Of Poor Laws.

pressure to settled fair, and then be greatly astonished that it continued raining.

Dr. Smith has clearly shown, that the natural tendency of a year of scarcity is either to throw a number of laborers out of employment, or to oblige them to work for less than they did before, from the inability of masters to employ the same number at the same price. The raising of the price of wages tends necessarily to throw more out of employment, and completely to prevent the good effects which, he says, sometimes arise from a year of moderate scarcity, that of making the Lower classes of people do more work and become more careful and industrious. The number of servants out of place, and the manufacturers wanting employment, during the late scarcities, were melancholy proofs of the truth of these reasonings. If a general rise in the wages of labor had taken place proportioned to the price of provisions, none but farmers and a few gentlemen could have afforded to employ the same number of workmen as before. Additional crowds of servants and manufacturers would have been turned off; and those who were thus thrown out of employment would of course have no other refuge than the parish. In the natural order of things a scarcity

Of Poor Laws.

must tend to lower, instead of to raise, the price of labor.

After the publication and general circulation of such a work as Dr. Smith's I confess it appears to me strange that so many men who would yet aspire to be thought political economists should still think that it is in the power of the justices of the peace, or even of the omnipotence of parliament, to alter by a fiat the whole circumstances of the country; and when the demand for provisions is greater than the supply, by publishing a particular edict to make the supply at once equal to or greater than the demand. Many men who would shrink at the proposal of a maximum would propose themselves, that the price of labor should be proportioned to the price of provisons, and do not seem to be aware that the two proposals are very nearly of the same nature, and that both tend directly to famine. It matters not whether we enable the laborer to purchase the same quantity of provisions which he did before by fixing their price, or by raising in proportion the price of labor. The only advantage on the side of raising the price of labor is, that the rise in the price of provisions which necessarily follows it encourages importation ; but putting importation out of the question, which

Of Poor Laws.

might possibly be prevented by war, or other circumstances, a universal rise of wages in proportion to the price of provisions, aided by adequate parish allowances to those who were thrown out of work, would, by preventing any kind of saving, in the same manner as a maximum, cause the whole crop to be consumed in nine months which ought to have lasted twelve, and thus produce a famine. At the same time we must not forget that both humanity and true policy imperiously require, that we should give every assistance to the poor on these occasions that the nature of the case will admit. If provisions were to continue at the price of scarcity, the wages of labor must necessarily rise or sickness and famine would quickly diminish the number of laborers, and the supply of labor being unequal to the demand, its price would soon rise in a still greater proportion than the price of provisions. But even one or two years of scarcity, if the poor were left entirely to shift for themselves, might produce some effect of this kind, and consequently it is our interest as well as our duty to give them temporary aid in such seasons of distress. It is on such occasions that every cheap substitute for bread, and every mode of economizing food should be

Of Poor Laws.

resorted to. Nor should we be too ready to complain of that high price of corn which by encouraging importation increases the supply.

As the inefficacy of poor laws, and of attempts forcibly to raise the price of labor, are most conspicuous in a scarcity, I have thought myself justified in considering them under this view; and as these causes of increased price received great ad. ditional force during the late scarcity from the increase of the circulating medium, I trust that the few observations which I have made on this subject will be considered as an allowable digression.

vol. ii.

CHAPTER VI.

Subject of Poor Laws continued.

INDEPENDENTLY of any considerations respecting a year of deficient crops it is evident, that an increase of population without a proportional increase of food must lower the value of each man's earnings. The food must necessarily be distributed in smaller quantities, and consequently a day's labor will purchase a smaller quantity of provisions. An increase in the price of provisions will arise either from an increase of population faster than the means of subsistence, or from a different distribution of the money of the society. The food of a country which has been long peopled, if it be increasing, increases slowly and regularly, and cannot be made to answer any sudden demands; but variations in the distribution of the money of the society are not unfrequently occurring and are undoubtedly among the causes which occasion the continual variations in the prices of provisions.