Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

X.

either of foreign or domeftic trade, cannot well CHA P. be a much more intricate business than another.

THIRDLY, The wages of labour in different occupations vary with the conftancy or inconftancy 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, must 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, those 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 seven 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 fpecies of fkilled labour, however, seems more eafy to learn than that of masons and bricklayers.

Chairmen

BOOK Chairmen in London, during the fummer season, 1. are faid fometimes to be employed as brick

layers. 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 HOUSE Carpenter feems to exercife rather a nicer and more ingenious trade than a mason. In most places, however, for it is not universally fo, his day-wages are fomewhat lower. His employment, though it depends much, does not depend fo entirely upon the occafional calls of his customers; and it is not liable to be interrupted by the weather.

WHEN the trades which generally afford constant employment, happen in a particular place not to do so, the wages of the workmen always rife a good deal above their ordinary proportion to thofe of common labour. In London almost 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 lowest order of artificers, journeymen taylors, accordingly, earn there half a crown a day, though eighteen pence may be reckoned the wages of common labour. In fmall towns and country villages, the wages of journeymen taylors frequently fcarce equal those of common labour; but in London they are often many weeks without employment, particularly during the fum

mer.

WHEN

X.

WHEN the inconftancy of employment is com- CHAP. bined with the hardship, difagreeablenefs, and dirtiness of the work, it fometimes raises the wages of the most common labour above those of the most 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, difagreeablenefs, and dirtinefs of his work. His employment may, upon most occafions, be as conftant as he pleases. The coal-heavers in London exercise a trade which in hardship, dirtinefs, and difagreeableness, 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 seem unreasonable that coal-heavers fhould sometimes earn four and five times those 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 cominon 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 difagreeable circumftances of the bufinefs, there

would

BOO K. 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 effect the ordinary profits of stock in any particular trade. Whether the stock is or is not constantly employed depends, not upon the trade, but the trader.

FOURTHLY, The wages of labour 'vary according to the fall or great truft 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 phyfician; 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 muft 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

X.

ferent rates of profit, therefore, in the different CHAP. branches of trade, cannot arife from the different degrees of truft repofed in the traders.

FIFTHLY, The wages of labour in different employments vary according to the probability or improbability of fuccefs in them.

THE probability that any particular perfon fhall ever be qualified for the employment to which he is educated, is very different in different occupations. In the greater part of mechanic trades, fuccefs is almoft certain; but very uncertain in the liberal profeffions. Put your fon apprentice to a fhoemaker, there is little doubt of his learning to make a pair of fhoes: But fend him to study the law, it is at least twenty to one if ever he makes fuch proficiency as will enable him to live by the bufinefs. In a perfectly fair lottery, those who draw the prizes ought to gain all that is loft by those who draw the blanks. In a profeffion where twenty fail for one that fucceeds, that one ought to gain all that fhould have been gained by the unfuccefsful twenty. The counfellor at law who, perhaps, at near forty years of age, begins to make fomething by his profeffion, ought to receive the retribution, not only of his own fo tedious and expenfive education, but of that of more than twenty others who are never likely to make any thing by it. How extravagant foever the fees of counfellors at law may fometimes appear, their real retribution is never equal to this. Compute in any particular place, what is likely to be annually gained, and what is likely to be anVOL. I.

M

nually

« AnteriorContinuar »