labour employed within it, tends indirectly to
raise the real rent of land. A certain proportion
of this labour naturally goes to the land.
A greater number of men and cattle are employed
in its cultivation, the produce increases
with the increase of the stock which is thus
employed in raising it, and the rent increases
with the produce.
The contrary circumstances, the neglect of
cultivation and improvement, the fall in the
real price of any part of the rude produce of
land, the rise in the real price of manufactures
from the decay of manufacturing art and industry,
the declension of the real wealth of
the society, all tend, on the other hand, to
lower the real rent of land, to reduce the real
wealth of the landlord, to diminish his power
of purchasing either the labour, or the produce
of the labour, of other people.
The whole annual produce of the land and
labour of every country, or, what comes to the
same thing, the whole price of that annual
produce, naturally divides itself, it has already
been observed, into three parts; the rent of
land, the wages of labour, and the profits of
stock; and constitutes a revenue to three different
orders of people; to those who live by
rent, to these who live by wages, and to those
who live by profit. These are the three great,
original, and constituent, orders of every civilized
society, from whose revenue that of every
other order is ultimately derived.
The interest of the first of those three great
orders, it appears from what has been just now
said, is strictly and inseparably connected with
the general interest of the society. Whatever
either promotes or obstructs the one, necessarily
promotes or obstructs the other. When
the public deliberates concerning any regulation
of commerce or police, the proprietors of
land never can mislead it, with a view to promote
the interest of their own particular order;
at least, if they have any tolerable knowledge
of that interest. They are, indeed, too
often defective in this tolerable knowledge.
They are the only one of the three orders
whose revenue costs them neither labour nor
care, but comes to them, as it were, of its own
accord, and independent of any plan or project
of their own. That indolence which is
the natural effect of the ease and security of
their situation, renders them too often, not
only ignorant, but incapable of that application
of mind, which is necessary in order to
foresee and understand the consequence of any
public regulation.
The interest of the second order, that of
those who live by wages, is as strictly connected
with the interest of the society as that of the
first. The wages of the labourer, it has already
been shewn, are never so high as when
the demand for labour is continually rising,
or when the quantity employed is every year
increasing considerably. When this real wealth
of the society becomes stationary, his wages
are soon reduced to what is barely enough to
enable him to bring up a family, or to continue
the race of labourers. When the society
declines, they fall even below this. The
order of proprietors may perhaps gain more
by the prosperity of the society than that of
labourers; but there is no order that suffers
so cruelly from its decline. But though the
interest of the labourer is strictly connected
with that of the society, he is incapable either
of comprehending that interest, or of understanding
its connexion with his own. His
condition leaves him no time to receive the
necessary information, and his education and
habits are commonly such as to render him
unfit to judge, even though he was fully informed.
In the public deliberations, therefore,
his voice is little heard, and less regarded;
except upon particular occasions, when
his clamour is animated, set on, and supported
by his employers, not for him, but their
own particular purposes.
His employers constitute the third order,
that of those who live by profit. It is the
stock that is employed for the sake of profit,
which puts into motion the greater part of the
useful labour of every society. The plans and
projects of the employers of stock regulate and
direct all the most important operations of labour,
and profit is the end proposed by all
those plans and projects. But the rate of
profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with
the prosperity, and fall with the declension of
the society. On the contrary, it is naturally
low in rich, and high in poor countries, and
it is always highest in the countries which are
going fastest to ruin. The interest of this
third order, therefore, has not the same connexion
with the general interest of the society,
as that of the other two. Merchants and
master manufacturers are, in this order, the
two classes of people who commonly employ
the largest capitals, and who by their wealth
draw to themselves the greatest share of the
public consideration. As during their whole
lives they are engaged in plans and projects,
they have frequently more acuteness of understanding
than the greater part of country
gentlemen. As their thoughts, however, are
commonly exercised rather about the interest
of their own particular branch of business
than about that of the society, their judgment,
even when given with the greatest candour
(which it has not been upon every occasion),
is much more to be depended upon with regard
to the former of those two objects, than
with regard to the latter. Their superiority
over the country gentleman is, not so much in
their knowledge of the public interest, as in
their having a better knowledge of their own
interest than he has of his. It is by this superior
knowledge of their own interest that
they have frequently imposed upon his generosity,
and persuaded him to give up both his
own interest and that of the public, from a