воок compence will evidently be so much diminished. I. But if this rife of price is owing to the increased value, in consequence of the improved fertility of the land which produces such provisions, 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 extension of improvement and cultivation, as it necessarily raises more or less, in proportion to the price of corn, that of every fort of animal food, so 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; because, by increasing the fertility of the land, it increases its abundance. The improvements of agriculture too introduce many forts of vegetable food, which, requiring lefs 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, besides, which in the rude state 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: such as turnips, carrots, cabbages, bages, &c.

If in the progress of improve- CHAP.

ment, therefore, the real price of one species of food necessarily rises, 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 compenfated 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 flesh, it seems 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 circumstances of the inferior ranks of people. The circumstances of the poor through a great part of England cannot furely be so much distressed 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 season of scarcity the high price of corn no doubt distresses the poor. But in times of moderate plenty, when corn is at its ordinary or average price, the natural rise 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 some manufactured commodities; as of falt, foap, leather, candles, malt, beer, and ale, &c.

XI,

1

Effects

BOOK
I.

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

IT is the natural effect of improvement, howver, to diminish gradually the real price of almost all manufactures. That of the manufacturing workmanship diminishes, perhaps, in all of them without exception. In consequence of better machinery, of greater dexterity, and of a more proper division and distribution of work, all of which are the natural effects of improvement, a much smaller quantity of labour becomes requisite for executing any particular piece of work; and though, in consequence of the flourishing circumstances of the society, 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 rise in the real price of the rude materials will more than compensate all the advantages which improvement can introduce into the execution of the work. In carpenters and joiners work, and in the coarfer fort of cabinet work, the necessary rise in the real price of barren timber, in confequence of the improvement of land, will more than compenfate all the advantages which can be derived from the best machinery, the greatest dexterity, and the most proper division and diftribution of work.

BUT

ΧΙ.

But in all cafes in which the real price of the CHAP. rude materials either does not rise at all, or does not rise very much, that of the manufactured commodity finks very confiderably.

THIS diminution of price has, in the course of the present and preceding century, been most remarkable in those 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 shillings. In the work of cutlers and locksmiths, in all the toys which are made of the coarfer metals, and in all those 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 so great as in watch-work. 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 division of labour can be carried further, or in which the machinery employed admits of a greater variety of improvements, than those of which the materials are the coarfer metals.

It

In the clothing manufacture there has, during the fame period, been no fuch sensible reduction of price. The price of fuperfine cloth, I have been assured, on the contrary, has, within these five-and-twenty or thirty years, risen somewhat VOL. I.

Cc

in

воок in proportion to its quality; owing, it was faid,

1.

to a confiderable rise in the price of the material, which consists altogether of Spanish wool. That of the Yorkshire cloth, which is made altogether of English wool, is faid indeed, during the course of the present century, to have fallen a good deal in proportion to its quality. Quality, however, is so very difputable a matter, that I look upon all information of this kind as fomewhat uncertain. In the clothing manufacture, the division of labour is nearly the same 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.

Bur the reduction will appear much more fene sible 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 "whosoever shall fell by retail a " broad yard of the finest scarlet grained, or of " other grained cloth of the finest making, " above fixteen shillings, shall forfeit forty shil

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

not