An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of

90

The Wealth of Nations

where the former earn six, the latter often earn nine and ten; and

where the former earn nine and ten, as in London, the latter com-

monly earn fifteen and eighteen. No species of skilled labour, how-

ever, seems more easy to learn than that of masons and bricklay-

ers. Chairmen in London, during the summer season, are said

sometimes to be employed as bricklayers. The high wages of those

workmen, therefore, are not so much the recompence of their skill,

as the compensation for the inconstancy of their employment.

A house-carpenter seems to exercise rather a nicer and a more

ingenious trade than a mason. In most places, however, for it is

not universally so, his day-wages are somewhat lower. His em-

ployment, though it depends much, does not depend so entirely

upon the occasional calls of his customers; and it is not liable to be

interrupted by the weather.

When the trades which generally afford constant employment,

happen in a particular place not to do so, the wages of the work-

men always rise a good deal above their ordinary proportion to

those of common labour. In London, almost all journeymen arti-

ficers are liable to be called upon and dismissed by their masters

from day to day, and from week to week, in the same manner as

day-labourers in other places. The lowest order of artificers, jour-

neymen tailors, accordingly, earn their half-a-crown a-day, though

eighteen pence may be reckoned the wages of common labour. In

small towns and country villages, the wages of journeymen tailors

frequently scarce equal those of common labour; but in London

they are often many weeks without employment, particularly dur-

ing the summer.

When the inconstancy of employment is combined with the

hardship, disagreeableness, and dirtiness of the work, it sometimes

raises the wages of the most common labour above those of the

most skilful artificers. A collier working by the piece is supposed,

at Newcastle, to earn commonly about double, and, in many parts

of Scotland, about three times, the wages of common labour. His

high wages arise altogether from the hardship, disagreeableness,

and dirtiness of his work. His employment may, upon most occa-

sions, be as constant as he pleases. The coal-heavers in London

exercise a trade which, in hardship, dirtiness, and disagreeable-

ness, almost equals that of colliers; and, from the unavoidable ir-

regularity in the arrivals of coal-ships, the employment of the greater

part of them is necessarily very inconstant. If colliers, therefore,

commonly earn double and triple the wages of common labour, it

ought not to seem unreasonable that coal-heavers should some-

times earn four and five times those wages. In the inquiry made

into their condition a few years ago, it was found that, at the rate

at which they were then paid, they could earn from six to ten

shillings a-day. Six shillings are about four times the wages of com-

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91

Adam Smith

mon labour in London; and, in every particular trade, the lowest

common earnings may always be considered as those of the far

greater number. How extravagant soever those earnings may ap-

pear, if they were more than sufficient to compensate all the dis-

agreeable circumstances of the business, there would soon be so

great a number of competitors, as, in a trade which has no exclu-

sive privilege, would quickly reduce them to a lower rate.

The constancy or inconstancy of employment cannot affect the

ordinary profits of stock in any particular trade. Whether the stock

is or is not constantly employed, depends, not upon the trade, but

the trader.

Fourthly, the wages of labour vary according to the small or

great trust which must be reposed in the workmen.

The wages of goldsmiths and jewellers are everywhere superior

to those of many other workmen, not only of equal, but of much

superior ingenuity, on account of the precious materials with which

they are entrusted. We trust our health to the physician, our for-

tune, and sometimes our life and reputation, to the lawyer and

attorney. Such confidence could not safely be reposed in people of

a very mean or low condition. Their reward must be such, there-

fore, as may give them that rank in the society which so important

a trust requires. The long time and the great expense which must

be laid out in their education, when combined with this circum-

stance, necessarily enhance still further the price of their labour.

When a person employs only his own stock in trade, there is no

trust; and the credit which he may get from other people, de-

pends, not upon the nature of the trade, but upon their opinion

of his fortune, probity and prudence. The different rates of profit,

therefore, in the different branches of trade, cannot arise from the

different degrees of trust reposed in the traders.

Fifthly, the wages of labour in different employments vary ac-

cording to the probability or improbability of success in them.

The probability that any particular person shall ever be quali-

fied for the employments to which he is educated, is very different

in different occupations. In the greatest part of mechanic trades

success is almost certain; but very uncertain in the liberal profes-

sions. Put your son apprentice to a shoemaker, there is little doubt

of his learning to make a pair of shoes; but send him to study the

law, it as at least twenty to one if he ever makes such proficiency as

will enable him to live by the business. In a perfectly fair lottery,

those who draw the prizes ought to gain all that is lost by those

who draw the blanks. In a profession, where twenty fail for one

that succeeds, that one ought to gain all that should have been

gained by the unsuccessful twenty. The counsellor at law, who,

perhaps, at near forty years of age, begins to make something by

his profession, ought to receive the retribution, not only of his

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