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In the progress of industry, commercial nations have found it convenient to coin several different metals into money; gold for larger payments,…

The Romans are said to have had nothing but copper money till within five years before the first Punic war (Pliny, lib. xxxiii. cap. 3), when they…

The northern nations who established themselves upon the ruins of the Roman empire, seem to have had silver money from the first beginning of their…

Originally, in all countries, I believe, a legal tender of payment could be made only in the coin of that metal which was peculiarly considered as…

In process of time, and as people became gradually more familiar with the use of the different metals in coin, and consequently better acquainted…

In the proportion between the different metals in the English coin, as copper is rated very much above its real value, so silver is rated somewhat…

By the money price of goods, it is to be observed, I understand always the quantity of pure gold or silver for which they are sold, without any…

In that early and rude state of society which precedes both the accumulation of stock and the appropriation of land, the proportion between the…

Or if the one species of labour requires an uncommon degree of dexterity and ingenuity, the esteem which men have for such talents, will naturally…

In this state of things, the whole produce of labour does not always belong to the labourer. He must in most cases share it with the owner of the…

As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and…

The real value of all the different component parts of price, it must be observed, is measured by the quantity of labour which they can, each of them…

In the price of flour or meal, we must add to the price of the corn, the profits of the miller, and the wages of his servants; in the price of bread,…

The price of flax resolves itself into the same three parts as that of corn. In the price of linen we must add to this price the wages of the…

As any particular commodity comes to be more manufactured, that part of the price which resolves itself into wages and profit, comes to be greater in…

But the whole price of any commodity must still finally resolve itself into some one or other or all of those three parts; as whatever part of it…

As the price or exchangeable value of every particular commodity, taken separately, resolves itself into some one or other, or all of those three…

A gentleman who farms a part of his own estate, after paying the expense of cultivation, should gain both the rent of the landlord and the profit…

Common farmers seldom employ any overseer to direct the general operations of the farm. They generally, too, work a good deal with their own hands,…

An independent manufacturer, who has stock enough both to purchase materials, and to maintain himself till he can carry his work to market, should…

A gardener who cultivates his own garden with his own hands, unites in his own person the three different characters, of landlord, farmer, and…

There is in every society or neighbourhood an ordinary or average rate, both of wages and profit, in every different employment of labour and stock.…

When the price of any commodity is neither more nor less than what is sufficient to pay the rent of the land, the wages of the labour, and the…

Though the price, therefore, which leaves him this profit, is not always the lowest at which a dealer may sometimes sell his goods, it is the…

The market price of every particular commodity is regulated by the proportion between the quantity which is actually brought to market, and the…

When the quantity brought to market exceeds the effectual demand, it cannot be all sold to those who are willing to pay the whole value of the rent,…

When the quantity brought to market is just sufficient to supply the effectual demand, and no more, the market price naturally comes to be either…

The quantity of every commodity brought to market naturally suits itself to the effectual demand. It is the interest of all those who employ their…

If at any time it exceeds the effectual demand, some of the component parts of its price must be paid below their natural rate. If it is rent, the…

If, on the contrary, the quantity brought to market should at any time fall short of the effectual demand, some of the component parts of its price…

The natural price, therefore, is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of all commodities are continually gravitating. Different…

The occasional and temporary fluctuations in the market price of any commodity fall chiefly upon those parts of its price which resolve themselves…

But though the market price of every particular commodity is in this manner continually gravitating, if one may say so, towards the natural price;…

Secrets in manufactures are capable of being longer kept than secrets in trade. A dyer who has found the means of producing a particular colour…

A monopoly granted either to an individual or to a trading company, has the same effect as a secret in trade or manufactures. The monopolists, by…

The exclusive privileges of corporations, statutes of apprenticeship, and all those laws which restrain in particular employments, the competition to…

The market price of any particular commodity, though it may continue long above, can seldom continue long below, its natural price. Whatever part…

The natural price itself varies with the natural rate of each of its component parts, of wages, profit, and rent; and in every society this rate…

Though pecuniary wages and profit are very different in the different employments of labour and stock; yet a certain proportion seems commonly to…

The produce of labour constitutes the natural recompence or wages of labour. In that original state of things which precedes both the appropriation…

But this original state of things, in which the labourer enjoyed the whole produce of his own labour, could not last beyond the first introduction of…

It seldom happens that the person who tills the ground has wherewithal to maintain himself till he reaps the harvest. His maintenance is generally…

The produce of almost all other labour is liable to the like deduction of profit. In all arts and manufactures, the greater part of the workmen stand…

It sometimes happens, indeed, that a single independent workman has stock sufficient both to purchase the materials of his work, and to maintain…

Such cases, however, are not very frequent; and in every part of Europe twenty workmen serve under a master for one that is independent, and the…

When in any country the demand for those who live by wages, labourers, journeymen, servants of every kind, is continually increasing; when every year…

When an independent workman, such as a weaver or shoemaker, has got more stock than what is sufficient to purchase the materials of his own work, and…

The demand for those who live by wages, therefore, necessarily increases with the increase of the revenue and stock of every country, and cannot…

First, in almost every part of Great Britain there is a distinction, even in the lowest species of labour, between summer and winter wages. Summer…

Secondly, the wages of labour do not, in Great Britain, fluctuate with the price of provisions. These vary everywhere from year to year, frequently…

In years of plenty, servants frequently leave their masters, and trust their subsistence to what they can make by their own industry. But the same…

In years of scarcity, the difficulty and uncertainty of subsistence make all such people eager to return to service. But the high price of provisions…

It is because the demand for labour increases in years of sudden and extraordinary plenty, and diminishes in those of sudden and extraordinary…

In a year of sudden and extraordinary plenty, there are funds in the hands of many of the employers of industry, sufficient to maintain and employ…

The rise and fall in the profits of stock depend upon the same causes with the rise and fall in the wages of labour, the increasing or declining…

The increase of stock, which raises wages, tends to lower profit. When the stocks of many rich merchants are turned into the same trade, their mutual…

But though it may be impossible to determine, with any degree of precision, what are or were the average profits of stock, either in the present or…

Since the time of Henry VIII. the wealth and revenue of the country have been continually advancing, and in the course of their progress, their…

It generally requires a greater stock to carry on any sort of trade in a great town than in a country village. The great stocks employed in every…

The lowest ordinary rate of profit must always be something more than what is sufficient to compensate the occasional losses to which every…