XI. of feveral different markets in France, which have been collected CHAP. with great diligence and fidelity by Mr. Meffance, and by Mr. Dupré de St. Maur. The evidence is more compleat than could well have been expected in a matter which is naturally fo very difficult to be afcertained. As to the high price of corn during these last ten or twelve years, it can be fufficiently accounted for from the badnefs of the seasons, without fuppofing any degradation in the value of filver. THE 'opinion, therefore, that filver is continually finking in its value, seems not to be founded upon any good obfervations, either upon the prices of corn, or upon thofe 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 those goods, or to a fall in the value of filver, is only to establish a vain and useless diftinction, which can be of no fort of service to the man who has only a certain quantity of filver to go to market with, or a certain fixed revenue in money.. money.. I certainly do not 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 rise in the price of fome forts of provifions be owing altogether to a fall in the value of filver, it is owing to a circumftance from which nothing can BOOK I. can be inferred but the fertility of the American mines. The IT may too be of fome ufe to the Public in regulating the pecuniary reward of fome of its inferior fervants. If this rife in the price of fome forts 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 increafed 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 lefs, in proportion to the price of corn, that of every fort of animal food, fo it as neceffa rily lowers that of, I believe, every fort of vegetable food. It raifes the price of animal food; because a great part of the land which produces it, being rendered fit for producing corn, must 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 lefs land and not more labour 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 extenfion of its commerce and navigation. Many forts of vegetable food, befides, which in the rude state of agriculture are confined to the kitchen garden, and raised only by the fpade, come in its improved state to be introduced into common fields, and to be raised by the plough: fuch as turnips, carrots, cabbages, &c. If in the progress of improve. ment, 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'smeat has once got to its height, (which, with regard to every fort, except, perhaps, that of hogs flesh, it seems to have done through a great part of England, more than a century ago) any rife 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 circumftances of the poor through a great part of England cannot furely be fo much diftreffed by any rife in the price of poultry, fish, wild-fowl, or venifon, as they must be relieved by the fall in that of potatoes. IN the prefent feafon of fcarcity the high price of corn no doubt diftreffes the poor. But in times of moderate plenty, when VOL. I. Rr corn BOOK ·I. corn is at its ordinary or average price, the natural rife in the price Effects of the Progrefs of Improvement upon the real Price of IT T is the natural effect of improvement, however, 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 division and distribution of work, all of which are the natural effects of improvement, a much smaller quantity of labour becomes requifite for executing any particular piece of work; and though in confequence of the flourishing circumstances of the fociety, the real price of labour should rise very confiderably, yet the great diminution of the quantity will generally much more than compensate the greatest rife which can happen in the price. THERE are, indeed, a few manufactures, in which the neceffary rife 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 neceffary 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 XI. be derived from the best machinery, the greatest dexterity, and the CHA P. moft proper divifion and diftribution of work. BUT in all cafes in which the real price of the rude materials either does not rise at all, or does not rise very much, that of the manufactured commodity finks very confiderably. THIS diminution of price has, in the courfe of the present and preceding century, been most remarkable in those manufactures of which the materials are the coarfer metals. A better movement of a watch, than about the middle of the last century could have been bought for twenty pounds, may now perhaps be had for twenty fhillings. In the work of cutlers and lockfmiths, in all the toys which are made of the coarser metals, and in all those goods which are commonly known by the name of Birmingham and Sheffield ware, there has been, during the fame period, a very great reduction of price, though not altogether fo great as in watch work. It has, however, been fufficient to astonish the workmen of every other part of Europe, who, in many cafes acknowledge that they can produce no work of equal, goodness for double, or even for triple the price. There are perhaps no manufactures in which the divifion of labour can be carried further, or in which the machinery employed admits of a greater variety of improvements, than thofe of which the materials are the coarfer metals. In the clothing manufacture there has, during the fame period, been no fuch fenfible reduction of price. The price of fuperfine cloth, I have been affured, on the contrary, has, within these five and twenty or thirty years, rifen fomewhat in proportion to its quality; owing, it was faid, to a confiderable rise in the price of the material, which confifts altogether of Spanish wool. That |
