparent difference, befides, in the profits of different trades, is generally a deception arifing from our not always diftinguifhing what ought to be confidered as wages, from what ought to be confidered as profit. Apothecaries profit is become a bye-word, denoting fomething uncommonly extravagant. This great apparent profit, however, is fre quently no more than the reasonable wages of labour. The skill of an apothecary is a much nicer and more delicate matter than that of any artificer whatever; and the truft which is repofed in him is of much greater importance. He is the physician of the poor in all cafes, and of the rich when the distress or danger is not very great. His reward, therefore, ought to be fuitable to his skill and his truft, and it arifes generally from the price at which he fells his drugs. But the whole drugs which the best employed apo thecary, in a large market town, will fell in a year, may not perhaps coft him above thirty or forty pounds. Though he fhould fell them, therefore, for three or four hundred, or at a thousand per cent. profit, this may frequently be no I. BOOK no more than the reasonable wages of his labour charged, in the only way in which he can charge them, upon the price of his drugs. The greater part of the apparent profit is real wages difguifed in the garb of profit. In a fmall fea-port town, a little grocer will make forty or fifty per cent. upon a stock of a fingle hundred pounds, while a confiderable wholefale merchant in the fame place will scarce make eight or ten per cent. upon a stock of ten thoufand. The trade of the grocer may be neceffary for the conveniency of the inhabitants, and the narrowness of the market may not admit the employment of a larger capital in the bufinefs. The man, however, muft not only live by his trade, but live by it suitably to the quali fications which it requires. Befides poffeffing a little capital, he must be able to read, write, and account, and must be a tolerable judge too of, perhaps, fifty or fixty different forts of goods, their prices, qualities, and the markets where they are to be had cheapest. He must have all the knowledge, in fhort, that is neceffary for a great merchant, which nothing hinders him from becoming but the want of a fufficient capital. Thirty or forty pounds a year cannot be confidered as too great a recompence for the labour of a perfon fo accomplished. Deduct this from the feemingly great profits of his capital, and little more will remain, perhaps, than the ordinary profits of ftock. The greater part of the apparent profit is, in this cafe too, real wages. The X. The difference between the apparent profit of C HA P. the retail and that of the wholesale trade, is much lefs in the capital than in small towns and country villages. Where ten thousand pounds can be employed in the grocery trade, the wages of the grocer's labour make but a very trifling addition to the real profits of fo great a stock. The apparent profits of the wealthy retailer, therefore, are there more nearly upon a level with thofe of the wholefale merchant. It is upon this account that goods fold by retail are generally as cheap and frequently much cheaper in the capital than in small towns and country villages. Grocery goods, for example, are generally much cheaper; bread and butcher's meat frequently as cheap. It cofts no more to bring grocery goods to the great town than to the country village; but it costs a great deal more to bring corn and cattle, as the greater part of them must be brought from a much greater distance. The prime coft of grocery goods, therefore, being the fame in both places, they are cheapest where the leaft profit is charged upon them. The prime cost of bread and butcher's meat is greater in the great town than in the country village; and though the profit is lefs, therefore they are not always cheaper there, but often equally cheap. In fuch articles as bread and butcher's meat, the fame caufe, which diminishes apparent profit, increases prime coft. The extent of the market, by giving employment to greater ftocks, diminishes apparent profit; but by requiring fupplies from a greater diftance, it increases 1. BOOK increafes prime coft. This diminution of the one and increase of the other feem, in most cases, nearly to counter-balance one another; which is probably the reason that, though the prices of corn and cattle are commonly very different in different parts of the kingdom, thofe of bread and butcher's meat are generally very nearly the fame through the greater part of it. Though the profits of stock both in the wholefale and retail trade are generally lefs in the capital than in fmall towns and country villages, yet great fortunes are frequently acquired from fmall beginnings in the former, and scarce ever in the latter. In fmall towns and country villages, on account of the narrownefs of the market, trade cannot always be extended as ftock extends. In fuch places, therefore, though the rate of a particular perfon's profits may be very high, the fum or amount of them can never be very great, nor confequently that of his annual accumulation. In great towns, on the contrary, trade can be extended as stock increases, and the credit of a frugaland thriving man increases much fafter than his ftock. His trade is extended in proportion to the amount of both, and the fum or amount of his profits is in proportion to the extent of his trade, and his annual accumulation in proportion to the amount of his profits. It feldom happens, however, that great fortunes are made even in great towns by any one regular, eftablished, and well-known branch of business, but in confequence of a long life of industry, frugality, and attention. Sudden fortunes, X. indeed, are fometimes made in fuch places by CHAP. what is called the trade of fpeculation. The fpeculative merchant exercifes no one regular, established, or well-known branch of bufinefs. He is a corn merchant this year, and a wine merchant the next, and a fugar, tobacco, or tea merchant the year after. He enters into every trade when he forefees that it is likely to be more than commonly profitable, and he quits it when he forefees that its profits are likely to return to the level of other trades. His profits and loffes, therefore, can bear no regular proportion to thofe of any one established and well-known branch of bufinefs. A bold adventurer may fometimes acquire a confiderable fortune by two or three fuccessful speculations; but is just as likely to lose one by two or three unfuccefsful ones. This trade can be carried on no where but in great towns. It is only in places of the most extenfive commerce and correfpondence that the intelligence requifite for it can be had. The five circumftances above mentioned, though they occafion confiderable inequalities in the wages of labour and profits of stock, occafion none in the whole of the advantages and difadvantages, real or imaginary, of the different employments of either. The nature of those circumftances is fuch, that they make up for a small pecuniary gain in fome, and counter-balance a great one in others. In order, however, that this equality may take place in the whole of their advantages or difadvantages, three things are requifite even where |