or stationary 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 naturally establish
themselves in that of the latter. Under such
different 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 increasing 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, accordingly,
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 liberally paid by the piece, are very apt to
overwork themselves, and to ruin their health
and constitution in a few years. A carpenter
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
country 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 stipulate
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
subsistence, therefore, it has been concluded,
relaxes, and a scanty one quickens their industry.
That a little more plenty than ordinary
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