An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (ebook reader macos .TXT) 📕

less, in proportion to the price of corn, that of every sort of animal food,

so it as necessarily lowers that of, I believe, every sort 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 anti 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 sorts of vegetable food, which requiring less 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 extension of its commerce and navigation. Many sorts 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, etc. If, in the progress of improvement,

therefore, the real price of one species of food necessarily rises, that of

another as necessarily falls ; and it becomes a matter of more nicety to

judge how far the rise in the one may be compensated 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 sort, except perhaps that of hogs flesh, it

seems to have done through a great part of England more than a century ago),

any rise which can afterwards happen in that of any other sort 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

surely be so much distressed by any rise in the price of poultry, fish,

wild-fowl, or venison, as they must be relieved by the fall in that of

potatoes.

In the present 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 sort

of rude produce cannot much affect them. They suffer more, perhaps, by the

artificial rise which has been occasioned by taxes in the price of some

manufactured commodities, as of salt, soap, leather, candles, malt, beer,

ale, etc.

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

It is the natural effect of improvement, however, 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

considerably, yet the great diminution of the quantity will generally much

more than compensate the greatest rise which can happen in the price.

There are, indeed, a few manufactures, in which the necessary 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 coarser sort of cabinet work, the

necessary rise in the real price of barren timber, in consequence of the

improvement of land, will more than compensate all the advantages which can

be derived from the best machinery, the greatest dexterity, and the most

proper division and distribution of work.

But in all cases in which the real price of the rude material either does

not rise at all, or does not rise very much, that of the manufactured

commodity sinks very considerably.

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 coarser 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 coarser metals, and in all those goods

which are commonly known by the name of Birmingham and Sheffield ware, there

has been, during the same period, a very great reduction of price, though

not altogether so great as in watch-work. It has, however, been sufficient

to astonish the workmen of every other part of Europe, who in many cases

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 coarser metals.

In the clothing manufacture there has, during the same period, been no such

sensible reduction of price. The price of superfine cloth, I have been

assured, on the contrary, has, within these five-and-twenty or thirty years,

risen somewhat in proportion to its quality, owing, it was said, to a

considerable 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 said, indeed, during the course of the present century, to

have fallen a good deal in proportion to its quality. Quality, however, is

so very disputable a matter, that I look upon all information of this kind

as somewhat 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 occasioned some reduction of price.

But the reduction will appear much more sensible 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 subdivided, 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

sell by retail a broad yard of the finest scarlet grained, or of other

grained cloth of the finest making, above sixteen shillings, shall forfeit

forty shillings for every yard so sold.” Sixteen shillings, therefore,

containing about the same quantity of silver as four-and-twenty shillings of

our present money, was, at that time, reckoned not an unreasonable price for

a yard of the finest cloth; and as this is a sumptuary law, such cloth, it

is probable, had usually been sold somewhat dearer. A guinea may be reckoned

the highest price in the present times. Even though the quality of the

cloths, therefore, should be supposed equal, and that of the present times

is most probably much superior, yet, even upon this supposition, the money

price of the finest cloth appears to have been considerably reduced since

the end of the fifteenth century. But its real price has been much more

reduced. Six shillings and eightpence was then, and long afterwards,

reckoned the average price of a quarter of wheat. Sixteen shillings,

therefore, was the price of two quarters and more than three bushels of

wheat. Valuing a quarter of wheat in the present times at eight-and-twenty

shillings, the real price of a yard of fine cloth must, in those times, have

been equal to at least three pounds six shillings and sixpence of our

present money. The man who bought it must have parted with the command of a

quantity of labour and subsistence equal to what that sum would purchase in

the present times.

The reduction in the real price of the coarse manufacture, though

considerable, has not been so great as in that of the fine.

In 1463, being the 3rd of Edward IV. it was enacted, that “no servant in

husbandry nor common labourer, nor servant to any artificer inhabiting out

of a city or burgh, shall use or wear in their clothing any cloth above two

shillings the broad yard.” In the 3rd of Edward IV., two shillings contained

very nearly the same quantity of silver as four of our present money. But

the Yorkshire cloth which is now sold at four shillings the yard, is

probably much superior to any that was then made for the wearing of the very

poorest order of common servants. Even the money price of their clothing,

therefore, may, in proportion to the quality, be somewhat cheaper in the

present than it was in those ancient times. The real price is certainly a

good deal cheaper. Tenpence was then reckoned what is called the moderate

and reasonable price of a bushel of wheat. Two shillings, therefore, was the

price of two bushels and near two pecks of wheat, which in the present

times, at three shillings and sixpence the bushel, would be worth eight

shillings and ninepence. For a yard of this cloth the poor servant must have

parted with the power of purchasing a quantity of subsistence equal to what

eight shillings and ninepence would purchase in the present times. This is a

sumptuary law, too, restraining the luxury and extravagance of the poor.

Their clothing, therefore, had commonly been much more expensive.

The same order of people are, by the same law, prohibited from wearing hose,

of which the price should exceed fourteen-pence the pair, equal to about

eight-and-twenty pence of our present money. But fourteen-pence was in those

times the price of a bushel and near two pecks of wheat; which in the

present times, at three and sixpence the bushel, would cost five shillings

and threepence. We should in the present times consider this as a very high

price for a pair of stockings to a servant of the poorest and lowest order.

He must however, in those times, have paid what was really equivalent to

this price for them.

In the time of Edward IV. the art of knitting stockings was probably not

known in any part of Europe. Their hose were made of common cloth, which may

have been one of the causes of their dearness. The first person that wore

stockings in England is said to have been Queen Elizabeth. She received them

as a present from the Spanish ambassador.

Both in the coarse and in the fine woollen manufacture, the machinery

employed was much more imperfect in those ancient, than it is in the present

times. It has since received three very capital improvements, besides,

probably, many smaller ones, of which it may be difficult to ascertain

either the number or the importance. The three capital improvements are,

first, the exchange of the rock and spindle for the spinning-wheel, which,

with the same quantity of labour, will perform more than double the quantity

of work. Secondly, the use of several very ingenious machines, which

facilitate and abridge, in a still greater proportion, the winding of the

worsted and woollen yarn, or the proper arrangement of the warp and woof

before they are put into the loom ; an operation which, previous to the

invention of those machines, must have been extremely tedious and

troublesome.Thirdly, the employment of the fulling-mill for thickening the

cloth, instead of treading it in water. Neither wind nor water mills of any

kind were known in England