VII.

dealers will foon prompt them to employ more CHAP. labour and stock in preparing and bringing it to market. The quantity brought thither will foon be fufficient to fupply the effectual demand. All the different parts of its price will foon fink to their natural rate, and the whole price to its natural price.

THE natural price, therefore, is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of all commodities are continually gravitating. Different accidents may fometimes keep them suspended a good deal above it, and fometimes force them down even fomewhat below it. But whatever may be the obftacles which hinder them from fettling in this center of repose and continuance, they are conftantly tending towards it.

THE whole quantity of industry annually employed in order to bring any commodity to market, naturally fuits itself in this manner to • the effectual demand. It naturally aims at bringing always that precife quantity thither which may be fufficient to fupply, and no more than fupply, that demand.

BUT in fome employments the fame quantity of industry will in different years produce very different quantities of commodities; while in others it will produce always the fame, or very nearly the fame. The fame number of labourers in husbandry will, in different years, produce very different quantities of corn, wine, oil, hops, But the fame number of fpinners and weavers will every year produce the fame or very nearly the fame quantity of linen and woollen

&c.

BOOK cloth. It is only the average produce of the one L fpecies of industry which can be fuited in any

respect to the effectual demand; and as its actual produce is frequently much greater and frequently much less than its average produce, the quantity of the commodities brought to market will fometimes exceed a good deal, and fometimes fall fhort a good deal, of the effectual demand. Even though that demand therefore fhould continue al-ways the fame, their market price will be liable to great fluctuations, will fometimes fall a good deal below, and fometimes rife a good deal above, their natural price. In the other fpecies of industry, the produce of equal quantities of labour being always the fame, or very nearly the fame, it can be more exactly fuited to the effectual demand. While that demand continues the fame, therefore, the market price of the commodities is likely to do fo too, and to be either altogether, or as nearly as can be judged of, the fame with the natural price. That the price of linen and woollen cloth is liable neither to fuch frequent nor to fuch great variations as the price of corn, every man's experience will inform him. The price of the one fpecies of commodities varies only with the variations in the demand: That of the other varies not only with the variations in the demand, but with the much greater and more frequent variations in the quantity of what is brought to market in order to fupply that demand.

THE Occafional and temporary fluctuations in the market price of any commodity fall chiefly upon thofe parts of its price which resolve them

felves'

VII.

felves into wages and profit. That part which CHA P. refolves itself into rent is lefs affected by them.

A rent certain in money is not in the least affected by them either in its rate or in its value. A rent which confifts either in a certain proportion or in a certain quantity of the rude produce, is no doubt affected in its yearly value by all the occafional and temporary fluctuations in the -market price of that rude produce; but it is feldom affected by them in its yearly rate. In fettling the terms of the leafe, the landlord and farmer endeavour, according to their beft judgment, to adjust that rate, not to the temporary and occafional, but to the average and ordinary price of the produce.

SUCH fluctuations affect both the value and the rate either of wages or of profit, according as the market happens to be either over-stocked or under-ftocked with commodities or with la-. bour; with work done, or with work to be done. A public mourning raifes the price of black cloth (with which the market is almost always under-ftocked upon fuch occafions), and augments the profits of the merchants who poffefs any confiderable quantity of it. It has no effect upon the wages of the weavers. The market is under-stocked with commodities, not with labour; with work done, not with work to be done. It raises the wages of journeymen taylors. The market is here under-ftocked with labour. There is an effectual demand for more labour, for more work to be done than can be had. It finks the price of coloured filks and cloths, and there

by

1.

BOOK by reduces the profits of the merchants who have any confiderable quantity of them upon hand. It finks too the wages of the workmen employed in preparing fuch commodities, for which all demand is stopped for fix months, perhaps for a twelvemonth. The market is here over-ftocked both with commodities and with labour.

BUT though the market price of every particular commodity is in this manner continually gravitating, if one may fay fo, towards the natural price, yet fometimes particular accidents, fometimes natural caufes, and fometimes particular regulations of police, may, in many commodities, keep up the market price, for a long time together, a good deal above the natural : price.

WHEN by an increase in the effectual demand, the market price of fome particular commodity happens to rife a good deal above the natural price, those who employ their ftocks in fupplying that market are generally careful to conceal this change. If it was commonly known, their great profit would tempt fo many new rivals to employ their stocks in the fame way, that, the effectual demand being fully fupplied, the market price would foon be reduced to the natural price, and perhaps for fome time even below it. If the market is at a great distance from the refidence of those who supply it, they may fometimes be able to keep the fecret for feveral years together, and may fo long enjoy their extraordinary profits without any new rivals. Secrets of this kind,

however,

VII.

however, it must be acknowledged, can feldom CHA P. be long kept; and the extraordinary profit can laft very little longer than they are kept.

SECRETS in manufactures are capable of being longer, kept than fecrets in trade. A dyer who has found the means of producing a particular colour with materials which cost only half the price of those commonly made use of, may, with good management, enjoy the advantage of his discovery as long as he lives, and even leave it as a legacy to his pofterity. His extraordinary gains arise from the high price which is paid for his private labour. They properly confift in the high wages of that labour. But as they are repeated upon every part of his stock, and as their whole amount bears, upon that account, a regular proportion to it, they are commonly confidered as extraordinary profits of stock.

SUCH enhancements of the market price are evidently the effects of particular accidents, of which, however, the operation may fometimes laft for many years together.

SOME natural productions require fuch a fingularity of foil and fituation, that all the land in a great country, which is fit for producing them, may not be fufficient to fupply the effectual demand. The whole quantity brought to market, therefore, may be difpofed of to thofe who are willing to give more than what is fufficient to pay the rent of the land which produced them, together with the wages of the labour, and the profits of the ftock which were employed in preparing and bringing them to market, according

to