from every other within the town, fomewhat c HA P. dearer than they otherwise might have done. . But in recompence, they were enabled to sell their own just as much dearer; so that fo far it was as broad as long, as they say; and in the dealings of the different classes within the town with one another, none of them were losers by these regulations. But in their dealings with the country they were all great gainers; and in these latter dealings consists the whole trade which supports and enriches every town.

Every town draws its whole subsistence, and all the materials of its industry, from the country. It pays for these chiefly in two ways: first, by sending back to the country a part of those materials wrought up and manufactured; in which case their price is augmented by the wages of the workmen, and the profits of their masters or immediate employers : secondly, by sending to it a part both of the rude and manufactured produce, either of other countries, or of distant parts of the fame country, imported into the town: in which case too the original price of those goods is augmented by the wages of the carriers or failors, and by the profits of the mer. chants who employ them. In what is gained upon the first of those two branches of commerce, confifts the advantage which the town makes by its manufactures; in what is gained upon the second, the advantage of its inland and foreign trade. The wages of the workmen, and the profits of their different employers, make up the whole of what is gained upon both. WhatVOL. II.

ever

BOO K ever regulations, therefore, tend to increase those
I wages and profits beyond what they otherwise

would be, tend to enable the town to purchase,
with a smaller quantity of its labour, the produce
of a greater quantity of the labour of the country.
They give the traders and artificers in the town
an advantage over the landlords, farmers, and
labourers in the country, and break down that
natural equality which would otherwise take
place in the commerce which is carried on be-
tween them. The whole annual produce of the
labour of the society is annually divided between
those two different sets of people. By means of
those regulations a greater share of it is given to
the inhabitants of the town than would other-
wise fall to them; and a lefs to those of the
country. .
· The price which the town really pays for the
provisions and materials annually imported into
it, is the quantity of manufactures and other
goods annually exported from it. The dearer
the latter are sold,, the cheaper the former are
bought. The industry of the town becomes
more, and that of the country less advanta-
geous.

That the industry which is carried on in towns is, every-where in Europe, more advantageous than that which is carried on in the coun. try, without entering into any very nice computations, we may satisfy ourselves by one very simple and obvious observation. In every country of Europe we find, at least, a hụndred people who have acquired great fortunes from small

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beginnings by trade and manufactures, the in. C H A P. . dustry which properly belongs to towns, for one who has done fo by that which properly be. longs to the country, the raising of rude produce by the improvement and cultivation of land. Industry, therefore, must be better rewarded, the wages of labour and the profits of stock must evidently be greater in the one situation than in the other. But stock and labour naturally seek the most advantageous employment. They naturally, therefore, resort as much as they can to the town, and desert the country.

The inhabitants of a town, being collected into one place, can easily combine together, The most infignificant trades carried on in towns have accordingly, in fome place or other, been incorporated; and even where they have never been incorporated, yet the corporation spirit, the jealousy of strangers, the aversion to take apprentices, or to communicate the fecret of their trade, generally prevail in them, and often teach them, by voluntary associations and agreements, to prevent that free competition which they cannot prohibit, by bye-laws. The trades which employ but a small number of hands, run most easily into such combinations. Half a dozen wool-combers, perhaps, are neceffary to keep a thousand spinners and weavers at work. By combining not to take apprentices they can not only engross the employment, but reduce the whole manufacture into a fort of Navery to themfelves, and raise the price of their labour much above what is due to the nature of their work.

BOOK The inhabitants of the country, dispersed in

diftant places, cannot easily combine together.
They have not only never been incorporated,
but the corporation spirit never has prevailed
among them. No apprenticeship has ever been
thought necessary to qualify for husbandry, the
great trade of the country. After what are called
the fine arts, and the liberal professions, how-
ever, there is perhaps no trade which requires fo
great a variety of knowledge and experience.
The innumerable volumes which have been writ-
ten upon it in all languages, may satisfy us, that
among the wisest and most learned nations, it
has never been regarded as a matter very easily
understood. And from all those volumes we
shall in vain attempt to collect that knowledge
of its various and complicated operations, which
is commonly poffeffed even by the common
farmer; how contemptuously foever the very
contemptible authors of some of them may fome.
times affect to speak of him. There is scarce
any common mechanic trade, on the contrary,
of which all the operations may not be as com-
pletely and distinctly explained in a pamphlet of
a very few pages, as it is poflible for words il.
lustrated by figures to explain them. In the
history of the arts, now publishing by the French
academy of sciences, several of them are ac-
tually explained in this manner. The direction
of operations, besides, which must be varied with
every change of the weather, as well as with
many other accidents, requires much more
judgment and discretion, than that of those

X.

which are always the same or very nearly the CHA P. fame.

Not only the art of the farmer, the general direction of the operations of husbandry, but many inferior branches of country labour, re. quire much more skill and experience than the greater part of mechanic trades. The man who works upon brass and iron, works with instru. ments and upon materials of which the temper is always the same, or very nearly the same. But the man who ploughs the ground with a team of horses or oxen, works with instruments of which the health, strength, and temper, are very dif. ferent upon different occasions. The condition of the materials which he works upon too is as variable as that of the instruments which he works with, and both require to be managed with much judgment and discretion. The common ploughman, though generally regarded as the pattern of stupidity and ignorance, is seldom de. fective in this judgment and discretion. He is less accustomed, indeed, to social intercourse than the mechanic who lives in a town. His voice and language are more uncouth and more difficult to be understood by those who are not used to them. His understanding, however, being accustomed to consider a greater variety of objects, is generally much superior to that of the other, whose whole attention from morning till night is commonly occupied in performing one or two very simple operations. How much the lower ranks of people in the country are really superior to those of the town, is well known to every man whom either business or curiosity has

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