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of this class was exactly equal to that of its either, first, by some improvement in the daily, monthly, and yearly production; yet productive powers of the useful labour actual it would not from thence follow, that its la- ly maintained within it; or, secondly, by some bour added nothing to the real revenue, to the real value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the society. An artificer, for example, who, in the first six months after harvest, executes ten pounds worth of work,

increase in the quantity of that labour.

The improvement in the productive powers of useful labour depends, first, upon the improvement in the ability of the workman; and, secondly, upon that of the machinery

though he should, in the same time, consume with which he works. But the labour of arten pounds worth of corn and other necessa- tificers and manufacturers, as it is capable of ries, yet really adds the value of ten pounds being more subdivided, and the labour of eacn to the annual produce of the land and labour workman reduced to a greater simplicity of of the society. While he has been consum- operation, than that of farmers and country ing a half-yearly revenue of ten pounds worth labourers; so it is likewise capable of both of corn and other necessaries, he has pro- these sorts of improvement in a much higher duced an equal value of work, capable of pur- degree". In this respect, therefore, the class chasing, either to himself, or to some other of cultivators can have no sort of advantage person, an equal half-yearly revenue. The over that of artificers and manufacterers. value, therefore, of what has been consumed The increase in the quantity of useful laand produced during these six months, is bour actually employed within any society equal, not to ten, but to twenty pounds. It must depend altogether upon the increase of is possible, indeed, that no more than ten the capital which employs it; and the increase pounds worth of this value may ever have ex- of that capital, again, must be exactly equal isted at any one moment of time. But if the to the amount of the savings from the reveten pounds worth of corn and other necessaries nue, either of the particular persons who which were consumed by the artificer, had manage and direct the employment of that been consumed by a soldier, or by a menial capital, or of some other persons, who lend it servant, the value of that part of the annual to them. If merchants, artificers, and manuproduce which existed at the end of the six facturers are, as this system seems to suppose, months, would have been ten pounds less than naturally more inclined to parsimony and it actually is in consequence of the labour of saving than proprietors and cultivators, the artificer. Though the value of what the they are, so far, more likely to augment the artificer produces, therefore, should not, at quantity of useful labour employed within any one moment of time, be supposed greater their society, and consequently to increase its than the value he consumes, yet, as every mo- real revenue, the annual produce of its land ment of time, the actually existing value of goods in the market is, in consequence of what he produces, greater than it otherwise would be.

When the patrons of this system assert, that the consumption of artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, is equal to the value of what

and labour.

Fifthly and lastly, though the revenue of the inhabitants of every country was supposed to consist altogether, as this system seems to suppose, in the quantity of subsistence which their industry could procure to them; yet, even upon this supposition, the revenue of a

The in

they produce, they probably mean no more trading and manufacturing country must, than that their revenue, or the fund destined other things being equal, always be much for their consumption, is equal to it. But if greater than that of one without trade or mathey had expressed themselves more accurate-nufactures. By means of trade and manufacly, and only asserted, that the revenue of tures, a greater quantity of subsistence can this class was equal to the value of what they be annually imported into a particular country, produced, it might readily have occurred to than what its own lands, in the actual state the reader, that what would naturally be saved of their cultivation, could afford. out of this revenue, must necessarily increase habitants of a town, though they frequently more or less the real wealth of the society. possess no lands of their own, yet draw to In order, therefore, to make out something themselves, by their industry, such a quanlike an argument, it was necessary that they tity of the rude produce of the lands of other should express themselves as they have done; people, as supplies them, not only with the and this argument, even supposing things materials of their work, but with the fund of actually were as it seems to presume them to their subsistence. What a town always is be, turns out to be a very inconclusive one. with regard to the country in its neighbour

Fourthly, farmers and country labourers hood, one independent state or country may can no more augment, without parsimony, frequently be with regard to other indepen. the real revenue, the annual produce of the dent states or countries. It is thus that Holland and labour of their society, than arti- land draws a great part of its subsistence ficers, manufacturers, and merchants. The from other countries; live cattle from Hol

annual produce of the land and labour of any

society can be augmented only in two ways;

