of trade, which he wants. He sells, therefore,
his rude produce for money, with which he
can purchase, wherever it is to be had, the
manufactured produce he has occasion for.
Land even replaces, in part at least, the capitals
with which fisheries and mines are cultivated.
It is the produce of land which draws
the fish from the waters; and it is the produce
of the surface of the earth which extracts the
minerals from its bowels.
The produce of land, mines, and fisheries,
when their natural fertility is equal, is in proportion
to the extent and proper application of
the capitals employed about them. When the
capitals are equal, and equally well applied, it
is in proportion to their natural fertility.
In all countries where there is a tolerable
security, every man of common understanding
will endeavour to employ whatever stock he
can command, in procuring either present enjoyment
or future profit. If it is employed
in procuring present enjoyment, it is a stock
reserved for immediate consumption. If it is
employed in procuring future profit, it must
procure this profit either by staying with him,
or by going from him. In the one case it is
a fixed, in the other it is a circulating capital.
A man must be perfectly crazy, who, where
there is a tolerable security, does not employ
all the stock which he commands, whether it
be his own, or borrowed of other people, in
some one or other of those three ways.
In those unfortunate countries, indeed,
where men are continually afraid of the violence
of their superiors, they frequently bury
or conceal a great part of their stock, in order
to have it always at hand to carry with
them to some place of safety, in case of their
being threatened with any of those disasters
to which they consider themselves at all times
exposed. This is said to be a common practice
in Turkey, in Indostan, and, I believe, in
most other governments of Asia. It seems to
have been a common practice among our ancestors
during the violence of the feudal government.
Treasure-trove was, in these times,
considered as no contemptible part of the revenue
of the greatest sovereigns in Europe.
It consisted in such treasure as was found
concealed in the earth, and to which no particular
person could prove any right. This was
regarded, in those times, as so important an
object, that it was always considered as belonging
to the sovereign, and neither to the
finder nor to the proprietor of the land, unless
the right to it had been conveyed to the latter
by an express clause in his charter. It was
put upon the same footing with gold and silver
mines, which, without a special clause in
the charter, were never supposed to be comprehended
in the general grant of the lands,
though mines of lead, copper, tin, and coal
were, as things of smaller consequence.
CHAP II.
OF MONEY, CONSIDERED AS A PARTICULAR
BRANCH OF THE GENERAL STOCK OF THE
SOCIETY, OR OF THE EXPENSE OF MAINTAINING
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.
It has been shown in the First Book, that the
price of the greater part of commodities resolves
itself into three parts, of which one pays
the wages of the labour, another the profits of
the stock, and a third the rent of the land
which had been employed in producing and
bringing them to market: that there are, indeed,
some commodities of which the price is
made up of two of those parts only, the wages
of labour, and the profits of stock; and a very
few in which it consists altogether in one, the
wages of labour; but that the price of every
commodity necessarily resolves itself into
some one or other, or all, of those three parts;
every part of it which goes neither to rent nor
to wages, being necessarily profit to somebody.
Since this is the case, it has been observed,
with regard to every particular commodity,
taken separately, it must be so with regard to
all the commodities which compose the whole
annual produce of the land and labour of
every country, taken complexly. The whole
price or exchangeable value of that annual
produce must resolve itself into the same three
parts, and be parcelled out among the different
inhabitants of the country, either as the
wages of their labour, the profits of their
their stock, or the rent of their land.
But though the whole value of the annual
produce of the land and labour of every country,
is thus divided among, and constitutes a
revenue to, its different inhabitants; yet, as in
the rent of a private estate, we distinguish between
the gross rent and the neat rent, so may
we likewise in the revenue of all the inhabitants
of a great country.
The gross rent of a private estate comprehends
whatever is paid by the farmer; the
neat rent, what remains free to the landlord,
after deducting the expense of management,
of repairs, and all other necessary
charges; or what, without hurting his estate,
he can afford to place in his stock reserved for
immediate consumption, or to spend upon his
table, equipage, the ornaments of his house
and furniture, his private enjoyments and
amusements. His real wealth is in proportion,
not to his gross, but to his neat rent.
The gross revenue of all the inhabitants
of a great country comprehends the whole
annual produce of their land and labour;
the neat revenue, what remains free to them,
after deducting the expense of maintaining,
first, their fixed, and, secondly, their circulating
capital, or what, without encroaching upon