its inferior servants. If this rise in the price
of some sorts of provisions be owing to a fall
in the value of silver, their pecuniary reward,
provided it was not too large before, ought
certainly to be augmented in proportion to
the extent of this fall. If it is not augmented,
their real recompence will evidently be so
much diminished. But if this rise of price is
owing in the increased value, in consequence
of the improved fertility of the land which
produces such provisions, it becomes a much
nicer matter to judge, either in what proportion
any pecuniary reward ought to be augmented,
or whether it ought to be augmented
at all. The extension of improvement and
cultivation, as it necessarily raises more or less,
in proportion to the price of corn, that of
every sort of animal food, so it as necessarily
lowers that of, I believe, every sort of vegetable
food. It raises the price of animal
food; because a great part of the land which
produces it, being rendered fit for producing
corn, must afford to the landlord and farmer
the rent and profit of corn land. It lowers
the price of vegetable food; because, by increasing
the fertility of the land, it increases
its abundance. The improvements of agriculture,
too, introduce many sorts of vegetable
food, which requiring less land, and not more
labour than corn, come much cheaper to market.
Such are potatoes and maize, or what is
called Indian corn, the two most important
improvements which the agriculture of Europe,
perhaps, which Europe itself, has received
from the great extension of its commerce
and navigation. Many sorts of vegetable food,
besides, which in the rude state of agriculture
are confined to the kitchen-garden, and raised
only by the spade, come, in its improved state,
to be introduced into common fields, and to
be raised by the plough; such as turnips, carrots,
cabbages, &c. If, in the progress of improvement,
therefore, the real price of one
species of food necessarily rises, that of another
as necessarily falls; and it becomes a matter
of more nicety to judge how far the rise
in the one may be compensated by the fall in
the other. When the real price of butcher's
meat has once got to its height (which, with
regard to every sort, except perhaps that of
hogs flesh, it seems to have done through a
great part of England more than a century
ago), any rise which can afterwards happen in
that of any other sort of animal food, cannot
much affect the circumstances of the inferior
ranks of people. The circumstances of the
poor, through a great part of England, cannot
surely be so much distressed by any rise in
the price of poultry, fish, wild-fowl, or venison,
as they must he relieved by the fall in
that of potatoes.
In the present season of scarcity, the high
price of corn no doubt distresses the poor.
But in times of moderate plenty, when corn
is at its ordinary or average price, the natural
rise in the price of any other sort of rude produce
cannot much affect them. They suffer
more, perhaps, by the artificial rise which has
been occasioned by taxes in the price of some
manufactured commodities, as of salt, soap,
leather, candles, malt, beer, ale, &c.
Effects of the Progress of Improvement upon
the real Price of Manufactures.
It is the natural effect of improvement,
however, to diminish gradually the real price
of almost all manufactures. That of the manufacturing
workmanship diminishes, perhaps,
in all of them without exception. In consequence
of better machinery, of greater dexterity,
and of a more proper division and distribution
of work, all of which are the natural
effects of improvement, a much smaller quantity
of labour becomes requisite for executing
any particular piece of work; and though, in
consequence of the flourishing circumstances
of the society, the real price of labour should
rise very considerably, yet the great diminution
of the quantity will generally much more
than compensate the greatest rise which can
happen in the price.
There are, indeed, a few manufactures, in
which the necessary rise in the real price of
the rude materials will more than compensate
all the advantages which improvement can introduce
into the execution of the work. In
carpenters' and joiners' work, and in the
coarser sort of cabinet work, the necessary
rise in the real price of barren timber, in consequence
of the improvement of land, will
more than compensate all the advantages
which can be derived from the best machinery,
the greatest dexterity, and the most proper
division and distribution of work.
But in all cases in which the real price of
the rude material either does not rise at all,
or does not rise very much, that of the manufactured
commodity sinks very considerably.
This diminution of price has, in the course
of the present and preceding century, been
most remarkable in these manufactures of
which the materials are the coarser metals. A
better movement of a watch, than about the
middle of the last century could have been
bought for twenty pounds, may now perhaps
be had for twenty shillings. In the work of
cutlers and locksmiths, in all the toys which
are made of the coarser metals, and in all
those goods which are commonly known by
the name of Birmingham and Sheffield ware,
there has been, during the same period, a
very great reduction of price, though not altogether
so great as in watch-work. It has,
however, been sufficient to astonish the workmen
of every other part of Europe, who in
many cases acknowledge that they can produce
no work of equal goodness for double