► Sce book 1 chap. 1

stein and Jutland, and corn from almost all ❘ a lease can be granted, as will be valid against the different countries of Europe. A small every future purchaser or proprietor of th quantity of manufactured produce, purchases a great quantity of rude produce. A trading and manufacturing country, therefore, naturally purchases, with a small part of its manufactured produce, a great part of the rude produce of other countries; while, on the contrary, a country without trade and manufactures is generally obliged to purchase, at the expense of a great part of its rude produce, a very small part of the manufactured produce of other countries. The one exports what can subsist and accommodate but a very few, and imports the subsistence and accommodation of a great number. The other exports the accommodation and subsistence of a great number, and imports that of a very few only. The inhabitants of the one must

land, has been prolonged from nine to twentyseven years. The ancient provincial restraints upon the transportation of corn from one province of the kingdom to another, have been entirely taken away; and the liberty of exporting it to all foreign countries, has been established as the common law of the kingdom in all ordinary cases. This sect, in their works, which are very numerous, and which treat not only of what is properly called Political Economy, or of the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, but of every other branch of the system of civil government, all follow implicitly, and without any sensible variation, the doctrine of Mr. Quesnai. There is, upon this account, little variety it the greater part of their works. The most

always enjoy a much greater quantity of sub- distinct and best connected account of this

sistence than what their own lands, in the actual state of their cultivation, could afford. The inhabitants of the other most always enjoy a much smaller quantity.

doctrine is to be found in a little book writter by Mr. Mercier de la Riviere, some time ittendant of Martinico, entitled, The natural and essential Order of Political Societies. The admiration of this whole sect for their master, who was himself a man of the greatest modesty and simplicity, is not inferior to that of

This system, however, with all its imperfections, is perhaps the nearest approximation to the truth that has yet been published upon the subject of political economy; and is upon any of the ancient philosophers for the foundthat account, well worth the consideration of ers of their respective systems. There have every man who wishes to examine with atten- been since the world began,' says a very dili. tion the principles of that very important gent and respectable author, the Marquis de science. Though in representing the labour Mirabeau, 'three great inventions which have which is employed upon land as the only pro- principally given stability to political societies, ductive labour, the notions which it incul- independent of many other inventions which cates are, perhaps, too narrow and confined; have enriched and adorned them. The first yet in representing the wealth of nations as is the invention of writing, which alone gives consisting, not in the unconsumable riches of human nature the power of transmitting, money, but in the consumable goods annual- without alteration, its laws, its contracts, its ly reproduced by the labour of the society, annals, and its discoveries. The second is and in representing perfect liberty as the only the invention of money, which binds together effectual expedient for rendering this annual all the relations between civilized societies. reproduction the greatest possible, its doc- The third is the economical table, the result trine seems to be in every respect as just as it of the other two, which completes them both is generous and liberal. Its followers are by perfecting their object; the great discovery very numerous; and as men are fond of para- of our age, but of which our posterity will doxes, and of appearing to understand what reap the benefit.' surpasses the comprehensions of ordinary peo- As the political economy of the nations of ple, the paradox which it maintains, concern- modern Europe has been more favourable to ing the unproductive nature of manufacturing manufactures and foreign trade, the industry labour, has not, perhaps, contributed a little of the towns, than to agriculture, the industo increase the number of its admirers. They try of the country; so that of other nations have for some years past made a pretty con- has followed a different plan, and has been siderable sect, distinguished in the French more favourable to agriculture than to manurepublic of letters by the name of the Econo- factures and foreign trade. mists. Their works have certainly been of The policy of China favours agriculture some service to their country; not only by bringing into general discussion, many subjects which had never been well examined before, but by influencing, in some mea- most parts of Europe that of an artificer is to sure, the public administration in favour that of a labourer. In China, the great amof agriculture. It has been in consequence bition of every man is to get possession of a of their representations, accordingly, that the little bit of land, either in property or in agriculture of France has been delivered from lease; and leases are there said to be granted several of the oppressions which it before la- upon very moderate terms, and to be sufficient beured under. The term, during which such | ly secured to the lessees. The Chinese have

more than all other employments. In China, the condition of a labourer is said to be as much superior to that of an artificer, as in

little respect for foreign trade. Your beggar- | turally learn the art of using and constructing, iy commerce! was the language in which the themselves, all the different machines made

mandarins of Pekin used to talk to Mr. De Lange, the Russian envoy, concerning it. Except with Japan, the Chinese carry on, themselves, and in their own bottoms, little or no foreign trade; and it is only into one or two ports of their kingdom that they even admit the ships of foreign nations. Foreign trade, therefore, is, in China, every way confined within a much narrower circle than that to which it would naturally extend itself, if more freedom was allowed to it, either in their own ships, or in those of foreign nactions.

