lose one by two commonly at first very high. When the trade lations, but is just as likely to Secondly, this equality in the whole of the First, This equality can take place only in those employments which are well known, and have been long established in the neighbourhood. sailors to merchant ships necessarily rises with Where all other circumstances are equal, wages are generally higher in new than in old The profits of stock vary with the price of trades. When a projector attempts to esta- the commodities in which it is employed. As blish a new manufacture, he must at first en- the price of any commodity rises above the tice his workmen from other employments, by ordinary or average rate, the profits of at higher wages than they can either earn in their least some part of the stock that is employed own trades, or than the nature of his work in bringing it to market, rise above their prowould otherwise require; and a considerable per level, and as it falls they sink below it. time must pass away before he can venture to All commodities are more or less liable to vareduce them to the common level. Manufac- riations of price, but some are much more so tures for which the demand arises altogether than others. In all commodities which are from fashion and fancy, are continually chang-produced by human industry, the quantity of ing, and seldom last long enough to be con- industry annual y employed is necessarily re. sidered as old established manufactures. Those, gulated by the annual demand, in such a man. on the contrary, for which the demand arises chiefly from use or necessity, are less liable to change, and the same form or fabric may continue in demand for whole centuries together. The wages of labour, therefore, are likely to be higher in manufactures of the former, than in those of the latter kind. Birmingham deals chiefly in manufactures of the former kind; Sheffield in those of the latter; and the wages of labour in those two different places are said to be suitable to this difference in the nature of their manufactures. The variations ner that the average annual produce may, as nearly as possible, be equal to the average an nual consumption. In some employments, it has already been observed, the same quantity of industry will always produce the same, or very nearly the same quantity of commodities. In the linen or woollen manufactures, for ex ample, the same number of hands will annually work up very nearly the same quantity of linen and woollen cloth. in the market price of such commodities, therefore, can arise only from some accidental The establishment of any new manufacture, variation in the demand. A public mourning of any new branch of commerce, or of any raises the price of black cloth. new practice in agriculture, is always a specu- demand for most sorts of plain linen and lation from which the projector promises him- woollen cloth is pretty uniform, so is likewise self extraordinary profits. These profits some the price. But there are other employments times are very great, and sometimes, more in which the same quantity of industry will frequently, perhaps, they are quite otherwise; not always produce the same quantity of combut, in general, they bear no regular propor- modities. The same quantity of industry, for tion to those of other old trades in the neigh- example, will, in different years, produce very bourhood. If the project succeeds, they are different quantities of corn, wine, hops, sugar, But as the tobacco, &c. The price of such commodities, | parts of Scotland, are knit much cheaper than therefore, varies not only with the variations they can anywhere be wrought upon the loom. of demand, but with the much greater and They are the work of servants and labourers more frequent variations of quantity, and is who derive the principal part of their subsistconsequently extremely fluctuating; but the ence from some other employment. More profit of some of the dealers must necessarily than a thousand pair of Shetland stockings are fluctuate with the price of the commodities. annually imported into Leith, of which the The operations of the speculative merchant price is from fivepence to sevenpence a pair. are principally employed about such commo- At Lerwick, the small capital of the Shetland dities. He endeavours to buy them up when islands, tenpence a-day, I have been assured, he foresees that their price is likely to rise, is a common price of common labour. In the and to sell them when it is likely to fall. same islands, they knit worsted stockings to the value of a guinea a pair and upwards. Thirdly, this equality in the whole of the advantages and disadvantages of the different employments of labour and stock, can take place only in such as are the sole or principal employments of those who occupy them. When a person derives his subsistence from one employment, which does not occupy the greater part of his time, in the intervals of his leisure he is often willing to work at another for less wages than would otherwise suit the nature of the employment. The spinning of linen yarn is carried on in Scotland nearly in the same way as the knitting of stockings, by servants, who are chiefly hired for other purposes. They earn but a very scanty subsistence, who endeavour to get their livelihood by either of those trades. most parts of Scotland, she is a good spinner who can earn twentypence a-week. In In opulent countries, the market is generally so extensive, that any one trade is suffi There still subsists, in many parts of Scot- cient to employ the whole labour and stock of land, a set of people called cottars or cottagers, those who occupy it. Instances of people livthough they were more frequent some years ing by one employment, and, at the same time, ago than they are now. They