That part, too, is generally but a small
one. It is his spare revenue only, of which
productive labourers have seldom a great deal.
They generally have some, however; and in
the payment of taxes, the greatness of their
number may compensate, in some measure,
the smallness of their contribution. The rent
of land and the profits of stock are everywhere,
therefore, the principal sources from which
unproductive hands derive their subsistence.
These are the two sorts of revenue of which
the owners have generally most to spare.
They might both maintain indifferently, either
productive or unproductive hands. They
seem, however, to have some predilection for
the latter. The expense of a great lord feeds
generally more idle than industrious people.
The rich merchant, though with his capital
he maintains industrious people only, yet by
his expense, that is, by the employment of his
revenue, he feeds commonly the very same
sort as the great lord.
The proportion, therefore, between the productive
and unproductive hands, depends very
much in every country upon the proportion
between that part of the annual produce,
which, as soon as it comes either from the
ground, or from the hands of the productive
labourers, is destined for replacing a capital,
and that which is destined for constituting a
revenue, either as rent or as profit. This proportion
is very different in rich from what it
is in poor countries.
Thus, at present, in the opulent countries
of Europe, every large, frequently the largest,
portion of the produce of the land, is destined
for replacing the capital of the rich and independent
farmer; the other for paying his profits,
and the rent of the landlord. But anciently,
during the prevalency of the feudal
government, a very small portion of the produce
was sufficient to replace the capital employed
in cultivation. It consisted commonly
in a few wretched cattle, maintained altogether
by the spontaneous produce of uncultivated
land, and which might, therefore, be
considered as a part of that spontaneous produce.
It generally, too, belonged to the landlord,
and was by him advanced to the occupiers
of the land. All the rest of the produce
properly belonged to him too, either as rent
for his land, or as profit upon this paltry capital.
The occupiers of land were generally
bondmen, whose persons and effects were
equally his property. Those who were not
bondmen were tenants at will; and though
the rent which they paid was often nominally
little more than a quit-rent, it really amounted
to the whole produce of the land. Their
lord could at all times command their labour
in peace and their service in war. Though
they lived at a distance from his house, they
were equally dependent upon him as his retainers
who lived in it. But the whole produce
of the land undoubtedly belongs to him,
who can dispose of the labour and service of
all those whom it maintains. In the present
state of Europe, the share of the landlord seldom
exceeds a third, sometimes not a fourth
part of the whole produce of the land. The
rent of land, however, in all the improved
parts of the country, has been tripled and quadrupled
since those ancient times; and this
third or fourth part of the annual produce is,
it seems, three or four times greater than the
whole had been before. In the progress of
improvement, rent, though it increases in proportion
to the extent, diminishes in proportion
to the produce of the land.
In the opulent countries of Europe, great
capitals are at present employed in trade and
manufactures. In the ancient state, the little
trade that was stirring, and the few homely
and coarse manufactures that were carried on,
required but very small capitals. These, however,
must have yielded very large profits.
The rate of interest was nowhere less than ten
per cent. and their profits must have been sufficient
to afford this great interest. At present,
the rate of interest, in the improved parts
of Europe, is nowhere higher than six per
cent.; and in some of the most improved, it
is so low as four, three, and two per cent.
Though that part of the revenue of the inhabitants
which is derived from the profits of
stock, is always much greater in rich than in
poor countries, it is because the stock is much
greater; in proportion to the stock, the profits
are generally much less.
That part of the annual produce, therefore,
which, as soon as it comes either from the
ground, or from the hands of the productive
labourers, is destined for replacing a capital,
is not only much greater in rich than in poor
countries, but bears a much greater proportion
to that which is immediately destined for
constituting a revenue either as rent or as profit.
The funds destined for the maintenance
of productive labour are not only much greater
in the former than in the latter, but bear a
much greater proportion to those which, though
they may be employed to maintain either productive
or unproductive hands, have generally
a predilection for the latter.
The proportion between those different
funds necessarily determines in every country
the general character of the inhabitants as to
industry or idleness. We are more industrious
than our forefathers, because, in the present
times, the funds destined for the maintenance
of industry are much greater in proportion
to those which are likely to be employed
in the maintenance of idleness, than they were
two or three centuries ago. Our ancestors
were idle for want of a sufficient encouragement
to industry. It is better, says the proverb,
to play for nothing, than to work for nothing.
In mercantile and manufacturing
towns, where the inferior ranks of people are
chiefly maintained by the employment of capital,