understand the labour and capital of the husbandman; they even admit that the exchangeable value of the agricultural produce is the measure of wealth of a nation; and that this exchangeable value can only be obtained by the free concurrence of the home and foreign trade; in this way the economists themselves derive wealth from land, labour, capital, and commerce. By placing the source of wealth in labour, which fixes and realizes itself in some permanent object, Dr. Smith likewise admits the co-operation of land, labour, capital, and commerce. Finally, the system of the earl of Lauderdale differs from the other systems only as far as his lordship assigns a particular importance to capital. In every other respect the noble lord coincides more or less with the agricultural system, and the system of labour.

Thus, it is evident, that it is not properly concerning the sources of wealth that the different systems vary; they all, in fact, acknowledge that wealth is produced by the concurrence of labour, land, capital, and commerce; they chiefly differ respecting the more or less important share which they assign to each of these causes: in this consists their difference, and in this lies all the difficulty of the science. On these subjects we shall in the next chapter speak more fully.

CHAP. XXIV.

POLITICAL ECONOMY,

Continued.

Wealth, from what produced. Revenue derived from land. Principle of the variation of Rents. Different kinds of Land. Mines. Fisheries. Revenue derived from labour. Wages, how regulated. Circumstances which cause a rise of wages. Productive and unproductive labour. Various theories concerning labour as a source of Revenue. Which kind of labour most productive. Causes that invigorate labour, improve its powers, and meliorate its produce. Division of labour. Machinery. Of the numbers that do not contribute to produce food. Various systems concerning capital. Different ways in which capital is em ployed.

ALL wealth is either produced by the spontaneous bounty of nature, or it is the fruit of human industry, or it is generated by the judicious employment of a quantity of wealth previously accumulated. To these three heads, that is, to land, labour, and capital, all national wealth has been referred by Dr. Smith, and many other writers on this subject. The Doctor has, however, in many parts of his work considered and represented labour as the only source of wealth. But labour, and the same may be said of land and capital, is

only a mean of furnishing or increasing a supply of those articles for which there already exists a demand; and unless there be a demand, the most arduous exertions will meet with no remuneration whatever.

Of the revenue derived from land. All land capable of cultivation affords something more than is necessary to pay the expense of working it. This surplus goes as rent to the landlord, who relinquishes to the farmer the produce of cultivation. The proportion of the produce of land, which is to be reserved for rent, varies with different circumstances of these, the principal are, the fertility of the soilthe extent of the demand or market-the prosperity or poverty of the country, which causes a greater or less demand for that produce; and the skill and activity of the cultivators or farmers. In other words, the rate at which farms let, must, like the price of all other commodities, depend altogether upon the demand and the supply. If farming is reckoned a gainful concern, many will bid for farms, and the rent will be raised by competition, and vice versa. Land which produces food for man, whether directly or indirectly, will always afford rent to the landlord, in proportion to its fertility and the circumstances just enumerated. Men multiply in proportion to the means of subsistence, and as has been shewn by the ablest economists, they have a tendency to multiply beyond those means, hence there is at all times a full demand for this species of produce. The rent, therefore, afforded by the land which is employed in cultivating food, regulates the rent of all other species of land. No one, unless he was forced to it by peculiarities of soil, would cultivate an article that afforded less rent than this. While, however, there are soils which are only fit for the production of an inferior article, there are others well adapted to the production of those that, are of higher value than that of bread corn. These observations apply to that produce of land which is the result of human labour; for with respect to the spontaneous produce of land, it depends on circumstances whether it does or does

not yield any profit. In a rude state of society, this produce will scarcely bear any value. Uncivilized, and uncultivated countries are often covered with immense woods, the cutting down of which is a burden rather than an advantage, whereas in an improved country the wood would afford a very large revenue. Most of the materials of clothing and lodging are of this nature. In the infancy of society, the great object is food: provided men can procure that, they are satisfied with very moderate accommodations in other respects. The hides and furs of the beasts which they kill in hunting, will supply all their wants with regard to covering. But as society becomes more opulent, and luxury is introduced, clothes are among the favourite objects on which this luxury is vented: an increase, therefore, takes place in the demand for its materials. The same may be said of those of lodging and furniture. Mines may be considered in the same light as land: they yield a rent which, however, is generally less than that of land. Coal, a very important article in this country, is kept down in price by its relation to the price of wood, otherwise wood would be preferred as fuel. The rent of a coal mine is from one fifth to one tenth of its produce. The tin mines of Cornwall, the richest in the world, yield in rent only about a sixth part of their gross produce. Fisheries form another source of wealth similar to land and mines. The sea, however, has never yet been appropriated, nor a rent exacted for its use. But the right of fishing has, in some seas of peculiar fertility, been claimed as national property. River fisheries frequently produce a high rent.

Of the revenue derived from labour. The great source of exchangeable commodities is the labour of man: even those powers of nature for which rent is paid, rarely afford any thing valuable, unless aided by human efforts. Capital, however powerful an instrument, consists merely of accumulated labour. Originally the fruit of every man's industry would belong entirely to himself, but when once lands came to be appropriated, the proprietor of the land claimed, as his right

from the cultivator, a share of the produce. As the state of society became more complicated, and markets more remote, something more would be requisite. It would be necessary to have subsistence, while the article was in the progress of production, and carrying to market, and to be able to purchase materials on which to work, and to command a fixed capital in order to render labour more productive. For all these purposes, capital would become necessary, and the person who had accumulated a portion of it, would be able to command the services of several others, to whom he would advance subsistence and the materials of working, and would receive in return the fruits of their labour. As capitals accumulate, this becomes almost universally the case; in a commercial state, few independent workmen are to be found.

The price of labour or wages is regulated like every thing else by the demand and the supply. If there are many who want and can employ workmen, and if few of that description can be found, the competition of the masters will raise the wages, until the whole capital, not otherwise employed, is distributed among that small number of workmen. Under different circumstances, workmen, willing to work, for almost thing rather than starve, will bid against each other till they are all employed, at however low a recompense,

any

The supply of labour, that is, in fact, the population of a country, has a natural tendency to suit itself to the demand, High wages, by encouraging early marriage, and enabling the labourer to take better care of his children, soon cause an addition to the numbers of a state, which in its turn brings down the wages. Hence uncommonly high wages take place chiefly in an advancing state of society, when a number of employments are open, for which a sufficiency of labourers cannot be found. When the wealth of a country is stationary, the wages will be moderate, but sufficient to rear such a number of children, as may keep up the population, but not such as to admit of any increase. When the country is in a de