are a sort of deriving some little advantage from another, out-servants of the landlords and farmers. occur chiefly in poor countries. The followThe usual reward which they receive from ing instance, however, of something of the their master is a house, a small garden for same kind, is to be found in the capital of a poi-herbs, as much grass as will feed a cow, very rich one. There is no city in Europe, I and, perhaps, an acre or two of bad arable believe, in which house-rent is dearer than in land. When their master has occasion for London, and yet I know no capital in which their labour, he gives them, besides, two pecks a furnished apartment can be hired so cheap. of oatmeal a-week, worth about sixteen pence Lodging is not only much cheaper in London sterling. During a great part of the year, he than in Paris; it is much cheaper than in has little or no occasion for their labour, and Edinburgh, of the same degree of goodness; the cultivation of their own little possession is and, what may seem extraordinary, the dear. not sufficient to occupy the time which is left ness of house-rent is the cause of the cheapat their own disposal. When such occupiers ness of lodging. The dearness of house-rent were more numerous than they are at present, in London arises, not only from those causes they are said to have been willing to give which render it dear in all great capitals, the their spare time for a very small recompence dearness of labour, the dearness of all the mato any body, and to have wrought for less terials of building, which must generally be wages than other labourers. In ancient brought from a great distance, and, above all, times, they seem to have been common all the dearness of ground-rent, every landlord over Europe. In countries ill cultivated, and acting the part of a monopolist, and frequent worse inhabited, the greater part of landlords ly exacting a higher rent for a single acre of and farmers could not otherwise provide them- bad land in a town, than can be had for a selves with the extraordinary number of hinds hundred of the best in the country; but it which country labour requires at certain sea- arises in part from the peculiar manners and sons. The daily or weekly recompence which custorns of the people, which oblige every such labourers occasionally received from their master of a family to hire a whole house from masters, was evidently not the whole price of top to bottom. A dwelling-house in England their labour, Their small tenement made a means every thing that is contained under the considerable part of it. This daily or weekly same roof. In France, Scotland, and many recompence, however, seems to have been other parts of Europe, it frequently means no considered as the whole of it, by many writers more than a single storey. A tradesman in who have collected the prices of labour and London is obliged to hire a whole house in provisions in ancient times, and who have that part of the town where his customers taken pleasure in representing both as won-live. His shop is upon the ground floor, and derfully low. he and his family sleep in the garret; and he The produce of such labour comes frequent- endeavours to pay a part of his house-rent by ly cheaper to market than would otherwise be letting the two middle storeys to lodgers. He suitab to its nature. Stockings, in many lex, ects to maintain his family by his trade, 。 and not by his lodgers. Whereas at Paris and England, or in the English plantations, un PART II.-Inequalities occasioned by the SUCH are the inequalities in the whole of the It does this chiefly in the three following for any incorporation whatever. The univer- First, The policy of Europe occasions a very important inequality in the whole of the advantages and disadvantages of the different employments of labour and stock, by restraining the competition in some employments to smaller number than might otherwise be disposed to enter into them. The exclusive privileges of corporations are the principal means it makes use of for this purpose. The exclusive privilege of an incorporated trade necessarily restrains the competition, in the town where it is established, to those who re free of the trade. To have served an apBy the 5th of Elizabeth, commonly called prenticeship in the town, under a master pro- the Statute of Apprenticeship, it was enacted, perly qualified, is commonly the necessary re- that no person should, for the future, exercise quisite for obtaining this freedom. The bye- any trade, craft, or mystery, at that time exerlaws of the corporation regulate sometimes cised in England, unless he had previously the number of apprentices which any master served to it an apprenticeship of seven years is allowed to have, and almost always the at least; and what before had been the byenumber of years which each apprentice is ob- law of many particular corporations, became liged to serve. The intention of both regula- in England the general and public law of all tions is to restrain the competition to a much trades carried on in market towns. For though smaller number than might otherwise be dis- the words of the statute are very general, and posed to enter into the trade. The limitation seem plainly to include the whole kingdom, of the number of apprentices restrains it directly. A long term of apprenticeship restrains it more indirectly, but as effectually, by increasing the expense of education. a by interpretation its operation has been limit. ed to market towns; it having been held that, in country villages, a person may exercise several different trades, though he has not served In Sheffield, no master cutler can have more seven years apprenticeship to each, they be than one apprentice at a time, by a bye-law of ing necessary for the conveniency of the inthe