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labour employed within it, tends indirectly to are soon reduced to what is barely enough to raise the real rent of land. A certain propor- enable him to bring up a family, or to contion of this labour naturally goes to the land. [tinue the race of labourers. When the socieA greater number of men and cattle are em- ty declines, they fall even below this. The ployed in its cultivation, the produce increases order of proprietors may perhaps gain more with the increase of the stock which is thus by the prosperity of the society than that of employed in raising it, and the rent increases labourers; but there is no order that suffers with the produce. so cruelly from its decline. But though the The contrary circumstances, the neglect of interest of the labourer is strictly connected cultivation and improvement, the fall in the with that of the society, he is incapable either real price of any part of the rude produce of of comprehending that interest, or of underland, the rise in the real price of manufactures standing its connexion with his own. His from the decay of manufacturing art and in- condition leaves him no time to receive the dustry, the declension of the real wealth of necessary information, and his education and the society, all tend, on the other hand, to habits are commonly such as to render him lower the real rent of land, to reduce the real unfit to judge, even though he was fully inwealth of the landlord, to diminish his power formed. In the public deliberations, thereof purchasing either the labour, or the produce of the labour, of other people.

fore, his voice is little heard, and less regard. ed; except upon particular occasions, when his clamour is animated, set on, and supported by his employers, not for his, but their own particular purposes.

His employers constitute the third order, that of those who live by profit. It is the stock that is employed for the sake of profit, which puts into motion the greater part of the useful labour of every society. The plans and projects of the employers of stock regulate and direct all the most important operations of la

The whole annual produce of the land and labour of every country, or, what comes to the same thing, the whole price of that annual produce, naturally divides itself, it has already been observed, into three parts; the rent of land, the wages of labour, and the profits of stock; and constitutes a revenue to three different orders of people; to those who live by rent, to those who live by wages, and to those who live by profit. These are the three great, original, and constituent, orders of every civi-bour, and profit is the end proposed by all lized society, from whose revenue that of every other order is ultimately derived.

those plans and projects. But the rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with The interest of the first of those three great the prosperity, and fall with the declension of orders, it appears from what has been just now the society. On the contrary, it is naturally said, is strictly and inseparably connected with low in rich, and high in poor countries, and the general interest of the society. Whatever it is always highest in the countries which are either promotes or obstructs the one, necessa-going fastest to ruin. The interest of this rily promotes or obstructs the other. When third order, therefore, has not the same con. the public deliberates concerning any regula- nexion with the general interest of the society, tion of commerce or police, the proprietors of as that of the other two. Merchants and land never can mislead it, with a view to pro- master manufacturers are, in this order, the mote the interest of their own particular or- two classes of people who commonly employ der; at least, if they have any tolerable know- the largest capitals, and who by their wealth ledge of that interest. They are, indeed, too draw to themselves the greatest share of the often defective in this tolerable knowledge. public consideration. They are the only one of the three orders whose revenue costs them neither labour nor care, but comes to them, as it were, of its own accord, and independent of any plan or project of their own. That indolence which is the natural effect of the ease and security of of their own particular branch of business their situation, renders them too often, not only ignorant, but incapable of that application of mind, which is necessary in order to foresee and understand the consequence of any public regulation.

As during their whole lives they are engaged in plans and projects, they have frequently more acuteness of understanding than the greater part of country gentlemen. As their thoughts, however, are commonly exercised rather about the interest

than about that of the society, their judgment, even when given with the greatest candour (which it has not been upon every occasion), is much more to be depended upon with regard to the former of those two objects, than The interest of the second order, that of with regard to the latter. Their superiority those who live by wages, is as strictly connect- over the country gentleman is, not so much in ed with the interest of the society as that of the their knowledge of the public interest, as in first. The wages of the labourer, it has al- their having a better knowledge of their own ready been shewn, are never so high as when interest than he has of his. It is by this su. the demand for labour is continually rising, perior knowledge of their own interest that or when the quantity employed is every year they have frequently imposed upon his gene increasing considerably. When this real wealth rosity, and persuaded him to give up both his af the society becomes stationary, his wages own interest and that of the public, from s

very simple but honest conviction, that their interest, and not his, was the interest of the public. The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market, and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers. To widen the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the public; but to narrow the competition must always be against it, and can only serve to enable the dealers, by raising their profits above what ther naturally would be, to levv. for their own

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benefit, an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow-citizens. The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who ac cordingly have, upon many occasions, both de ceived and oppressed it.

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PRICES OF THE QUARTER OF NINE BUSHELS OF THE BEST OR HIGHEST PRICED WHEAT AT WINDSOR MARKET, ON LADY-DAY AND MICHAELMAS, FROM 1595 TO 1764, BOTH INCLUSIVE; THE PRICE OF EACH YEAR BEING THE MEDIUM BETWEEN THE HIGHEST PRICES OF THOSE TWA MARKET-DAYS.

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Wheat per Quarter.
Years. L. s. d.
1610...... 1 15 10
1611
1 18 8

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1617

2 8 8

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1618...... 2 6 8

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1604

...... 1 10 8

1619...... 1 15 4

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1680...... 2

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1606 ...... 1 13

0

1648

4 5 0

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1608...... 2 16 8

1609...... 2 10 0

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1683...... 2 0 0 1684 ...... 2 4 0 1685...... 2 6 8

1686.....

1 14 0

1 5 2

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1689...... 1690..

6 0 1 10 0

1 14 8

8

1691 ..

1 14 0

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1692

2 6 8

1659...... 3

6 0

1693

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1660...... 2 16
1661 ...... 3 10 0
1662 ... 3 14 0
1663 ...... 2 17 0
1664 ...... 2 0 6
1665
2 9 4
1666...... 1 16 0
1667 ...... 1 16
0
1668 ...... 2
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6

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8

2 10 0

1669...... 2 4 4
1670 ..... 2 1 8

3 4 0

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Wanting in the account. The year 1646 supplied by Bishop Fleetwood

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