An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of

133

Adam Smith

cies of cultivation is at present in that country more profitable

than any other. It seems, at the same time, however, to indicate

another opinion, that this superior profit can last no longer than

the laws which at present restrain the free cultivation of the vine.

In 1731, they obtained an order of council, prohibiting both the

planting of new vineyards, and the renewal of these old ones, of

which the cultivation had been interrupted for two years, without

a particular permission from the king, to be granted only in con-

sequence of an information from the intendant of the province,

certifying that he had examined the land, and that it was inca-

pable of any other culture. The pretence of this order was the

scarcity of corn and pasture, and the superabundance of wine.

But had this superabundance been real, it would, without any

order of council, have effectually prevented the plantation of new

vineyards, by reducing the profits of this species of cultivation

below their natural proportion to those of corn and pasture. With

regard to the supposed scarcity of corn occasioned by the multi-

plication of vineyards, corn is nowhere in France more carefully

cultivated than in the wine provinces, where the land is fit for

producing it: as in Burgundy, Guienne, and the Upper Languedoc.

The numerous hands employed in the one species of cultivation

necessarily encourage the other, by affording a ready market for its

produce. To diminish the number of those who are capable of

paying it, is surely a most unpromising expedient for encouraging

the cultivation of corn. It is like the policy which would promote

agriculture, by discouraging manufactures.

The rent and profit of those productions, therefore, which re-

quire either a greater original expense of improvement in order to

fit the land for them, or a greater annual expense of cultivation,

though often much superior to those of corn and pasture, yet when

they do no more than compensate such extraordinary expense, are

in reality regulated by the rent and profit of those common crops.

It sometimes happens, indeed, that the quantity of land which

can be fitted for some particular produce, is too small to supply

the effectual demand. The whole produce can be disposed of to

those who are willing to give somewhat more than what is suffi-

cient to pay the whole rent, wages, and profit, necessary for rais-

ing and bringing it to market, according to their natural rates, or

according to the rates at which they are paid in the greater part of

other cultivated land. The surplus part of the price which remains

after defraying the whole expense of improvement and cultiva-

tion, may commonly, in this case, and in this case only, bear no

regular proportion to the like surplus in corn or pasture, but may

exceed it in almost any degree; and the greater part of this excess

naturally goes to the rent of the landlord.

The usual and natural proportion, for example, between the

---

134

The Wealth of Nations

rent and profit of wine, and those of corn and pasture, must be

understood to take place only with regard to those vineyards which

produce nothing but good common wine, such as can be raised

almost anywhere, upon any light, gravelly, or sandy soil, and which

has nothing to recommend it but its strength and wholesomeness.

It is with such vineyards only, that the common land of the coun-

try can be brought into competition; for with those of a peculiar

quality it is evident that it cannot.

The vine is more affected by the difference of soils than any

other fruit-tree. From some it derives a flavour which no culture

or management can equal, it is supposed, upon any other. This

flavour, real or imaginary, is sometimes peculiar to the produce of

a few vineyards; sometimes it extends through the greater part of a

small district, and sometimes through a considerable part of a

large province. The whole quantity of such wines that is brought

to market falls short of the effectual demand, or the demand of

those who would be willing to pay the whole rent, profit, and

wages, necessary for preparing and bringing them thither, accord-

ing to the ordinary rate, or according to the rate at which they are

paid in common vineyards. The whole quantity, therefore, can be

disposed of to those who are willing to pay more, which necessar-

ily raises their price above that of common wine. The difference is

greater or less, according as the fashionableness and scarcity of the

wine render the competition of the buyers more or less eager.

Whatever it be, the greater part of it goes to the rent of the land-

lord. For though such vineyards are in general more carefully cul-

tivated than most others, the high price of the wine seems to be,

not so much the effect, as the cause of this careful cultivation. In

so valuable a produce, the loss occasioned by negligence is so great,

as to force even the most careless to attention. A small part of this

high price, therefore, is sufficient to pay the wages of the extraor-

dinary labour bestowed upon their cultivation, and the profits of

the extraordinary stock which puts that labour into motion.

The sugar colonies possessed by the European nations in the

West Indies may be compared to those precious vineyards. Their

whole produce falls short of the effectual demand of Europe, and

can be disposed of to those who are willing to give more than

what is sufficient to pay the whole rent, profit, and wages, neces-

sary for preparing and bringing it to market, according to the rate

at which they are commonly paid by any other produce. In Cochin

China, the finest white sugar generally sells for three piastres the

quintal, about thirteen shillings and sixpence of our money, as we

are told by Mr Poivre {Voyages d’un Philosophe.}, a very careful

observer of the agriculture of that country. What is there called

the quintal, weighs from a hundred and fifty to two hundred Paris

pounds, or a hundred and seventy-five Paris pounds at a medium,

---