Agricultural and commercial systems.

minal wages. If in asserting the peculiar produc. tiveness of labor employed upon land, we look only to the clear monied rent yielded to a certain number of proprietors, we undoubtedly consider the subject in a very contracted point of view. The quantity of the surplus produce of the cultivators is indeed in part measured by this clear rent, but its real value consists in its affording the means of subsistence, and the materials of cloathing and lodging to a certain number of people, according to its extent, some of whom may live. without manual exertions, and others employ themselves in modifying the raw materials of nature into the forms best suited to the gratification of man.

A clear monied revenue, arising from manufactures, of the same extent, and to the same number of individuals, would by no means be accompanied by the same circumstances. It would throw the country in which it existed into an absolute dependance for food and materials on the surplus produce of other nations, and if this foreign supply were by any accident to fail, the revenue would immediately cease,

The skill to modify the raw materials produced from the land would be absolutely of no value, vol. ii.

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Of the definitions of wealth.

and the individuals possessing it would immediately perish, if these raw materials, and the food necessary to support those who are working them could not be obtained; but if the materials and the food were secure, it would be easy to find the skill sufficient to render them of considerable value.

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According to the system of the Economists, manufactures are an object on which revenue is spent, and not any part of the revenue itself. But though from this description of manufactures, and the epithet sterile sometimes applied to them, they seem rather to be degraded by the terms of the Economists, it is a very great error to suppose

' Even upon this system there is one point of view in which manufactures appear greatly to add to the riches of a state. The use of a revenue, according to the Economists, is to be spent ; and a great part of it will of course be spent in manufactures. But if by the judicious employment of manufacturing capital, these commodities. grow considerably cheaper, the surplus produce becomes proportionably of so much greater value, and the real revenue of the nation is virtually increased. If this view of the subject do not, in the eyes of the Economists, completely justify Dr. Smith, in calling manufacturing labor productive, in the strict sense of that term, it must fully warrant all the pains he has taken in explaining the nature and effects of commercial capital, and of the division of manufacturing labor.

Agricultural and commercial systems.

that their system is really unfavorable to them. On the contrary, I am disposed to believe, that it is the only system by which commerce and manu. factures can prevail to a very great extent, without bringing with them at the same time the seeds of their own ruin. Before the late revolution in Holland, the high price of the necessaries of life had destroyed many of its manufactures.' Monopolies are always subject to be broken; and even the advantage of capital and machinery, which may yield extraordinary profits for a time, is liable to be greatly lessened by the competition of other nations. In the history of the world, the nations whose wealth has been derived principally from manufactures and commerce, have been perfectly ephemeral beings, compared with those, the basis of whose wealth has been agriculture. It is in the nature of things that a state which subsists upon a revenue furnished by other countries, must be infinitely more exposed to all the accidents of time and chance, than one which produces its own.

No error is more frequent than that of mistaking effects for causes. We are so blinded by the

'Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. b. v. c. ii. p. 392.

Of the definitions of wealth.

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showiness of commerce and manufactures, as to believe, that they are almost the sole cause of the wealth, power, and prosperity of England. But perhaps they may be more justly considered as the consequences than the cause of this wealth. cording to the definition of the Economists, which considers only the produce of land, England is the richest country in Europe in proportion to her size. Her system of agriculture is beyond comparison better, and consequently her surplus produce is more considerable. France is very greatly supe rior to England in extent of territory and popula tion; but when the surplus produce, or disposeable revenue of the two nations are compared, the superiority of France almost vanishes. And it is this great surplus produce in England, arising from her agriculture, which enables her to support such a vast body of manufacturers, such formidable fleets and armies, such a crowd of persons engaged in the liberal professions, and a proportion of the society living on money rents very far be. yond what has ever been known in any other country of the world. According to the returns lately made of the population of England and Wales, it appears that the number of persons employed in agriculture is considerably less then a fifth part of

Agricultural and commercial systems.

the whole. There is reason to believe that the classifications in these returns are incorrect; but making very great allowances for errors of this nature, it can scarcely admit of a doubt that the number of persons employed in agriculture is very unusually small in proportion to the actual produce. Of late years indeed the part of the society, not connected with agriculture has unfortunately increased beyond this produce; but the average importation of corn, as yet, bears but a small proportion to that which is grown in the country, and consequently the power which England possesses of supporting so vast a body of idle consumers must be attributed principally to the greatness of her surplus produce.

It will be said that it was her commerce and manufactures which encouraged her cultivators to obtain this great surplus produce, and therefore indirectly, if not directly, created it. That commerce and manufactures produce this effect in a great degree is true; but that they sometimes produce a contrary effect when carried to excess, is equally true. Undoubtedly agriculture cannot flourish without a vent for its commodities, either at home or abroad; but when this want has been adequately supplied, the interests of agriculture demand nothing more. When too great a part of