74
The Wealth of Nations
it is to be observed, are generally among the common people years
of sickness and mortality, which cannot fail to diminish the pro-
duce of their industry.
In years of plenty, servants frequently leave their masters, and
trust their subsistence to what they can make by their own indus-
try. But the same cheapness of provisions, by increasing the fund
which is destined for the maintenance of servants, encourages
masters, farmers especially, to employ a greater number. Farmers,
upon such occasions, expect more profit from their corn by main-
taining a few more labouring servants, than by selling it at a low
price in the market. The demand for servants increases, while the
number of those who offer to supply that demand diminishes.
The price of labour, therefore, frequently rises in cheap years.
In years of scarcity, the difficulty and uncertainty of subsistence
make all such people eager to return to service. But the high price
of provisions, by diminishing the funds destined for the mainte-
nance of servants, disposes masters rather to diminish than to in-
crease the number of those they have. In dear years, too, poor
independent workmen frequently consume the little stock with
which they had used to supply themselves with the materials of
their work, and are obliged to become journeymen for subsis-
tence. More people want employment than easily get it; many are
willing to take it upon lower terms than ordinary; and the wages
of both servants and journeymen frequently sink in dear years.
Masters of all sorts, therefore, frequently make better bargains
with their servants in dear than in cheap years, and find them
more humble and dependent in the former than in the latter. They
naturally, therefore, commend the former as more favourable to
industry. Landlords and farmers, besides, two of the largest classes
of masters, have another reason for being pleased with dear years.
The rents of the one, and the profits of the other, depend very
much upon the price of provisions. Nothing can be more absurd,
however, than to imagine that men in general should work less
when they work for themselves, than when they work for other
people. A poor independent workman will generally be more in-
dustrious than even a journeyman who works by the piece. The
one enjoys the whole produce of his own industry, the other shares
it with his master. The one, in his separate independent state, is
less liable to the temptations of bad company, which, in large manu-
factories, so frequently ruin the morals of the other. The superior-
ity of the independent workman over those servants who are hired
by the month or by the year, and whose wages and maintenance
are the same, whether they do much or do little, is likely to be still
greater. Cheap years tend to increase the proportion of indepen-
dent workmen to journeymen and servants of all kinds, and dear
years to diminish it.
75
Adam Smith
A French author of great knowledge and ingenuity, Mr Messance,
receiver of the taillies in the election of St Etienne, endeavours to
shew that the poor do more work in cheap than in dear years, by
comparing the quantity and value of the goods made upon those
different occasions in three different manufactures; one of coarse
woollens, carried on at Elbeuf; one of linen, and another of silk,
both which extend through the whole generality of Rouen. It ap-
pears from his account, which is copied from the registers of the
public offices, that the quantity and value of the goods made in all
those three manufactories has generally been greater in cheap than
in dear years, and that it has always been; greatest in the cheapest,
and least in the dearest years. All the three seem to be stationary
manufactures, or which, though their produce may vary some-
what from year to year, are, upon the whole, neither going back-
wards nor forwards.
The manufacture of linen in Scotland, and that of coarse
woollens in the West Riding of Yorkshire, are growing manufac-
tures, of which the produce is generally, though with some varia-
tions, increasing both in quantity and value. Upon examining,
however, the accounts which have been published of their annual
produce, I have not been able to observe that its variations have
had any sensible connection with the dearness or cheapness of the
seasons. In 1740, a year of great scarcity, both manufactures, in-
deed, appear to have declined very considerably. But in 1756, an-
other year or great scarcity, the Scotch manufactures made more
than ordinary advances. The Yorkshire manufacture, indeed, de-
clined, and its produce did not rise to what it had been in 1755,
till 1766, after the repeal of the American stamp act. In that and
the following year, it greatly exceeded what it had ever been be-
fore, and it has continued to advance ever since.
The produce of all great manufactures for distant sale must nec-
essarily depend, not so much upon the dearness or cheapness of
the seasons in the countries where they are carried on, as upon the
circumstances which affect the demand in the countries where
they are consumed; upon peace or war, upon the prosperity or
declension of other rival manufactures and upon the good or bad
humour of their principal customers. A great part of the extraor-
dinary work, besides, which is probably done in cheap years, never
enters the public registers of manufactures. The men-servants, who
leave their masters, become independent labourers. The women
return to their parents, and commonly spin, in order to make
clothes for themselves and their families. Even the independent
workmen do not always, work for public sale, but are employed
by some of their neighbours in manufactures for family use. The
produce of their labour, therefore, frequently makes no figure in
those public registers, of which the records are sometimes pub-