feller of the timber, the burner of the charcoal to be made ufe of in the fineiting houfe, the brick-maker, the brick-layer, the workmen who attend the furnace, the millwright, the forger, the smith, mut all of them join their different arts in order to produce them. Were we to examine, in the fame manner, all the different parts of his dress and household furniture, the coarfe linen fhirt which he wears next his skin, the fhoes which cover his feet, the bed which he lies on, and all the different parts which compofe it, the kitchen grate at which he prepares his victuals, the coals which he makes ufe of for that purpofe, dug from the bowels of the earth, and brought to him perhaps by a long fea and a long land carriage, all the other utenfils of his kitchen, all the furniture of his table, the knives and torks, the earthen or pewter plates upon which he ferves up and divides his victuals, the different hands employed in prepaJing his bread and his beer, the glafs window which lets in the heat and the light, and keeps out the wind and the rain, with all the knowledge and art requifite for preparing that beautiful and happy invention, without which thefe northern parts of the world could fcarce have afforded a very comfortable habitation, together with the tools of all the different workmen employed in producing those different conveniences; if we examine, I fay, all these things, and confider what a variety of labour is employed about each of them, we shall be fenfible that without the affiftance and co-operation of many thousands, the very meanest perfon in a civilized country could not be provided, even according to what we very falfely imagine the eafy and fimple manner in which he is commonly accommodated Compared, indeed, with the more extravagant luxury of the great, his accommodation must no doubt appear extremely fimple and eafy; and yet it may be true perhaps that the accommodation of an European prince does not always fo much exceed that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of many an African king, the abfolute master of the lives and liberties of ten thoufand naked favages.

As to the principle, which gave rife to this divifion of labour, on which the wealth of nations depends; this writer tells us "it is not originally the effects of any human wisdom, which forefces and intends that general opulence to which it gives occafion." "It is," fays he, the neceffary, tho' flow and gradual, confequence of a certain propenfity in human nature to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another." A kind of commercial fentiment if we may fo call it, fo that it fhould feem men must not only be born poets and moralifts but merchants and tradefmen. Except, indeed, that our author admits this propenfity to be " common to all men" and hints at the probability that it is not one of thofe original propenfitics in human nature, of which no farther account can be given; but is rather the neceffary confequence of the faculties of reafon and fpeech. Of this principle, however, the author proceeds no farther to enquire

than

than into its manifold, political effects. Among these effects he reckons the apparent difference of natural talents in diffe

sent inen

"The difference of natural talents in different men is, in reality, much less than we are aware of; and the very different genius which appears to distinguish men of different profeffions, when grown up to maturity, is not upon many occafions fo much the cauic, as the effect of the divifion of labour. The difference between the most diffimilar characters, between a philofopher and a common fireet porter, for example, feems to arife not fo much from nature, as from habit, cuftom, and education. When they came into the world, and for the first fix or eight years of their existence, they were perhaps very much alike, and neither their parents nor play-fellows could perceive any remarkable difference. About that age or foon after, they come to be employed in very different occupations. The difference of talents comes then to be taken notice of, and widens by degrees, till at last the vanity of the philofopher is willing to acknowledge fcarce any refemblance without the difpofition to truck, barter, and exchange, every man muft have procured to himfelf every neceffary and conveniency of life which he wanted. All must have had the fame duties to perform, and the fame work to do, and there could have been no fuch difference of employment as could alone give occafion to any great difference of talents

But

A mortifying reflection this to the towering pride of men of genius; fome of whom will probably difpute the point with our theorift; which we have neither time nor inclination to do. After fhewing that this extenfive divifion of labour is yet limited by the extent of the market, our author proceeds to treat of the origin and ufe of money-Of the real and nominal price of commodities-Of the component parts of the price of commoditics Of the natural and market price of commodities-Of the wages of labour-Of the profit of ftock, and of the wages and profits in the different employments of labour and stock.Of the rent of land-Of its produce affording rent and that which afford no rent.-Of the variations in the value of filver during the courfe of the four laft centuries-Of the variations in the proportions between the respective values of gold and filver; and of the effects of the progrefs of improvement upon the real price of manufactures.-On this variety of different, tho' connected, fubjects, our author not only reafons with great propriery, but appears to have properly furnished himself with ample and authentic information. His digreffion on the coin and a table, of the prices of corn, for five hundred years past, are particularly inftru&tive and curious.

In book IId. our political enquirer treats of the nature, accu'mulation, and employment of Rock; in which as there is fome

novel

novelty as well as great propriety, we fhall extract part of the introduction to the fubject.

"In that rude state of fociety in which there is no divifion of labour in which exchanges are feldom made, and in which every man provides every thing for himfelf, it is not neceflary that any stock fhould be accumulated or ftored up beforehand in order to carry on the business of the fociety. Every man endeavours to fupply by his own industry his own occafional wants as they occur When he is hungry, he goes to the foreft to hunt: when his coat is worn out, he cloaths himself with the skin of the firit large animal he kills and when his hut begins to go to ruin, he repairs it, as well as he can, with the trees and the turf that are neareit it.

