An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of

135

Adam Smith

which reduces the price of the hundred weight English to about

eight shillings sterling; not a fourth part of what is commonly

paid for the brown or muscovada sugars imported from our colo-

nies, and not a sixth part of what is paid for the finest white sugar.

The greater part of the cultivated lands in Cochin China are em-

ployed in producing corn and rice, the food of the great body of

the people. The respective prices of corn, rice, and sugar, are there

probably in the natural proportion, or in that which naturally

takes place in the different crops of the greater part of cultivated

land, and which recompenses the landlord and farmer, as nearly as

can be computed, according to what is usually the original ex-

pense of improvement, and the annual expense of cultivation. But

in our sugar colonies, the price of sugar bears no such proportion

to that of the produce of a rice or corn field either in Europe or

America. It is commonly said that a sugar planter expects that the

rum and the molasses should defray the whole expense of his cul-

tivation, and that his sugar should be all clear profit. If this be

true, for I pretend not to affirm it, it is as if a corn farmer expected

to defray the expense of his cultivation with the chaff and the

straw, and that the grain should be all clear profit. We see fre-

quently societies of merchants in London, and other trading towns,

purchase waste lands in our sugar colonies, which they expect to

improve and cultivate with profit, by means of factors and agents,

notwithstanding the great distance and the uncertain returns, from

the defective administration of justice in those countries. Nobody

will attempt to improve and cultivate in the same manner the

most fertile lands of Scotland, Ireland, or the corn provinces of

North America, though, from the more exact administration of

justice in these countries, more regular returns might be expected.

In Virginia and Maryland, the cultivation of tobacco is pre-

ferred, as most profitable, to that of corn. Tobacco might be culti-

vated with advantage through the greater part of Europe; but, in

almost every part of Europe, it has become a principal subject of

taxation; and to collect a tax from every different farm in the coun-

try where this plant might happen to be cultivated, would be more

difficult, it has been supposed, than to levy one upon its importa-

tion at the custom-house. The cultivation of tobacco has, upon

this account, been most absurdly prohibited through the greater

part of Europe, which necessarily gives a sort of monopoly to the

countries where it is allowed; and as Virginia and Maryland pro-

duce the greatest quantity of it, they share largely, though with

some competitors, in the advantage of this monopoly. The culti-

vation of tobacco, however, seems not to be so advantageous as

that of sugar. I have never even heard of any tobacco plantation

that was improved and cultivated by the capital of merchants who

resided in Great Britain; and our tobacco colonies send us home

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136

The Wealth of Nations

no such wealthy planters as we see frequently arrive from our sugar

islands. Though, from the preference given in those colonies to

the cultivation of tobacco above that of corn, it would appear that

the effectual demand of Europe for tobacco is not completely sup-

plied, it probably is more nearly so than that for sugar; and though

the present price of tobacco is probably more than sufficient to

pay the whole rent, wages, and profit, necessary for preparing and

bringing it to market, according to the rate at which they are com-

monly paid in corn land, it must not be so much more as the

present price of sugar. Our tobacco planters, accordingly, have

shewn the same fear of the superabundance of tobacco, which the

proprietors of the old vineyards in France have of the superabun-

dance of wine. By act of assembly, they have restrained its cultiva-

tion to six thousand plants, supposed to yield a thousand weight

of tobacco, for every negro between sixteen and sixty years of age.

Such a negro, over and above this quantity of tobacco, can man-

age, they reckon, four acres of Indian corn. To prevent the market

from being overstocked, too, they have sometimes, in plentiful

years, we are told by Dr Douglas {Douglas’s Summary,vol. ii. p.

379, 373.} (I suspect he has been ill informed), burnt a certain

quantity of tobacco for every negro, in the same manner as the

Dutch are said to do of spices. If such violent methods are neces-

sary to keep up the present price of tobacco, the superior advan-

tage of its culture over that of corn, if it still has any, will not

probably be of long continuance.

It is in this manner that the rent of the cultivated land, of which

the produce is human food, regulates the rent of the greater part

of other cultivated land. No particular produce can long afford

less, because the land would immediately be turned to another

use; and if any particular produce commonly affords more, it is

because the quantity of land which can be fitted for it is too small

to supply the effectual demand.

In Europe, corn is the principal produce of land, which serves

immediately for human food. Except in particular situations, there-

fore, the rent of corn land regulates in Europe that of all other cul-

tivated land. Britain need envy neither the vineyards of France, nor

the olive plantations of Italy. Except in particular situations, the

value of these is regulated by that of corn, in which the fertility of

Britain is not much inferior to that of either of those two countries.

If, in any country, the common and favourite vegetable food of

the people should be drawn from a plant of which the most com-

mon land, with the same, or nearly the same culture, produced a

much greater quantity than the most fertile does of corn; the rent

of the landlord, or the surplus quantity of food which would re-

main to him, after paying the labour, and replacing the stock of

the farmer, together with its ordinary profits, would necessarily be

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