to be suitable to his skill and his trust; and it
arises generally from the price at which he
sells his drugs. But the whole drugs which
the best employed apothecary in a large market-town,
will sell in a year, may not perhaps
cost him above thirty or forty pounds. Though
he should sell them, therefore, for three or
four hundred, or at a thousand per cent, profit,
this may frequently be no more than the
reasonable wages of his labour, charged, in
the only way in which he can charge them,
upon the price of his drugs. The greater part
of the apparent profit is real wages disguised
in the garb of profit.
In a small sea-port town, a little grocer will
make forty or fifty per cent. upon a stock of
a single hundred pounds, while a considerable
wholesale merchant in the same place will
scarce make eight or ten per cent. upon a
stock of ten thousand. The trade of the
grocer may be necessary for the conveniency
of the inhabitants, and the narrowness of the
market may not admit the employment of a
larger capital in the business. The man,
however, must not only live by his trade, but
live by it suitably to the qualifications which
it requires. Besides possessing a little capital,
he must be able to read, write, and account,
and must be a tolerable judge, too, of
perhaps fifty or sixty different sorts of goods,
their prices, qualities, and the markets where
they are to be had cheapest. He must
have all the knowledge, in short, that is necessary
for a great merchant, which nothing
hinders him from becoming but the want of a
sufficient capital. Thirty or forty pounds a-year
cannot be considered as too great a recompence
for the labour of a person so accomplished.
Deduct this from the seemingly
great profits of his capital, and little more will
remain, perhaps, than the ordinary profits of
stock. The greater part of the apparent profit
is, in this case too, real wages.
The difference between the apparent profit
of the retail and that of the wholesale trade,
is much less in the capital than in small towns
and country villages. Where ten thousand
pounds can be employed in the grocery trade,
the wages of the grocer's labour must be a
very trifling addition to the real profits of so
great a stock. The apparent profits of the
wealthy retailer, therefore, are there more
nearly upon a level with these of the wholesale
merchant. It is upon this account that
goods sold by retail are generally
and frequently much cheaper, in the capital
than in small towns and country villages.
Grocery goods, for example, are generally
much cheaper; bread and butchers' meat frequently
as cheap. It costs no more to bring
grocery goods to the great town than to the
country village; but it costs a great deal more
to bring corn and cattle, as the greater part of
them must be brought from a much greater
distance. The prime cost of grocery goods,
therefore, being the same in both places, they
are cheapest where the least profit is charged
upon them. The prime cost of bread and
butchers' meat is greater in the great town
than in the country village; and though the
profit is less, therefore they are not always
cheaper there, but often equally cheap. In
such articles as bread and butchers' meat, the
the same cause which diminishes apparent profit,
increases prime cost. The extent of the market,
by giving employment to greater stocks,
diminishes apparent profit; but by requiring
supplies from a greater distance, it increases
prime cost. This diminution of the one and
increase of the other, seem, in most cases,
nearly to counterbalance one another, which
is probably the reason that, though the prices
of corn and cattle are commonly very different
in different parts of the kingdom, those of
bread and butchers' meat are generally very
nearly the same through the greater part of
it.
Though the profits of stock, both in the
wholesale and retail trade, are generally less
in the capital than in small towns and country
villages, yet great fortunes are frequently
acquired from small beginnings in the former,
and scarce ever in the latter. In small towns
and country villages, on account of the narrowness
of the market, trade cannot always
be extended as stock extends. In such places,
therefore, though the rate of a particular person's
profits may be very high, the sum or amount
of them can never be very great, nor
consequently that of his annual accumulation.
In great towns, on the contrary, trade can be
extended as stock increases, and the credit of
a frugal and thriving man increases much
faster than his stock. His trade is extended
in proportion to the amount of both; and the
sum or amount of his profits is in proportion
to the extent of his trade, and his annual accumulation
in proportion to the amount of
his profits. It seldom happens, however, that
great fortunes are made, even in great towns,
by any one regular, established, and well-known
branch of business, but in consequence
of a long life of industry, frugality, and attention.
Sudden fortunes, indeed, are sometimes
made in such places, by what is called
the trade of speculation. The speculative
merchant exercises no one regular, established,
or well-known branch of business. He is a
corn merchant this year, and a wine merchant
the next, and a sugar, tobacco, or tea merchant
the year after. He enters into every
trade, when he foresees that it is likely to be
more than commonly profitable, and he quits
it when he foresees that its profits are likely
to return to the level of other trades. His
profits and losses, therefore, can bear no regular
proportion to those of any one established
and well-known branch of business. A bold
adventurer may sometimes acquire a considerable
fortune by two or three successful speculations,