"But when the divifion of labour has once been thoroughly introduced, the produce of a man's own labour can fupply but a very fmall part of his occafional wants The far greater part of them are fupplied by the produce of other mens labour, which he purchases with the produce, or, what is the fame thing, with the price of the produce of his own. But this purchase cannot be made till fuch time as the produce of his own labour has not only been compleated, but fold. A ftock of goods of different kinds, therefore, must be stored up fomewhere fufficient to maintain him, and to fupply him with the materials and tools of his work till fuch time, at least, as both these events can be brought about. A weaver cannot apply himself entirely to his peculiar bufinefs, unless there is beforehand stored up fomewhere, either in his own poffeffion or in that of fome other perion, a stock fufficient to maintain him, and to fupply him with the materials and tools of his work, till he has not only compleated, but fold his web This accumulation muft, evidently, be previous to his applying his induftry for fo long a time to fuch a peculiar bufinefs

"As the accumulation of frock muft, in the nature of things, be previous to the divifion of labour, fo labour can be more and more fubdivided only in proportion as stock is previoutly more and inore accumulated. The quantity of materials which the fame number of people can work up, increases in a great proportion as laboar comes to be more and more fubdivided; and as the operations of each workman are gradually reduced to a greater degree of fimplcity, a variety of new machines come to be invented for facilitating and abridging those operations As the divifion of labour advances, therefore, in order to give conftant employment to an equal numiber of workmen, an equal flock of provisions, and a greater stock of materials and tools than that which would have been neceiftry in'a ruder state of things, must be accumulated beforehand. But the number of workmen in every branch of business generally increases with the divifion of labour in that branch, or rather it is the increase of their number which enables them to class and subdivide themselves in this manner.

"As the accumulation of flock is previously neceffary for carrying on this great improvement in the productive powers of labour,

2

fo that accumulation naturally leads to this improvement The perfon who employs his flock in maintaining labour, neceffarily wishes to employ it in fuch a manner as to produce as great a quantity of work as poffible. He endeavours, therefore, both to make among his workmen the moft proper diftribution of employ ment, and to furnish them with the best machines which he can either invent or afford to purchase. His abilities in both thefe refpects are generally in proportion to the extent of his stock, or to the number of people whom it can employ. The quantity of induftry, therefore not only increases in every country with the increafe of the stock which employs it, but, in confequence of that Increase, the fame quantity of industry produces a much greater quantity of work."

Such, fays our author, are in general the effects of the increafe of flock upon industry and its productive powers. In this book, therefore, he proceeds to explain particularly the nature of flock, the effects of its accumulation into capitals of different kinds; with the effects of the different employment of those ca pitals. In the first place he fhews what are the different parts or branches unto which the ftock, either of an individual, or of a fociety naturally divides itfelf.-In the fecond, he explains the nature and operation of money, confidered as a particular branch of the general ftock of the fociety.-In the third, he examines the manner, in which it operates in both thefe fituations and laftly treats of the different effects, which the different employments of capital immediately produce upon the quantity both of national industry, and of the annual produce of land and latour.

In book IIId. the author treats of the different progress of opulence in different nations.-Its fimple and natural progress he traces as follows.

"The great commerce of every civilized fociety, is that carried on between the inhabitants of the town and thofe of the country. It confifts in the exchange of rude for manufactured produce, either immediately, or by the intervention of money, or of fome fort of paper which reprefents money. The country fupplies the town with the means of fubfiftence, and the materials of manufacture. The town repays this fupply by fending back a part of the manufactured produce to the inhabitants of the country. The town, in which there neither is nor can be any reproduction of substances, may very properly be faid to gain its whole wealth and fubfiftence from the country. We must not, however, upon this account, imagine that the gain of the town is the lofs of the country. The gains of both are mutual and reciprocal, and the divifion of labour is in this, as in all other cafes, advantageous to all the different per fons employed in the various occupations into which it is fubdivided. The inhabitants of the country purchase of the town a greater quantity of manufactured goods, with the produce of a

much

much smaller quantity of their own labour, than they must have employed had they attempted to prepare them themselves. The town affords a market for the furplus produce of the country, or what is over and above the maintenance of the cultivators, and it is there that the inhabitants of the country exchange it for fomething else which is in demand among them. The greater the num ber and revenue of the inhabitants of the town, the more extenfive is the market which it affords to thofe of the country; and the more extenfive that market, it is always the more advantageous to a great number. The corn which grows within a mile of the town, fells there for the fame price with that which comes from twenty miles distance. But the price of the latter muft generally, not only pay the expence of raifing and bringing it to market, but afford too the ordinary profits of agriculture to the farmer. The proprie tors and cultivators of the country, therefore, which lies in the neighbourhood of the town, over and above the ordinary profits of agriculture, gain, in the price of what they fell, the whole value of the carriage of the like produce that is brought from more diftant parts, and they fave, befides, the whole value of this carriage in the price of what they buy. Compare the cultivation of the lands in the neighbourhood of any confiderable town, with that of thote which lie at fome diflance from it, and you will eafily fatisfy yourself how much the country is benefited by the commerce of the town. Among all the abfurd fpeculations that have been propagated concerning the balance of trade, it has never been pretended that either the country lofes by its commerce with the town, or the town by that with the country which maintains it.

"As fubfiftence is, in the nature of things, prior to conveniency and luxury, fo the induftry which procures the former, must neceffarily be prior to that which minitters to the latter. The cultivation and improvement of the country, therefore, which affords fubfiftence, muft, neceffarily, be prior to the increase of the town, which furnishes only the means of conveniency and luxury. It is the furplus produce of the country only, or what is over and above the maintenance of the cultivators, that constitutes the fubfiftence of the town, which can therefore increase only with the increase of this furplus produce. The town, indeed, may not always derive its whole fubfiftence from the country in its neighbourhood, or even from the territory to which it belongs, bat from very citant countries; and this, though it forms no exception from the general rule, has occafioned confiderable variations in the progrels of opulence in different ages and nations."

On thele variations the author farther expatiates, in treating of the difcouragement of agriculture in the ancient fate of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire-Of the rife and progrefs of cities and towns after that fall; concluding with obfervations on the manner, in which the commerce of the towns contributed to the improvement of the country. This it did, he fays, by three feveral ways.

VOL. III.

Firk