An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of

129

Adam Smith

grass are much superior to what can be made by corn.

Thus, in the neighbourhood of a great town, the demand for

milk, and for forage to horses, frequently contribute, together with

the high price of butcher’s meat, to raise the value of grass above

what may be called its natural proportion to that of corn. This

local advantage, it is evident, cannot be communicated to the lands

at a distance.

Particular circumstances have sometimes rendered some coun-

tries so populous, that the whole territory, like the lands in the

neighbourhood of a great town, has not been sufficient to pro-

duce both the grass and the corn necessary for the subsistence of

their inhabitants. Their lands, therefore, have been principally

employed in the production of grass, the more bulky commodity,

and which cannot be so easily brought from a great distance; and

corn, the food of the great body of the people, has been chiefly

imported from foreign countries. Holland is at present in this situ-

ation; and a considerable part of ancient Italy seems to have been

so during the prosperity of the Romans. To feed well, old Cato

said, as we are told by Cicero, was the first and most profitable

thing in the management of a private estate; to feed tolerably well,

the second; and to feed ill, the third. To plough, he ranked only in

the fourth place of profit and advantage. Tillage, indeed, in that

part of ancient Italy which lay in the neighbour hood of Rome,

must have been very much discouraged by the distributions of

corn which were frequently made to the people, either gratuitously,

or at a very low price. This corn was brought from the conquered

provinces, of which several, instead of taxes, were obliged to fur-

nish a tenth part of their produce at a stated price, about sixpence

a-peck, to the republic. The low price at which this corn was dis-

tributed to the people, must necessarily have sunk the price of

what could be brought to the Roman market from Latium, or the

ancient territory of Rome, and must have discouraged its cultiva-

tion in that country.

In an open country, too, of which the principal produce is corn,

a well-inclosed piece of grass will frequently rent higher than any

corn field in its neighbourhood. It is convenient for the mainte-

nance of the cattle employed in the cultivation of the corn; and its

high rent is, in this case, not so properly paid from the value of its

own produce, as from that of the corn lands which are cultivated

by means of it. It is likely to fall, if ever the neighbouring lands are

completely inclosed. The present high rent of inclosed land in

Scotland seems owing to the scarcity of inclosure, and will prob-

ably last no longer than that scarcity. The advantage of inclosure is

greater for pasture than for corn. It saves the labour of guarding

the cattle, which feed better, too, when they are not liable to be

disturbed by their keeper or his dog.

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130

The Wealth of Nations

But where there is no local advantage of this kind, the rent and

profit of corn, or whatever else is the common vegetable food of

the people, must naturally regulate upon the land which is fit for

producing it, the rent and profit of pasture.

The use of the artificial grasses, of turnips, carrots, cabbages,

and the other expedients which have been fallen upon to make an

equal quantity of land feed a greater number of cattle than when

in natural grass, should somewhat reduce, it might be expected,

the superiority which, in an improved country, the price of butcher’s

meat naturally has over that of bread. It seems accordingly to have

done so; and there is some reason for believing that, at least in the

London market, the price of butcher’s meat, in proportion to the

price of bread, is a good deal lower in the present times than it was

in the beginning of the last century.

In the Appendix to the life of Prince Henry, Doctor Birch has

given us an account of the prices of butcher’s meat as commonly

paid by that prince. It is there said, that the four quarters of an ox,

weighing six hundred pounds, usually cost him nine pounds ten

shillings, or thereabouts; that is thirty-one shillings and eight-pence

per hundred pounds weight. Prince Henry died on the 6th of

November 1612, in the nineteenth year of his age.

In March 1764, there was a parliamentary inquiry into the causes

of the high price of provisions at that time. It was then, among

other proof to the same purpose, given in evidence by a Virginia

merchant, that in March 1763, he had victualled his ships for

twentyfour or twenty-five shillings the hundred weight of beef,

which he considered as the ordinary price; whereas, in that dear

year, he had paid twenty-seven shillings for the same weight and

sort. This high price in 1764 is, however, four shillings and eight-

pence cheaper than the ordinary price paid by Prince Henry; and

it is the best beef only, it must be observed, which is fit to be salted

for those distant voyages.

The price paid by Prince Henry amounts to 3d. 4/5ths per pound

weight of the whole carcase, coarse and choice pieces taken to-

gether; and at that rate the choice pieces could not have been sold

by retail for less than 4½d. or 5d. the pound.

In the parliamentary inquiry in 1764, the witnesses stated the

price of the choice pieces of the best beef to be to the consumer

4d. and 4½d. the pound; and the coarse pieces in general to be

from seven farthings to 2½d. and 2¾d.; and this, they said, was in

general one halfpenny dearer than the same sort of pieces had

usually been sold in the month of March. But even this high price

is still a good deal cheaper than what we can well suppose the

ordinary retail price to have been in the time of Prince Henry.

During the first twelve years of the last century, the average price

of the best wheat at the Windsor market was £ 1:18:3½d. the

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