that part of the rude produce which
requires a good deal of preparation before it
can be fit for use and consumption, it either
would never he produced, because there could
be no demand for it; or if it was produced
spontaneously, it would be of no value in exchange,
and could add nothing to the wealth
of the society.
Unless a capital was employed in transporting
either the rude or manufactured produce
from the places where it abounds to
those where it is wanted, no more of either
could be produced than was necessary for the
consumption of the neighbourhood. The capital
of the merchant exchanges the surplus
produce of one place for that of another, and
thus encourages the industry, and increases
the enjoyments of both.
Unless a capital was employed in breaking
and dividing certain portions either of the
rude or manufactured produce into such small
parcels as suit the occasional demands of those
who want them, every man would be obliged
to purchase a greater quantity of the goods
he wanted than his immediate occasions required.
If there was no such trade as a
butcher, for example, every man would be
obliged to purchase a whole ox or a whole
sheep at a time. This would generally be inconvenient
to the rich, and much more so to
the poor. If a poor workman was obliged to
purchase a month's or six months' provisions
at a time, a great part of the stock which he
employs as a capital in the instruments of his
trade, or in the furniture of his shop, and
which yields him a revenue, he would be
forced to place in that part of his stock which
is reserved for immediate consumption, and
which yields him no revenue. Nothing can be
more convenient for such a person than to be
able to purchase his subsistence from day to
day, or even from hour to hour, as he wants
it. He is thereby enabled to employ almost
his whole stock as a capital. He is thus enabled
to furnish work to a greater value; and
the profit which he makes by it in this way
much more than compensates the additional
price which the profit of the retailer imposes
upon the goods. The prejudices of some political
writers against shopkeepers and tradesmen
are altogether without foundation. So
far is it from being necessary either to tax
them, or to restrict their numbers, that they
can never be multiplied so as to hurt the public,
though they may so as to hurt one another.
The quantity of grocery goods, for
example, which can be sold in a particular
town, is limited by the demand of that town
and its neighbourhood. The capital, therefore,
which can be employed in the grocery
trade, cannot exceed what is sufficient to purchase
that quantity. If this capital is divided
between two different grocers, their competition
will tend to make both of them sell cheaper
than if it were in the hands of one only;
and if it were divided among twenty, their
competition would be just so much the greater,
and the chance of their combining together,
in order to raise the price, just so
much the less. Their competition might, perhaps,
ruin some of themselves; but to take
care of this, is the business of the parties
concerned, and it may safely be trusted to
their discretion. It can never hurt either the
consumer or the producer; on the contrary,
it must tend to make the retailers both sell
cheaper and buy dearer, than if the whole
trade was monopolized by one or two persons.
Some of them, perhaps, may sometimes decoy
a weak customer to buy what he has no occasion
for. This evil, however, is of too little
importance to deserve the public attention,
nor would it necessarily be prevented by restricting
their numbers. It is not the multitude
of alehouses, to give the most suspicious
example, that occasions a general disposition
to drunkenness among the common people;
but that disposition, arising from other causes,
necessarily gives employment to a multitude
of alehouses.
The persons whose capitals are employed
in any of those four ways, are themselves productive
labourers. Their labour, when properly
directed, fixes and realizes itself in the
subject or vendible commodity upon which
it is bestowed, and generally adds to its price
the value at least of their own maintenance
and consumption. The profits of the farmer,
of the manufacturer, of the merchant, and retailer,
are all drawn from the price of the
goods which the two first produce, and the
two last buy and sell. Equal capitals, however,
employed in each of those four different
ways, will immediately put into motion very
different quantities of productive labour; and
augment, too, in very different proportions,
the value of the annual produce of the land
and labour of the society to which they belong.
The capital of the retailer replaces, together
with its profits, that of the merchant of whom
he purchases goods, and thereby enables him
to continue his business. The retailer himself
is the only productive labourer whom it
immediately employs. In his profit consists
the whole value which its employment adds to
the annual produce of the land and labour of
the society.
The capital of the wholesale merchant replaces,
together with their profits, the capitals
of the farmers and manufacturers of whom he
purchases the rude and manufactured produce
which he deals in, and thereby enables
them to continue their respective trades. It
is by this service chiefly that he contributes
indirectly to support the productive labour of
the society, and to increase the value of its annual
produce. His capital employs, too, the
sailors and carriers who transport his goods
from one place to another; and it augments