corporation. In Norfolk and Norwich, habitants, and the number of people frequentno master weaver can have more than two ap- ly not being sufficient to supply each with a prentices, under pain of forfeiting five pounds particular set of hands. a-month to the king. No master hatter can By a strict interpretation of the words, tou, have more than two apprentices anywhere in the operation of this statute has been limited to those trades which were established in Eng-ploy him. As it hinders the one from workland before the 5th of Elizabeth, and has ne-ing at what he thinks proper, so it hinges he ver been extended to such as have been intro- others from employing whom they thunk produced since that time. This limitation has per. To judge whether he is fit to be emgiven occasion to several distinctions, which, ployed, may surely be trusted to the discre considered as rules of police, appear as foolish tion of the employers, whose interest it so as can well be imagined. It has been ad- much concerns. The affected anxiety of the judged, for example, that a coachmaker can lawgiver, lest they should employ an improneither himself make nor employ journeymen per person, is evidently as impertinent as it is to make his coach-wheels, but must buy them oppressive. The of a master wheel-wright; this latter trade The institution of long apprenticeships can naving been exercised in England before the give no security that insufficient workmanship 5th of Elizabeth. But a wheel-wright, though shall 1.ot frequently be exposed to public he has never served an apprenticeship to a sale. When this is done, it is generally the coachmaker, may either himself make or em- effect of fraud, and not of inability; and the ploy journeymen to make coaches; the trade longest apprenticeship can give no security of a coachmaker not being within the statute, against fraud. Quite different regulations because not exercised in England at the time are necessary to prevent this abuse. when it was made. The manufactures of sterling mark upon plate, and the stamps upon Manchester, Birmingham, and Wolverhamp- linen and woollen cloth, give the purchaser ton, are many of them, upon this account, not much greater security than any statute of apwithin the statute, not having been exercised prenticeship. He generally looks at these, in England before the 5th of Elizabeth. but never thinks it worth while to enquire whether the workman had served a seven years apprenticeship. In France, the duration of apprenticeships is different in different towns and in different trades. In Paris, five years is the term re- The institution of long apprenticeships has quired in a great number; but, before any no tendency to form young people to indusperson can be qualified to exercise the trade try. A journeyman who works by the piece as a master, he must, in many of them, serve is likely to be industrious, because he derives five years more as a journeyman. During a benefit from every exertion of his industry. this latter term, he is called the companion of An apprentice is likely to be idle, and almost his master, and the term itself is called his always is so, because he has no immediate in companionship. terest to be otherwise, In the inferior em In Scotland, there is no general law which ployments, the sweets of labour consist alto. regulates universally the duration of appren-gether in the recompence of labour. They ticeships. The term is different in different who are soonest in a condition to enjoy the corporations. Where it is long, a part of it sweets of it, are likely soonest to conceive a may generally be redeemed by paying a smal! relish for it, and to acquire the early habit of fine. In most towns, too, a very small fine is industry. A young man naturally conceives sufficient to purchase the freedom of any cor- an aversion to labour, when for a long time poration. The weavers of linen and hempen he receives no benefit from it. The boys who cloth, the principal manufactures of the coun- are put out apprentices from public charities try, as well as all other artificers subservient are generally bound for more than the usual to them, wheel-makers, reel-makers, &c. may number of years, and they generally turn out exercise their trades in any town-corporate very idle and worthless. without paying any fine. In all towns-cor- Apprenticeships were altogether unknown porate, all persons are free to sell butchers' to the ancients. The reciprocal duties of masmeat upon any lawful day of the week. Three ter and apprentice make a considerable article years is, in Scotland, a common term of ap-in every modern code. The Roman law is prenticeship, even in some very nice trades; perfectly silent with regard to them. I know and, in general, I know of no country in Eu- no Greek or Latin word (I might venture, I rope, in which corporation laws are so little oppressive. believe, to assert that there is none) which expresses the idea we now annex to the word The property which every man has in his apprentice, a servant bound to work at a parown labour, as it is the original foundation of ticular trade for the benefit of a master, durall other property, so it is the most sacred and ing a term of years, upon condition that the inviolable. The patrimony of a poor man master shall teach him that trade. lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands; Long apprenticeships are altogether unneand to hinder him from employing this cessary. The arts, which are much superior strength and dexterity in what manner he to common trades, such as those of making thinks proper, without injury to his neigh-clocks and watches, conta n no such mystery bour, is a plain violation of this most sacred as to require a long course of instruction. property. It is a manifest encroachment The first