orders in the society is, like that of menial
servants, unproductive of any value, and does
not fix or realize itself in any permanent subject,
or vendible commodity, which endures
after that labour is past, and for which an
equal quantity of labour could afterwards be
procured. The sovereign, for example, with
all the officers both of justice and war who
serve under him, the whole army and navy,
are unproductive labourers. They are the
servants of the public, and are maintained by
a part of the annual produce of the industry
of other people. Their service, how honourable,
how useful, or how necessary soever,
produces nothing for which an equal quantity
of service can afterwards be procured. The
protection, security, and defence, of the commonwealth,
the effect of their labour this year,
will not purchase its protection, security, and
defence, for the year to come. In the same
class must be ranked, some both of the gravest
and most important, and some of the most
frivolous professions; churchmen, lawyers,
physicians, men of letters of all kinds; players,
buffoons, musicians, opera-singers, opera-dancers,
&c. The labour of the meanest of
these has a certain value, regulated by the
very same principles which regulate that of
every other sort of labour; and that of the
noblest and most useful produces nothing
which could afterwards purchase or procure
an equal quantity of labour. Like the declamation
of the actor, the harangue of the
orator, or the tune of the musician, the work
of all of them perishes in the very instant of
its production.
Both productive and unproductive labourers,
and those who do not labour at all, are
all equally maintained by the annual produce
of the land and labour of the country. This
produce, how great soever, can never be infinite,
but must have certain limits. According,
therefore, as a smaller or greater proportion
of it is in any one year employed in maintaining
unproductive hands, the more in the
one case, and the less in the other, will remain
for the productive, and the next year's
produce will be greater or smaller accordingly;
the whole annual produce, if we except
the spontaneous productions of the earth, being
the effect of productive labour.
Though the whole annual produce of the
land and labour of every country is no doubt
ultimately destined for supplying the consumption
of its inhabitants, and for procuring
a revenue to them; yet when it first comes
either from the ground, or from the hands of
the productive labourers, it naturally divides
itself into two parts. One of them, and frequently
the largest, is, in the first place, destined
for replacing a capital, or for renewing
the provisions, materials, and finished work,
which had been withdrawn from a capital; the
other for constituting a revenue either to the
owner of this capital, as the profit of his stock,
or to some other person, as the rent of his
land. Thus, of the produce of land, one part
replaces the capital of the farmer; the other
pays his profit and the rent of the landlord;
and thus constitutes a revenue both to the
owner of this capital, as the profits of his stock,
and to some other person as the rent of his
land. Of the produce of a great manufactory,
in the same manner, one part, and that always
the largest, replaces the capital of the undertaker
of the work; the other pays his profit,
and thus constitutes a revenue to the owner
of this capital.
That part of the annual produce of the land
and labour of any country which replaces a
capital, never is immediately employed to maintain
any but productive hands. It pays the
wages of productive labour only. That which
is immediately destined for constituting a revenue,
either as profit or as rent, may maintain
indifferently either productive or unproductive
hands.
Whatever part of his stock a man employs
as a capital, he always expects it to be replaced
to him with a profit. He employs it,
therefore, in maintaining productive hands
only; and after having served in the function
of a capital to him, it constitutes a revenue to
them. Whenever he employs any part of it
in maintaining unproductive hands of any
kind, that part is from that moment withdrawn
from his capital, and placed in his stock reserved
for immediate consumption.
Unproductive labourers, and those who do
not labour at all, are all maintained by revenue;
either, first, by that part of the annual
produce which is originally destined for constituting
a revenue to some particular persons,
either as the rent of land, or as the profits
of stock; or, secondly, by that part which,
though originally destined for replacing a capital,
and for maintaining productive labourers
only, yet when it comes into their hands,
whatever part of it is over and above their necessary
subsistence, may be employed in maintaining
indifferently either productive or unproductive
hands. Thus, not only the great
landlord or the rich merchant, but even the
common workman, if his wages are considerable,
may maintain a menial servant; or he
may sometimes go to a play or a puppet-show,
and so contribute his share towards maintaining
one set of unproductive labourers; or he
may pay some taxes, and thus help to maintain
another set, more honourable and useful,
indeed, but equally unproductive. No part
of the annual produce, however, which had
been originally destined to replace a capital,
is ever directed towards maintaining unproductive
hands, till after it has put into motion
its full complement of productive labour, or
all that it could put into motion in the way in
which it was employed. The workman must
have earned his wages by work done, before
he can employ any part of them in this manner.