An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of

108

The Wealth of Nations

species of industry; which is in reality to keep it always

understocked. Each class was eager to establish regulations proper

for this purpose, and, provided it was allowed to do so, was will-

ing to consent that every other class should do the same. In conse-

quence of such regulations, indeed, each class was obliged to buy

the goods they had occasion for from every other within the town,

somewhat dearer than they otherwise might have done. But, in

recompence, they were enabled to sell their own just as much dearer;

so that, so 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 deal-

ings with the country they were all great gainers; and in these

latter dealings consist the whole trade which supports and en-

riches 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 materi-

als 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 coun-

tries, or of distant parts of the same country, imported into the

town; in which case, too, the original price of those goods is aug-

mented by the wages of the carriers or sailors, and by the profits of

the merchants who employ them. In what is gained upon the first

of those branches of commerce, consists the advantage which the

town makes by its manufactures; in what is gained upon the sec-

ond, 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. Whatever regulations,

therefore, tend to increase those 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 quan-

tity of the labour of the country. They give the traders and artifi-

cers 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 car-

ried on between 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 otherwise fall to them,

and a less 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 manufac-

tures and other goods annually exported from it. The dearer the

latter are sold, the cheaper the former are bought. The industry of

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109

Adam Smith

the town becomes more, and that of the country less advanta-

geous.

That the industry which is carried on in towns is, everywhere in

Europe, more advantageous than that which is carried on in the

country, 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 hundred people who

have acquired great fortunes, from small beginnings, by trade and

manufactures, the industry which properly belongs to towns, for

one who has done so by that which properly belongs 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 situa-

tion 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 insignificant trades carried on

in towns have, accordingly, in some place or other, been incorpo-

rated; 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 secret of their trade, generally

prevail in them, and often teach them, by voluntary associations

and agreements, to prevent that free competition which they can-

not 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 necessary to keep a thousand

spinners and weavers at work. By combining not to take appren-

tices, they can not only engross the employment, but reduce the

whole manufacture into a sort of slavery to themselves, and raise

the price of their labour much above what is due to the nature of

their work.

The inhabitants of the country, dispersed in distant places, can-

not easily combine together. They have not only never been incor-

porated, but the incorporation 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, however, there is perhaps

no trade which requires so great a variety of knowledge and expe-

rience. The innumerable volumes which have been written 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 opera-

tions which is commonly possessed even by the common farmer;

how contemptuously soever the very contemptible authors of some

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