invention of such beautiful machines, apon the just liberty, both of the workman, indeed, and even that of some of the instru and of those who might be disposed to em-ments employed in making them, must no BOOK 1, doubt have been the work of deep thought | laws which they might think proper to enact and long time, and may justly be considered for their own government, belonged to the as among the happiest efforts of human inge-town-corporate in which they were establishnuity. But when both have been fairly in- ed; and whatever discipline was exercised vented, and are well understood, to explain over them, proceeded commonly, not from the to any young man, in the completest manner, king, but from that greater incorporation of how to apply the instruments, and how to wnich those subordinate ones were only parts construct the machines, cannot well require or members. more than the lessons of a few weeks; per- The government of towns-corporate was alhaps those of a few days might be sufficient. together in the hands of traders and artificers, In the common mechanic trades, those of a and it was the manifest interest of every par few days might certainly be sufficient. The ticular class of them, to prevent the market dexterity of hand, indeed, even in common from being overstocked, as they commonly extrades, cannot be acquired without inuch prac- press it, with their own particular species of tice and experience. But a young man would industry; which is in reality to keep it alpractice with much more diligence and atten- ways understocked. Each class was eager tion, if from the beginning he wrought as a to establish regulations proper for this purjourneyman, being paid in proportion to the pose, and, provided it was allowed to do so, little work which he could execute, and pay- was willing to consent that every other class ing in his turn for the materials which he should do the same. might sometimes spoil through awkwardness and inexperience. His education would generally in this way be more effectual, and always less tedious and expensive. The master, indeed, would be a loser. He would lose all the wages of the apprentice, which he now saves, for seven years together. In the end, perhaps, the apprentice himself would be a loser. In a trade so easily learnt he would have more competitors, and his wages, when he came to be a complete workman, would be much less than at present. The same increase of competition would reduce the profits of the masters, as well as the wages of workmen. The trades, the crafts, the mysteries, would all be losers. But the public would be a gainer, the work of all artificers coming in this way much cheaper to market. In consequence of such regulations, indeed, cach class was obliged to buy the goods they had occasion for from every other within the town, somewhat dearer than they otherwise might have done. But, in recompence, they were enabled to sell their own just as much dearer; so that, so far it was as broad as long, as they say; and in the dealings of the different classes within the town with one another, none of thein were losers by these regulations. But in their dealings with the country they were all great gainers; and in these latter dealings consist the whole trade which supports and enriches every town. Every town draws its whole subsistence, and all the materials of its industry, from the country. It pays for these chiefly in two ways. First, by sending back to the country It is to prevent his reduction of price, and a part of those materials wrought up and ma consequently of wages and profit, by restrain-nufactured; in which case, their price is aug ing that free competition which would most mented by the wages of the workmen, and the certainly occasion it, that all corporations, profits of their masters or immediate employ and the greater part of corporation laws, have ers; secondly, by sending to it a part both of been established. In order to erect a corpor- the rude and manufactured produce, either of ation, no other authority in ancient times was other countries, or of distant parts of the requisite, in many parts of Europe, but that same country, imported into the town; in of the town-corporate in which it was estab-which case, too, the original price of those lished. In England, indeed, a charter from goods is augmented by the wages of the carthe king was likewise necessary. But this riers or sailors, and by the profits of the prerogative of the crown seems to have been merchants who employ them. In what is reserved rather for extorting money from the gained upon the first of those branches of subject, than for the defence of the common commerce, consists the advantage which the liberty against such oppressive monopolies. town makes by its manufactures; in what is Upon paying a fine to the king, the charter gained upon the second, the advantage of its seems generally to have been readily granted; inland and foreign trade. The wages of the and when any particular class of artificers or workmen, and the profits of their different traders thought proper to act as a corporation, employers, make up the whole of what is without a charter, such adulterine guilds, as gained upon both. Whatever regulations, they were called, were not always disfranch- therefore, tend to increase those wages and ised upon that account, but obliged to fine an-profits beyond what they otherwise would be, nually to the king, for permission to exercise tend to enable the town to purchase, with a their usurped privileges. The immediate smaller quantity of its labour, the produce of inspection of all corporations, and of the bye-a greater quantity of the labour of the coun * Dee Madox Firma Burgi p. 26 o try. They give the traders and artificers in the town an advantage over the landlords, |