108
The Wealth of Nations
species of industry; which is in reality to keep it always
understocked. Each class was eager to establish regulations proper
for this purpose, and, provided it was allowed to do so, was will-
ing to consent that every other class should do the same. In conse-
quence of such regulations, indeed, each class was obliged to buy
the goods they had occasion for from every other within the town,
somewhat dearer than they otherwise might have done. But, in
recompence, they were enabled to sell their own just as much dearer;
so that, so far it was as broad as long, as they say; and in the
dealings of the different classes within the town with one another,
none of them were losers by these regulations. But in their deal-
ings with the country they were all great gainers; and in these
latter dealings consist the whole trade which supports and en-
riches every town.
Every town draws its whole subsistence, and all the materials of
its industry, from the: country. It pays for these chiefly in two
ways. First, by sending back to the country a part of those materi-
als wrought up and manufactured; in which case, their price is
augmented by the wages of the workmen, and the profits of their
masters or immediate employers; secondly, by sending to it a part
both of the rude and manufactured produce, either of other coun-
tries, or of distant parts of the same country, imported into the
town; in which case, too, the original price of those goods is aug-
mented by the wages of the carriers or sailors, and by the profits of
the merchants who employ them. In what is gained upon the first
of those branches of commerce, consists the advantage which the
town makes by its manufactures; in what is gained upon the sec-
ond, the advantage of its inland and foreign trade. The wages of
the workmen, and the profits of their different employers, make
up the whole of what is gained upon both. Whatever regulations,
therefore, tend to increase those wages and profits beyond what
they otherwise: would be, tend to enable the town to purchase,
with a smaller quantity of its labour, the produce of a greater quan-
tity of the labour of the country. They give the traders and artifi-
cers in the town an advantage over the landlords, farmers, and
labourers, in the country, and break down that natural equality
which would otherwise take place in the commerce which is car-
ried on between them. The whole annual produce of the labour of
the society is annually divided between those two different sets of
people. By means of those regulations, a greater share of it is given
to the inhabitants of the town than would otherwise fall to them,
and a less to those of ’ the country.
The price which the town really pays for the provisions and
materials annually imported into it, is the quantity of manufac-
tures and other goods annually exported from it. The dearer the
latter are sold, the cheaper the former are bought. The industry of
109
Adam Smith
the town becomes more, and that of the country less advanta-
geous.
That the industry which is carried on in towns is, everywhere in
Europe, more advantageous than that which is carried on in the
country, without entering into any very nice computations, we may
satisfy ourselves by one very simple and obvious observation. In
every country of Europe, we find at least a hundred people who
have acquired great fortunes, from small beginnings, by trade and
manufactures, the industry which properly belongs to towns, for
one who has done so by that which properly belongs to the country,
the raising of rude produce by the improvement and cultivation of
land. Industry, therefore, must be better rewarded, the wages of labour
and the profits of stock must evidently be greater, in the one situa-
tion than in the other. But stock and labour naturally seek the most
advantageous employment. They naturally, therefore, resort as much
as they can to the town, and desert the country.
The inhabitants of a town being collected into one place, can
easily combine together. The most insignificant trades carried on
in towns have, accordingly, in some place or other, been incorpo-
rated; and even where they have never been incorporated, yet the
corporation-spirit, the jealousy of strangers, the aversion to take
apprentices, or to communicate the secret of their trade, generally
prevail in them, and often teach them, by voluntary associations
and agreements, to prevent that free competition which they can-
not prohibit by bye-laws. The trades which employ but a small
number of hands, run most easily into such combinations. Half-
a-dozen wool-combers, perhaps, are necessary to keep a thousand
spinners and weavers at work. By combining not to take appren-
tices, they can not only engross the employment, but reduce the
whole manufacture into a sort of slavery to themselves, and raise
the price of their labour much above what is due to the nature of
their work.
The inhabitants of the country, dispersed in distant places, can-
not easily combine together. They have not only never been incor-
porated, but the incorporation spirit never has prevailed among
them. No apprenticeship has ever been thought necessary to qualify
for husbandry, the great trade of the country. After what are called
the fine arts, and the liberal professions, however, there is perhaps
no trade which requires so great a variety of knowledge and expe-
rience. The innumerable volumes which have been written upon
it in all languages, may satisfy us, that among the wisest and most
learned nations, it has never been regarded as a matter very easily
understood. And from all those volumes we shall in vain attempt
to collect that knowledge of its various and complicated opera-
tions which is commonly possessed even by the common farmer;
how contemptuously soever the very contemptible authors of some