Manufactures, as in a small bulk they frequently contain a great value, and can upon that account be transported at less expense from one country to another than most parts of rude produce, are, in almost all countries, the principal support of foreign trade. In countries, besides, less extensive, and less favourably circumstanced for inferior commerce than China, they generally require the support of foreign trade. Without an extensive foreign market, they could not well flourish, either in countries so moderately extensive as to afford but a narrow home market, or in countries where the communication between one province and another was so difficult, as to render it impossible for the goods of any particular place to enjoy the whole of that home market which the country could afford. The perfection of manufacturing industry, it must be remembered, depends altogether upon the division of labour; and the degree to which the division of labour can be introduced into any manufacture, is necessarily regulated, it has already been shewn, by the extent of the market. But the great extent of the empire of China, the vast multitude of its inhabitants, the variety of climate, and consequently of productions in its different provinces, and the easy communication by means of water-carriage between the greater part of them, render the home market of that country of so great extent, as to be alone sufficient to support very great manufactures, and to admit of very considerable subdivisions of labour. The home market of China is, perhaps, in extent, not much inferior to the market of all the different countries of Europe put together. A more extensive foreign trade, however, which to this great

use of in other countries, as well as the other improvements of art and industry which are practised in all the different parts of the world. Upon their present plan, they have little opportunity of improving themselves by the example of any other nation, except that of the Japanese.

The policy of ancient Egypt, too, and that of the Gentoo government of Indostan, seem to have favoured agriculture more than all other employments.

Both in ancient Egypt and Indostan, the whole body of the people was divided into. different casts or tribes each of which was confined, from father to son, to a particular employment, or class of employments. The son of a priest was necessarily a priest; the son of a soldier, a soldier; the son of a labourer, a labourer; the son of a weaver, a weaver; the son of a tailor, a tailor, &c. In both countries, the cast of the priests holds the highest rank, and that of the soldiers the next; and in both countries the cast of the farmers and labourers was superior to the casts of merchants and manufacturers.

The government of both countries was particularly attentive to the interest of agriculture. The works constructed by the ancient sovereigns of Egypt, for the proper distribution of the waters of the Nile, were famous in antiquity, and the ruined remains of some of them are still the admiration of travellers. Those of the same kind which were constructed by the ancient sovereigns of Indostan, for the proper distribution of the waters of the Ganges, as well as of many other rivers, though they have been less celebrated, seem to have been equally great. Both countries, accordingly, though subject occasionally to dearths, have been famous for their great fertility. Though both were extremely populous, yet, in years of moderate plenty, they were both able to export great quantities of grain to their neighbours.

The ancient Egyptians had a superstitious aversion to the sea; and as the Gentoo religion does not permit its followers to light a fire, nor consequently to dress any victuals, upon the water, it, in effect, prohibits them from all distant sea voyages. Both the Egyptians and Indians must have depended almost altogether upon the navigation of other

home market added the foreign market of all nations for the exportation of their surplus the rest of the world, especially if any consi. produce; and this dependency, as it must derable part of this trade was carried on in have confined the market, so it must have Chinese ships, could scarce fail to increase discouraged the increase of this surplus pro.

very much the manufactures of China, and to improve very much the productive powers of its manufacturing industry. By a more extensive navigation, the Chinese would na

* See the Journal of Mr. De Lange, in Bell's Travels, vol. ii. p. 258. 276, 293.

duce. It must have discouraged, too, the increase of the manufactured produce, more than that of the rude produce. Manufactures require a much more extensive market than the most important parts of the rude produce of the land. A single shoemaker will make more than 300 pairs of shoes in the year;

diately depended the yearly increase or diminution of their own revenue.

