An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of

86

The Wealth of Nations

the advanced price of the flax, and upon the wages of the spin-

ners. And the employer of the weavers would require alike five per

cent. both upon the advanced price of the linen-yarn, and upon

the wages of the weavers. In raising the price of commodities, the

rise of wages operates in the same manner as simple interest does

in the accumulation of debt. The rise of profit operates like com-

pound interest. Our merchants and master manufacturers com-

plain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price,

and thereby lessening the sale of their goods, both at home and

abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high prof-

its; they are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their

own gains; they complain only of those of other people.

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER X

OF 

OF 

OF 

OF 

OF W

W

W

W

WA

A

A

A

AGES AND PR

GES AND PR

GES AND PR

GES AND PR

GES AND PROFIT IN 

OFIT IN 

OFIT IN 

OFIT IN 

OFIT IN THE DIF-

THE DIF-

THE DIF-

THE DIF-

THE DIF-

FERENT EMPL

FERENT EMPL

FERENT EMPL

FERENT EMPL

FERENT EMPLO

O

O

O

OYMENT

YMENT

YMENT

YMENT

YMENTS OF L

S OF L

S OF L

S OF L

S OF LABOUR

ABOUR

ABOUR

ABOUR

ABOUR

AND ST

AND ST

AND ST

AND ST

AND STOCK

OCK

OCK

OCK

OCK

T

HE

 

WHOLE

 

OF

 

THE

 

ADVANTAGES

 and disadvantages of the different

employments of labour and stock, must, in the same

neighbourhood, be either perfectly equal, or continually tending

to equality. If, in the same neighbourhood, there was any employ-

ment evidently either more or less advantageous than the rest, so

many people would crowd into it in the one case, and so many

would desert it in the other, that its advantages would soon return

to the level of other employments. This, at least, would be the case

in a society where things were left to follow their natural course,

where there was perfect liberty, and where every man was per-

fectly free both to choose what occupation he thought proper,

and to change it as often as he thought proper. Every man’s inter-

est would prompt him to seek the advantageous, and to shun the

disadvantageous employment.

Pecuniary wages and profit, indeed, are everywhere in Europe

extremely different, according to the different employments of

labour and stock. But this difference arises, partly from certain

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87

Adam Smith

circumstances in the employments themselves, which, either re-

ally, or at least in the imagination of men, make up for a small

pecuniary gain in some, and counterbalance a great one in others,

and partly from the policy of Europe, which nowhere leaves things

at perfect liberty.

The particular consideration of those circumstances, and of that

policy, will divide this Chapter into two parts.

P

P

P

P

PAR

AR

AR

AR

ART I. 

T I. 

T I. 

T I. 

T I. Inequalities arising from the nature of the employments

themselves.

The five following are the principal circumstances which, so far

as I have been able to observe, make up for a small pecuniary gain

in some employments, and counterbalance a great one in others.

First, the agreeableness or disagreeableness of the employments

themselves; secondly, the easiness and cheapness, or the difficulty

and expense of learning them; thirdly, the constancy or incon-

stancy of employment in them; fourthly, the small or great trust

which must be reposed in those who exercise them; and, fifthly,

the probability or improbability of success in them.

First, the wages of labour vary with the ease or hardship, the

cleanliness or dirtiness, the honourableness or dishonourableness,

of the employment. Thus in most places, take the year round, a

journeyman tailor earns less than a journeyman weaver. His work

is much easier. A journeyman weaver earns less than a journey-

man smith. His work is not always easier, but it is much cleanlier.

A journeyman blacksmith, though an artificer, seldom earns so

much in twelve hours, as a collier, who is only a labourer, does in

eight. His work is not quite so dirty, is less dangerous, and is car-

ried on in day-light, and above ground. Honour makes a great

part of the reward of all honourable professions. In point of pecu-

niary gain, all things considered, they are generally under-recom-

pensed, as I shall endeavour to shew by and by. Disgrace has the

contrary effect. The trade of a butcher is a brutal and an odious

business; but it is in most places more profitable than the greater

part of common trades. The most detestable of all employments,

that of public executioner, is, in proportion to the quantity of

work done, better paid than any common trade whatever.

Hunting and fishing, the most important employments of man-

kind in the rude state of society, become, in its advanced state,

their most agreeable amusements, and they pursue for pleasure

what they once followed from necessity. In the advanced state of

society, therefore, they are all very poor people who follow as a

trade, what other people pursue as a pastime. Fishermen have been

so since the time of Theocritus. {See Idyllium xxi.}. A poacher is

everywhere a very poor man in Great Britain. In countries where

the rigour of the law suffers no poachers, the licensed hunter is

---