An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of

74

The Wealth of Nations

it is to be observed, are generally among the common people years

of sickness and mortality, which cannot fail to diminish the pro-

duce of their industry.

In years of plenty, servants frequently leave their masters, and

trust their subsistence to what they can make by their own indus-

try. But the same cheapness of provisions, by increasing the fund

which is destined for the maintenance of servants, encourages

masters, farmers especially, to employ a greater number. Farmers,

upon such occasions, expect more profit from their corn by main-

taining a few more labouring servants, than by selling it at a low

price in the market. The demand for servants increases, while the

number of those who offer to supply that demand diminishes.

The price of labour, therefore, frequently rises in cheap years.

In years of scarcity, the difficulty and uncertainty of subsistence

make all such people eager to return to service. But the high price

of provisions, by diminishing the funds destined for the mainte-

nance of servants, disposes masters rather to diminish than to in-

crease the number of those they have. In dear years, too, poor

independent workmen frequently consume the little stock with

which they had used to supply themselves with the materials of

their work, and are obliged to become journeymen for subsis-

tence. More people want employment than easily get it; many are

willing to take it upon lower terms than ordinary; and the wages

of both servants and journeymen frequently sink in dear years.

Masters of all sorts, therefore, frequently make better bargains

with their servants in dear than in cheap years, and find them

more humble and dependent in the former than in the latter. They

naturally, therefore, commend the former as more favourable to

industry. Landlords and farmers, besides, two of the largest classes

of masters, have another reason for being pleased with dear years.

The rents of the one, and the profits of the other, depend very

much upon the price of provisions. Nothing can be more absurd,

however, than to imagine that men in general should work less

when they work for themselves, than when they work for other

people. A poor independent workman will generally be more in-

dustrious than even a journeyman who works by the piece. The

one enjoys the whole produce of his own industry, the other shares

it with his master. The one, in his separate independent state, is

less liable to the temptations of bad company, which, in large manu-

factories, so frequently ruin the morals of the other. The superior-

ity of the independent workman over those servants who are hired

by the month or by the year, and whose wages and maintenance

are the same, whether they do much or do little, is likely to be still

greater. Cheap years tend to increase the proportion of indepen-

dent workmen to journeymen and servants of all kinds, and dear

years to diminish it.

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75

Adam Smith

A French author of great knowledge and ingenuity, Mr Messance,

receiver of the taillies in the election of St Etienne, endeavours to

shew that the poor do more work in cheap than in dear years, by

comparing the quantity and value of the goods made upon those

different occasions in three different manufactures; one of coarse

woollens, carried on at Elbeuf; one of linen, and another of silk,

both which extend through the whole generality of Rouen. It ap-

pears from his account, which is copied from the registers of the

public offices, that the quantity and value of the goods made in all

those three manufactories has generally been greater in cheap than

in dear years, and that it has always been; greatest in the cheapest,

and least in the dearest years. All the three seem to be stationary

manufactures, or which, though their produce may vary some-

what from year to year, are, upon the whole, neither going back-

wards nor forwards.

The manufacture of linen in Scotland, and that of coarse

woollens in the West Riding of Yorkshire, are growing manufac-

tures, of which the produce is generally, though with some varia-

tions, increasing both in quantity and value. Upon examining,

however, the accounts which have been published of their annual

produce, I have not been able to observe that its variations have

had any sensible connection with the dearness or cheapness of the

seasons. In 1740, a year of great scarcity, both manufactures, in-

deed, appear to have declined very considerably. But in 1756, an-

other year or great scarcity, the Scotch manufactures made more

than ordinary advances. The Yorkshire manufacture, indeed, de-

clined, and its produce did not rise to what it had been in 1755,

till 1766, after the repeal of the American stamp act. In that and

the following year, it greatly exceeded what it had ever been be-

fore, and it has continued to advance ever since.

The produce of all great manufactures for distant sale must nec-

essarily depend, not so much upon the dearness or cheapness of

the seasons in the countries where they are carried on, as upon the

circumstances which affect the demand in the countries where

they are consumed; upon peace or war, upon the prosperity or

declension of other rival manufactures and upon the good or bad

humour of their principal customers. A great part of the extraor-

dinary work, besides, which is probably done in cheap years, never

enters the public registers of manufactures. The men-servants, who

leave their masters, become independent labourers. The women

return to their parents, and commonly spin, in order to make

clothes for themselves and their families. Even the independent

workmen do not always, work for public sale, but are employed

by some of their neighbours in manufactures for family use. The

produce of their labour, therefore, frequently makes no figure in

those public registers, of which the records are sometimes pub-

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