de St. Maur. The evidence is more complete than could well have been expected in a matter which is naturally so very difficult to be ascertained.

As to the high price of corn during these last ten or twelve years, it can be fufficiently accounted for from the badness of the seasons, without fuppofing any degradation in the value of filver.

The opinion, therefore, that filver is continually finking in its value, feems not to be founded upon any good obfervations, either upon the prices of corn, or upon those of other provifions.

The fame quantity of filver, it may, perhaps, be faid, will in the present times, even according to the account which has been here given purchase a much smaller quantity of feveral forts of provifions than it would have done during fome part of the last century; and to ascertain whether this change be owing to a rife in the value of thofe goods, or to a fall in the value of filver, is only to establish a vain and useless distinction, which can be of no fort of fervice to the man who has only a certain quantity of filver to go to market with, or a certain fixed revenue in money. I certainly do no pretend that the knowledge of this diftinction will enable him to buy cheaper. It may not, however, upon that account be altogether useless.

It may be of fome ufe to the public by affording an easy proof of the profperous condition of the country. If the rife in the price of fome

forts of provifions be owing altogether to a fall in the value of filver, it is owing to a circumstance from which nothing can be inferred but. the fertility of the American mines. The real wealth of the country, the annual produce of its land and labor, may, notwithstanding this circumftance, be either gradually declining, as in Portugal and Poland; or gradually advancing, as in most other parts of Europe. But if this rife in the price of some forts of provifions be owing to a rife in the real value of the land which produces them, to its increased fertility; or, in confequence of more extended improvement and good cultivation, to its having been rendered fit for producing corn; it is owing to a circumftance which indicates in the cleareft manner the profperous and advancing state of the country. The land conftitutes by far the greateft, the moft important, and the most durable part of the wealth of every extensive country. It may furely be of fome use, or, at least, it may give some fatisfaction to the Public, to have so decifive a proof of the increasing value of by far the greatest, the most important, and the moft durable part of its wealth.

It may too be of fome ufe to the Public in regulating the pecuniary reward of some of its inferior fervants. If this rife in the price of some sorts of provifions be owing to a fall in the value of filver, their pecuniary reward, provided it was not too large before, ought certainly to be augmented in proportion to the extent of this fall. If it is not augmented, their real recompence

will evidently be fo much diminished. But if this rife of price is owing to the increased value, in confequence of the improved fertility of the land which produces fuch provifions, it becomes a much nicer matter to judge either in what proportion any pecuniary reward ought to be augmented, or whether it ought to be augmented at all. The extenfion of improvement and cultivation, as it neceffarily raises more or less, in proportion to the price of corn, that of every fort of animal food, fo it as neceffarily lowers that of, I believe, every fort of vegetable food. It raifes the price of animal food; becaufe a great part of the land which produces it, being rendered fit for producing corn, muft afford to the landlord and farmer the rent and profit of corn-land. It lowers the price of vegetable food; because, by increafing the fertility of the land, it increases its abundance. The improvements of agriculture too introduce many forts of vegetable food, which, requiring less land and not more labor than corn, come much cheaper to market. Such are potatoes and maize, or what is called Indian corn, the two most important improvements which the agriculture of Europe, perhaps, which Europe itself, has received from the great extension of its commerce and navigation. Many forts of vegetable food, befides, which in the rude ftate of agriculture are confined to the kitchen-garden, and raifed only by the spade, come in its improved ftated to be introduced into common fields, and to be raised by the plough: fuch as turnips, carrots, cabbages, &c.

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If in the progrefs of improvement, therefore the real price of one fpecies of food neceffarily rifes, that of another as neceffarily falls, and it becomes a matter of more nicety to judge how far the rife in the one may be compenfated by the fall in the other. When the real price of butcher's-meat has once got to its height (which, with regard to every fort, except, perhaps, that of hog's fleth, it seems to have done through a great part of England, more than a century ago), any rise which can afterwards happen in that of any other fort of animal food, cannot much affect the circumftances of the inferior ranks of people. The circumstances of the poor through a great part of England, cannot surely be fo much diftreffed by any rife in the price of poultry, fish, wild-fowl, or venison, as they must be relieved by the fall in that of potatoes.

In the present season of fcarcity the high price of corn no doubt diftreffes the poor. But in times of moderate plenty, when corn is at its ordinary or average price, the natural rife in the price of any other fort of rude produce cannot much affect them. They fuffer more, perhaps, by the artificial rife which has been occafioned by taxes in the prices of fome manufactured commodities; as of falt, foap, leather, candles, malt, beer, and ale, &c.

Effects of the Progrefs of Improvement upon the real Price of Manufactures.

IT is the natural effect of improvement,

how

ever, to diminish gradually the real price of almost all manufactures. That of the manufacturing workmanship diminishes, perhaps, in all of them without exception. In confequence of better machinery, of greater dexterity, and of a more proper divifion and diftribution of work, all of which are the natural effects of improvement, a much fmaller quantity of labor becomes requifite for executing any particular piece of work; and though, in confequence of the flourishing circumstances of the fociety, the real price of labor fhould rise very confiderably, yet the great diminution of the quantity will generally much more than compenfate the greatest rife which can happen in the price.

There are, indeed, a few manufactures, in which the neceffary rise in the real price of the rude materials will more than compenfate all the advantages which improvement can introduce into the execution of the work. In carpenters and joiners work, and in the coarser fort of cabinet work, the necessary rise in the real price of barren timber, in confequence of the improvement of land, will more than compenfate all the advantages which can be derived from the best machinery, the greatest dexterity, and the most proper divifion and diftribution of work.

But