An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

labour and stock. This rate is naturally regulated, as I shall shew hereafter, partly by the general circumstances of the society,

gulated, too, as I shall shew hereafter, partly by the general circumstances of the society or neigh

e natural rates of wages, profit and rent, at th

, the wages of the labour, and the profits of the stock employed in raising, preparing, and bringing it to m

he ordinary rate of profit in his neighbourhood, he is evidently a loser by the trade; since, by employing his stock in some other way, he might have made that profit. His profit, besides, is his revenue, the proper fund of his subsistence. As, while he is preparing and bringing the goods to market, he advances to his workmen t

may sometimes sell his goods, it is the lowest at which he is likely to sell them for any considerable

ld, is called its market price. It may either be above

labour, and profit, which must be paid in order to bring it thither. Such people may be called the effectual demanders, and their demand the effectual demand; since it maybe sufficient to effectuate the bringing of the commodity to market. It is diffe

them will be willing to give more. A competition will immediately begin among them, and the market price will rise more or less above the natural price, according as either the greatness of the deficiency, or the wealth and wanton luxury of the competitors, happen to animate more or less the eagerness of the competition

less, and the low price which they give for it must reduce the price of the whole. The market price will sink more or less below the natural price, according as the greatness of the excess increases more or less the competition of the sellers, or according as it happens t

ctly, or as nearly as can be judged of, the same with the natural price. The whole quantity upon hand can be disposed of for this price, and can not

all those who employ their land, labour, or stock, in bringing any commodity to market, that the quantity never should

part of their land; and if it is wages or profit, the interest of the labourers in the one case, and of their employers in the other, will prompt them to withdraw a part of their labour or stock, from this employme

lords will naturally prompt them to prepare more land for the raising of this commodity; if it is wages or profit, the interest of all other labourers and dealers will soon prompt them to employ more labour and stock in preparing

ferent accidents may sometimes keep them suspended a good deal above it, and sometimes force them down even somewhat below it. But whate

lly suits itself in this manner to the effectual demand. It naturally aims at bringing always that

much greater, and frequently much less, than its average produce, the quantity of the commodities brought to market will sometimes exceed a good deal, and sometimes fall short a good deal, of the effectual demand. Even though that demand, therefore, should continue always the same, their market price will be liable to great fluctuations, will sometimes fall a good deal below, and sometimes rise a good deal above, their natural price. In the other species of industry, the produce of equal quantities of labour being always the same, or very nearly the same, it can be more exactly suited to the effectual demand. While that demand continu

st affected by them, either in its rate or in its value. A rent which consists either in a certain proportion, or in a certain quantity, of the rude produce, is no doubt affected in its yearly value by all the occasional and temporary fluctuations in the market price of that rud

f the merchants who possess any considerable quantity of it. It has no effect upon the wages of the weavers. The market is understocked with commodities, not with labour, with work done, not with work to be done. It raises the wages of journeymen tailors. The market is here understocked with labour. There is an effectual demand for more labour, for more work to be done, than can b

ards the natural price; yet sometimes particular accidents, sometimes natural causes, and sometimes particular regulations

mpt so many new rivals to employ their stocks in the same way, that, the effectual demand being fully supplied, the market price would soon be reduced to the natural price, and, perhaps, for some time even below it. If the market is at a great distance from the residence of those who supply it, they

ood management, enjoy the advantage of his discovery as long as he lives, and even leave it as a legacy to his posterity. His extraordinary gains arise from the high price which is paid for his private labour. They properly consist

effects of particular accidents, of which, however, th

its of the stock which were employed in preparing and bringing them to market, according to their natural rates. Such commodities may continue for whole centuries together to be sold at this high price; and that part of it which resolves itself into the rent of land, is in this case the part which is generally paid above its natural rate. The rent of the land which affords such singular and esteemed productions, like the rent

ural causes, which may hinder the effectual demand from ever being fu

monopolists, by keeping the market constantly understocked by never fully supplying the effectual demand, sell their commodities m

n be taken, not upon every occasion indeed, but for any considerable time together. The one is upon every occasion the highest which can be squeezed out of the buyers,

o into them, have the same tendency, though in a less degree. They are a sort of enlarged monopolies, and may frequently, for ages together, and in whole classes of employments, keep up the

may last as long as the regulations

nterest it affected would immediately feel the loss, and would immediately withdraw either so much land or no much labour, or so much stock, from being employed about it, that the quantity brought to mark

wever, is not near so durable in sinking the workman's wages below, as in raising them above their natural rate. Their operation in the one way may endure for many centuries, but in the other it can last no longer than the lives of some of the workmen who were bred to the business in the time of its prosperity. When they are gone, the number of those who are afterwards educated to the trade will naturally suit itself to

t concerning the deviations, whether occasional or permanen

s rate varies according to their circumstances, according to their riches or poverty, their advancing, stationary, or declining condition.

rmine the rate of wages, and in what manner those circumstances are affected by the

urally determine the rate of profit; and in what manner, too, those circ

ock. This proportion, it will appear hereafter, depends partly upon the nature of the different employments, and partly upon the different laws and policy of the society in which they are carried on. But though in many respects dependent upon the laws and policy, this proportion seems to be little

rcumstances which regulate the rent of land, and which either raise or