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BOOK compence will evidently be fo much diminished. I. But if this rife of price is owing to the increafed value, in confequence of the improved fertility of the land which produces fuch provifions, it becomes a much nicer matter to judge either in what proportion any pecuniary reward ought to be augmented, or whether it ought to be augmented at all. The extenfion of improvement and cultivation, as it neceffarily raises more or lefs, in proportion to the price of corn, that of every fort of animal food, fo it as neceffarily lowers that of, I believe, every fort of vegetable food. It raises the price of animal food; because a great part of the land which produces it, being rendered fit for producing corn, must afford to the landlord and farmer the rent and profit of corn land. It lowers the price of vegetable food; becaufe, by increafing the fertility of the land, it increases its abundance. The improvements of agriculture too introduce many forts of vegetable food, which, requiring less land and not more labour than corn, come much cheaper to market. Such are potatoes and maize, or what is called Indian corn, the two most important improvements which the agriculture of Europe, perhaps, which Europe itself, has received from the great extenfion of its commerce and navigation. Many forts of vegetable food, befides, which in the rude ftate of agriculture are confined to the kitchen-garden, and raised only by the spade, come in its improved state to be introduced into common fields, and to be raised by the plough: fuch as turnips, carrots, cab

bages,

XI.

bages, &c. If in the progrefs of improve- CHA P. ment, therefore, the real price of one species of food neceffarily rifes, that of another as neceffarily falls, and it becomes a matter of more nicety to judge how far the rife in the one may be compensated by the fall in the other. When the real price of butcher's-meat has once got to its height (which, with regard to every fort, except, perhaps, that of hogs flefh, it feems to have done through a great part of England more than a century ago), any rife which can afterwards happen in that of any other fort of animal food, cannot much affect the circumftances of the inferior ranks of people. The circumstances of the poor through a great part of England cannot furely be fo much diftreffed by any rife in the price of poultry, fish, wild-fowl, or venison, as they must be relieved by the fall in that of potatoes.

In the prefent feafon of fcarcity the high price of corn no doubt diftreffes the poor. But in times of moderate plenty, when corn is at its ordinary or average price, the natural rife in the price of any other fort of rude produce cannot much affect them. They fuffer more, perhaps, by the artificial rife which has been occafioned by taxes in the price of fome manufactured commodities ; as of falt, foap, leather, candles, malt, beer, and ale, &c.

Effects

BOOK
I.

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Effects of the Progrefs of Improvement upon the real
Price of Manufactures.

IT T is the natural effect of improvement, how

ver, to diminish gradually the real price of almost all manufactures. That of the manufacturing workmanship diminishes, perhaps, in all of them without exception. In confequence of better machinery, of greater dexterity, and of a more proper division and diftribution of work, all of which are the natural effects of improvement, a much smaller quantity of labour becomes requifite for executing any particular piece of work; and though, in confequence of the flourishing circumftances of the fociety, the real price of labour should rise very confiderably, yet the great diminution of the quantity will generally much more than compenfate the greatest rife which can happen in the price.

THERE are, indeed, a few manufactures, in which the neceffary rife in the real price of the rude materials will more than compenfate all the advantages which improvement can introduce into the execution of the work. In carpenters and joiners work, and in the coarser fort of cabinet work, the neceffary rife in the real price of barren timber, in confequence of the improvement of land, will more than compensate all the advantages which can be derived from the best machinery, the greateft dexterity, and the most proper divifion and diftribution of work.

BUT

XI.

BUT in all cafes in which the real price of the CHA P. rude materials either does not rife at all, or does not rife very much, that of the manufactured commodity finks very confiderably.

THIS diminution of price has, in the courfe of the present and preceding century, been moft remarkable in thofe manufactures of which the materials are the coarfer metals. A better movement of a watch, than about the middle of the last century could have been bought for twenty pounds, may now perhaps be had for twenty fhillings. In the work of cutlers and lockfimiths, in all the toys which are made of the coarfer metals, and in all thofe goods which are commonly known by the name of Birmingham and Sheffield ware, there has been, during the fame period, a very great reduction of price, though not altogether fo great as in watch-work. It has, however, been fufficient to aftonish the workmen of every other part of Europe, who in many cafes acknowledge that they can produce no work of equal goodness for double, or even for triple the price. There are perhaps no manufactures in which the divifion of labour can be carried further, or in which the machinery employed admits of a greater variety of improvements, than thofe of which the materials are the coarfer metals.

In the clothing manufacture there has, during the fame period, been no fuch fenfible reduction of price. The price The price of fuperfine cloth, I have been affured, on the contrary, has, within these five-and-twenty or thirty years, rifen fomewhat VOL. I. C c

in

BOOK in proportion to its quality; owing, it was faid, J. to a confiderable rife in the price of the mate

rial, which confifts altogether of Spanifh wool. That of the Yorkshire cloth, which is made altogether of English wool, is faid indeed, during the courfe of the prefent century, to have fallen a good deal in proportion to its quality. Quality, however, is fo very difputable a matter, that I look upon all information of this kind as fomewhat uncertain. In the clothing manufacture, the divifion of labour is nearly the fame now as it was a century ago, and the machinery employed is not very different. There may, however, have been some small improvements in both, which may have occafioned fome reduction of price.

BUT the reduction will appear much more fene fible and undeniable, if we compare the price of this manufacture in the present times with what it was in a much remoter period, towards the end of the fifteenth century, when the labour was probably much less fubdivided, and the machinery employed much more imperfect, than it is at present.

IN 1487, being the 4th of Henry VII. it was enacted, that "whofoever fhall fell by retail a "broad yard of the fineft fcarlet grained, or of "other grained cloth of the fineft making,

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above fixteen fhillings, fhall forfeit forty fhil

lings for every yard fo fold." Sixteen fhillings, therefore, containing about the fame quantity of filver as four-and-twenty fhillings of our prefent money, was, at that time, reckoned

not

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