and his own family will not, perhaps, wear of those countries should be particularly atout six pairs. Unless, therefore, he has the tentive to the interests of agriculture, upon custom of, at least, 50 such families as his the prosperity or declension of which imme own, he cannot dispose of the whole produce of his own labour. The most numerous class of artificers will seldom, in a large counThe policy of the ancient republics of try, make more than one in 50, or one in a Greece, and that of Rome, though it honour. 100, of the whole number of families con- ed agriculture more than manufactures tained in it. But in such large countries, as foreign trade, yet seems rather to have disFrance and England, the number of people couraged the latter employments, than to employed in agriculture has, by some authors, have given any direct or intentional encou been computed at a half, by others at a third, ragement to the former. In several of the and by no author that I know of, at less than ancient states of Greece, foreign trade was a fifth of the whole inhabitants of the country. prohibited altogether; and in several others, But as the produce of the agriculture of both the employments of artificers and manufacFrance and England is, the far greater part turers were considered as hurtful to the of it, consumed at home, each person employ- strength and agility of the human body, as ed in it must, according to these computa rendering it incapable of those habits which tions, require little more than the custom of their military and gymnastic exercises endeaone, two, or, at most, of four such families as voured to form in it, and as thereby disquahis own, in order to dispose of the whole pro- lifying it, more or less, for undergoing the duce of his own labour. Agriculture, there- fatigues and encountering the dangers of war. fore, can support itself under the discourage- Such occupations were considered as fit only ment of a confined market much better than for slaves, and the free citizens of the states manufactures. In both ancient Egypt and were prohibited from exercising them. Even Indostan, indeed, the confinement of the in those states where no such prohibition took foreign market was in some measure com- place, as in Rome and Athens, the great body pensated by the conveniency of many inland of the people were in effect excluded from navigations, which opened, in the most ad- all the trades which are now commonly exer. vantageous manner, the whole extent of the cised by the lower sort of the inhabitants of home market to every part of the produce of towns. Such trades were, at Athens and every different district of those countries. Rome, all occupied by the slaves of the rich, The great extent of Indostan, too, rendered who exercised them for the benefit of their the home market of that country very great, masters, whose wealth, power, and protection. and sufficient to support a great variety of made it almost impossible for a poor freeman manufactures. But the small extent of an- to find a market for his work, when it came cient Egypt, which was never equal to Eng- into competition with that of the slaves of the land, must at all times, have rendered the rich. Slaves, however, are very seldom inhome market of that country too narrow for ventive; and all the most important improve. supporting any great variety of manufactures. ments, either in machinery, or in the arBengal accordingly, the province of Indostan rangement and distribution of work, which which commonly exports the greatest quantity facilitate and abridge labour have been the of rice, has always been more remarkable for discoveries of freemen. Should a slave prothe exportation of a great variety of manu- pose any improvement of this kind, his mas factures, than for that of its grain. Ancient ter would be very apt to consider the pro Egypt, on the contrary, though it exported posal as the suggestion of laziness, and of a some manufactures, fine linen in particular, desire to save his own labour at the master's as well as some other goods, was always most expense. The poor slave, instead of reward distinguished for its great exportation of would probably meet with much abuse, pergrain. It was long the granary of the Ro-haps with some punishment. In the manuman empire.

factures carried on by slaves, therefore, more

The sovereigns of China, of ancient Egypt, labour must generally have been employed and of the different kindoms into which In- to execute the same quantity of work, than dostan has, at different times, been divided, in those carried on by freemen. The work have always derived the whole, or by far the of the former must, upon that account, genemost considerable part, of their revenue, from rally have been dearer than that of the latter. some sort of land tax or land rent. This The Hungarian mines, it is remarked by Mr. land tax, or land rent, like the tithe in Eu- Montesquieu, though not richer, have always rope, consisted in a certain proportion, a fifth, been wrought with less expense, and therefore it is said, of the produce of the land, which with more profit, than the Turkish mines in was either delivered in kind, or paid in mo- their neighbourhood. The Turkish mines ney, according to a certain valuation, and are wrought by slaves; and the arms of those which, therefore, varied from year to year, slaves are the only machines which the Turks according to all the variations of the produce. have ever thought of employing. The HunIt was natural, therefore, that the sovereigns garian mines are wrought by freemen, whe

