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BOOK appear hereafter, depends partly upon the nature I. of the different employments, and partly upon

the different laws and policy of the fociety in which they are carried on. But though in many refpects dependent upon the laws and policy, this proportion feems to be little affected by the riches or poverty of that fociety; by its advancing, ftationary, or declining condition; but to remain the fame or very nearly the fame in all thofe different ftates. I fhall, in the third place, endeavour to explain all the different circumftances which regulate this proportion.

In the fourth and laft place, Ifhall endeavour to fhow what are the circumftances which regulate the rent of land, and which either raise or lower the real price of all the different fubftances which it produces.

CHAP.
VIII.

TH

CHAP. VIII.

Of the Wages of Labour.

HE produce of labour conftitutes the natural recompence or wages of labour.

In that original ftate of things, which precedes both the appropriation of land and the accumu lation of stock, the whole produce of labour belongs to the labourer. He has neither landlord nor mafter to fhare with him.

Had this ftate continued, the wages of labour would have augmented with all thofe improve

ments

VIII.

ments in its productive powers, to which the CHA P. divifion of labour gives occafion. All things would gradually have become cheaper. They would have been produced by a finaller quantity of labour; and as the commodities produced by equal quantities of labour would naturally in this ftate of things be exchanged for one another, they would have been purchafed likewife with the produce of a smaller quantity.

But though all things would have become cheaper in reality, in appearance many things might have become dearer than before, or have been exchanged for a greater quantity of other goods. Let us fuppofe, for example, that in the greater part of employments the productive powers of labour had been improved to tenfold, or that a day's labour could produce ten times the quantity of work which it had done originally; but that in a particular employment they had been improved only to double, or that a day's labour could produce only twice the quantity of work which it had done before. In exchanging the produce of a day's labour in the greater part of employments, for that of a day's labour in this particular one, ten times the original quantity of work in them would purchase only twice the original quantity in it. Any particular quantity in it, therefore, a pound weight, for example, would appear to be five times dearer than before. In reality, however, it would be twice as cheap. Though it required five times the quantity of other goods to purchafe

VOL. II.

H

I.

BOOK chase it, it would require only half the quantity of labour either to purchase or to produce it. The acquifition, therefore, would be twice as eafy as before.

But this original state of things, in which the labourer enjoyed the whole produce of his own labour, could not laft beyond the first introduction of the appropriation of land and the accumulation of flock. It was at an end, therefore, long before the most confiderable improvements were made in the productive powers of labour, and it would be to no purpose to trace further what might have been its effects upon the recompence or wages of labour.

As foon as land becomes private property, the landlord demands a fhare of almost all the produce which the labourer can either raise, or collect from it. His rent makes the first deduction from the produce of the labour which is employed upon land.

It feldom happens that the person who tills the ground has wherewithal to maintain himself till he reaps the harveft. His maintenance is generally advanced to him from the ftock of a master, the farmer who employs him, and who would have no intereft to employ him, unless he was to share in the produce of his labour, or unless his stock was to be replaced to him with a profit. This profit makes a fecond deduction from the produce of the labour which is employed upon land.

The produce of almoft all other labour is liable to the like deduction of profit. In all arts

and

VIII.

and manufactures the greater part of the work-CH AP. men ftand in need of a mafter to advance them the materials of their work, and their wages and maintenance till it be completed. He shares in the produce of their labour, or in the value which it adds to the materials upon which it is bestowed; and in this fhare confifts his profit.

It fometimes happens, indeed, that a fingle independent workman has ftock fufficient both to purchase the materials of his work, and to maintain himself till it be completed. He is both master and workman, and enjoys the whole produce of his own labour, or the whole value which it adds to the materials upon which it is bestowed. It includes what are ufually two diftinct revenues, belonging to two diftinct perfons, the profits of ftock, and the wages of

labour.

Such cafes, however, are not very frequent, and in every part of Europe, twenty workmen ferve under a mafter for one that is independent; and the wages of labour are every where understood to be, what they usually are, when the labourer is one perfon, and the owner of the stock which employs him another.

What are the common wages of labour, depends every where upon the contract ufually made between those two parties, whofe interefts are by no means the fame. The workmen defire to get as much, the masters to give as little as poffible. The former are difpofed to combine in order to raise, the latter in order to lower the wages of labour.

BOOK

I.

It is not, however, difficult to forefee which of the two parties muft, upon all ordinary occafions, have the advantage in the dispute, and force the other into a compliance with their terms. The mafters, being fewer in number, can combine much more eafily; and the law, besides, authorifes, or at least does not prohibit their combinations, while it prohibits thofe of the workmen. We have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the price of work; but many againft combining to raise it. In all fuch difputes the mafters can hold out much longer. A landlord, a farmer, a master manufacturer, or merchant, though they did not employ a fingle workman, could generally live a year or two upon the ftocks which they have already acquired. Many workmen could not fubfift a week, few could fubfift a month, and fcarce any a year without employment. In the long-run the workman may be as neceffary to his mafter as his master is to him; but the neceffity is not fo immediate.

We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of mafters; though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that mafters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the fubject. Masters are always and every where in a fort of tacit, but conftant and uniform, combination, not to raise the wages of labour above their actual rate. To violate this combination is every where a moft unpopular action, and a fort of reproach to a mafter among his neighbours and equals. We

feldom,

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