An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of

72

The Wealth of Nations

and servants, according as the increasing, diminishing, or station-

ary demand of the society, may happen to require. But though the

wear and tear of a free servant be equally at the expense of his

master, it generally costs him much less than that of a slave. The

fund destined for replacing or repairing, if I may say so, the wear

and tear of the slave, is commonly managed by a negligent master

or careless overseer. That destined for performing the same office

with regard to the freeman is managed by the freeman himself.

The disorders which generally prevail in the economy of the rich,

naturally introduce themselves into the management of the former;

the strict frugality and parsimonious attention of the poor as natu-

rally establish themselves in that of the latter. Under such differ-

ent management, the same purpose must require very different

degrees of expense to execute it. It appears, accordingly, from the

experience of all ages and nations, I believe, that the work done by

freemen comes cheaper in the end than that performed by slaves.

It is found to do so even at Boston, New-York, and Philadelphia,

where the wages of common labour are so very high.

The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the effect of in-

creasing wealth, so it is the cause of increasing population. To

complain of it, is to lament over the necessary cause and effect of

the greatest public prosperity.

It deserves to be remarked, perhaps, that it is in the progressive

state, while the society is advancing to the further acquisition,

rather than when it has acquired its full complement of riches,

that the condition of the labouring poor, of the great body of the

people, seems to be the happiest and the most comfortable. It is

hard in the stationary, and miserable in the declining state. The

progressive state is, in reality, the cheerful and the hearty state to

all the different orders of the society; the stationary is dull; the

declining melancholy.

The liberal reward of labour, as it encourages the propagation,

so it increases the industry of the common people. The wages of

labour are the encouragement of industry, which, like every other

human quality, improves in proportion to the encouragement it

receives. A plentiful subsistence increases the bodily strength of

the labourer, and the comfortable hope of bettering his condition,

and of ending his days, perhaps, in ease and plenty, animates him

to exert that strength to the utmost. Where wages are high, ac-

cordingly, we shall always find the workmen more active, diligent,

and expeditious, than where they are low; in England, for example,

than in Scotland; in the neighbourhood of great towns, than in

remote country places. Some workmen, indeed, when they can

earn in four days what will maintain them through the week, will

be idle the other three. This, however, is by no means the case

with the greater part. Workmen, on the contrary, when they are

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73

Adam Smith

liberally paid by the piece, are very apt to overwork themselves,

and to ruin their health and constitution in a few years. A carpen-

ter in London, and in some other places, is not supposed to last in

his utmost vigour above eight years. Something of the same kind

happens in many other trades, in which the workmen are paid by

the piece; as they generally are in manufactures, and even in coun-

try labour, wherever wages are higher than ordinary. Almost every

class of artificers is subject to some peculiar infirmity occasioned

by excessive application to their peculiar species of work.

Ramuzzini, an eminent Italian physician, has written a particular

book concerning such diseases. We do not reckon our soldiers the

most industrious set of people among us; yet when soldiers have

been employed in some particular sorts of work, and liberally paid

by the piece, their officers have frequently been obliged to stipu-

late with the undertaker, that they should not be allowed to earn

above a certain sum every day, according to the rate at which they

were paid. Till this stipulation was made, mutual emulation, and

the desire of greater gain, frequently prompted them to overwork

themselves, and to hurt their health by excessive labour. Excessive

application, during four days of the week, is frequently the real

cause of the idleness of the other three, so much and so loudly

complained of. Great labour, either of mind or body, continued

for several days together is, in most men, naturally followed by a

great desire of relaxation, which, if not restrained by force, or by

some strong necessity, is almost irresistible. It is the call of nature,

which requires to be relieved by some indulgence, sometimes of

ease only, but sometimes too of dissipation and diversion. If it is

not complied with, the consequences are often dangerous and

sometimes fatal, and such as almost always, sooner or later, bring

on the peculiar infirmity of the trade. If masters would always

listen to the dictates of reason and humanity, they have frequently

occasion rather to moderate, than to animate the application of

many of their workmen. It will be found, I believe, in every sort of

trade, that the man who works so moderately, as to be able to

work constantly, not only preserves his health the longest, but, in

the course of the year, executes the greatest quantity of work.

In cheap years it is pretended, workmen are generally more idle,

and in dear times more industrious than ordinary. A plentiful sub-

sistence, therefore, it has been concluded, relaxes, and a scanty

one quickens their industry. That a little more plenty than ordi-

nary may render some workmen idle, cannot be well doubted; but

that it should have this effect upon the greater part, or that men in

general should work better when they are ill fed, than when they

are well fed, when they are disheartened than when they are in

good spirits, when they are frequently sick than when they are

generally in good health, seems not very probable. Years of dearth,

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