employ a great deal of machinery, by which they facilitate and abridge their own labour. From the very little that is known about the price of manufactures in the times of the Greeks and Romans, it would appear that those of the finer sort were excessively dear. Silk sold for its weight in gold. It was not, indeed, in those times an European manufacture; and as it was all brought from the East Indies, the distance of the carriage may in some measure account for the greatness of the price. The price, however, which a lady, it is said, would sometimes pay for a piece of very fine linen, seems to have been equally extravagant; and as linen was always either an European, or at farthest, an Egyptian manufacture, this high price can be accounted for only by the great expense of the labour which must have been employed about it, and the expense of this labour again could arise from nothing but the awkwardness of the machinery which is made use of. The price of fine woollens, too, though not quite so extravagant, seems, however, to have been much above that of the present times. Some cloths, we are told by Pliny, dyed in a particular manner, cost a hundred denarii, or L.3 6s. 8d. the pound weight. Others, dyed in another manner, cost a thousand denarii the pound weight, or L.33 6s. 8d. The Ro

great. The rich, not being able to distinguish themselves by the expense of any one dress, will naturally endeavour to do so by the multitude and variety of their dresses.

The greatest and most important branch of the commerce of every nation, it has already been observed, is that which is carried on be. tween the inhabitants of the town and those of the country. The inhabitants of the town draw from the country the rude produce, which constitutes both the materials of their work and the fund of their subsistence; and they pay for this rude produce, by sending back to the country a certain portion of it ma nufactured and prepared for immediate use. The trade which is carried on between these two different sets of people, consists ultimately in a certain quantity of rude produce exchanged for a certain quantity of manufactured produce. The dearer the latter, there fore, the cheaper the former; and whatever tends in any country to raise the price of manufactured produce, tends to lower that of the rude produce of the land, and thereby to discourage agriculture. The smaller the quantity of manufactured produce, which any given quantity of rude produce, or, what comes to the same thing, which the price of any given quantity of rude produce, is capable of purchasing, the smaller the exchange

the land. Whatever, besides, tends to diminish in any country the number of artificers and manufacturers, tends to diminish the home market, the most important of all markets, for the rude produce of the land and thereby still further to discourage agri. culture.

man pound, it must be remembered, contain- able value of that given quantity of rude proed only twelve of our avoirdupois ounces. duce; the smaller the encouragement which This high price, indeed, seems to have been either the landlord has to increase its quantity principally owing to the dye. But had not by improving, or the farmer by cultivating the cloths themselves been much dearer than any which are made in the present times, so very expensive a dye would not probably have been bestowed upon them. The disproportion would have been too great between the value of the accessory and that of the principal. The price mentioned by the same authort, of some triclinaria, a sort of woollen pillows or cushions made use of to lean upon as they reclined upon their couches at table, passes all credibility; some of them being said to have cost more than L.30,000, others more than L.300,000. This high price, too, is not said to have arisen from the dye. In the dress of the people of fashion of both

Those systems, therefore, which preferring agriculture to all other employments, in order to promote it, impose restraints upon manufactures and foreign trade, act contrary to the very end which they propose, and indı.. rectly discourage that very species of industry which they mean to promote. They are so far, perhaps, more inconsistent than even the

sexes, there seems to have been much less va- mercantile system. That system, by enriety, it is observed by Dr. Arbuthnot, in couraging manufactures and foreign trade ancient than in modern times; and the very more than agriculture, turns a certain portion little variety which we find in that of the an- of the capital of the society, from supporting cient statues, confirms his observation. He a more advantageous, to support a less advaninfers from this, that their dress must, upon tageous species of industry. But still it realthe whole, have been cheaper than ours; but ly, and in the end, encourages that species the conclusion does not seem to follow. of industry which it means to promote. When the expense of fashionable dress is very Those agricultural systems, on the contrary, great, the variety must be very small. But really, and in the end, discourage their own when, by the improvements in the productive powers of manufacturing art and industry, the expense of any one dress comes to be very moderate, the variety will naturally be very

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favourite species of industry.

It is thus that every system which endeavours, either, by extraordinary encouragements to draw towards a particular species of industry a greater share of the capital of the society than what would naturally go to it

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