Having wiled away the month, and having come up with nothing
of my own, I present this little gem from Adam Smith, from his CONCLUSION to
CHAPTER XI, OF THE RENT OF LAND, the concluding chapter of BOOK I of his AN
INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.
...
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 civilized society,
from whose revenue that of every other order is ultimately derived.
The interest of the first of those three great orders, it
appears from what has been just now said, is strictly and inseparably connected
with the general interest of the society. Whatever either promotes or obstructs
the one, necessarily promotes or obstructs the other. When the public
deliberates concerning any regulation of commerce or police, the proprietors of
land never can mislead it, with a view to promote the interest of their own
particular order; at least, if they have any tolerable knowledge of that
interest. They are, indeed, too often defective in this tolerable knowledge.
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 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.
The interest of the second order, that of those who live by
wages, is as strictly connected with the interest of the society as that of the
first. The wages of the labourer, it has already been shewn, are never so high
as when the demand for labour is continually rising, or when the quantity
employed is every year increasing considerably. When this real wealth of the
society becomes stationary, his wages are soon reduced to what is barely enough
to enable him to bring up a family, or to continue the race of labourers. When
the society declines, they fall even below this. The order of proprietors may
perhaps gain more by the prosperity of the society than that of labourers; but
there is no order that suffers so cruelly from its decline. But though the
interest of the labourer is strictly connected with that of the society, he is
incapable either of comprehending that interest, or of understanding its
connexion with his own. His condition leaves him no time to receive the
necessary information, and his education and habits are commonly such as to
render him unfit to judge, even though he was fully informed. In the public
deliberations, therefore, his voice is little heard, and less regarded; 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 operation of labour, and profit is the end proposed by all those
plans and projects. But the rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise
with the prosperity, and fall with the declension of the society. On the
contrary, it is naturally low in rich, and high in poor countries, and it is
always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin. The interest
of this third order, therefore, has not the same connexion with the general
interest of the society, as that of the other two. Merchants and master
manufacturers are, in this order, the two classes of people who commonly employ
the largest capitals, and who by their wealth draw to themselves the greatest
share of the public consideration. 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 of their own particular branch of
business. 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 with
regard to the latter. Their superiority over the country gentleman is, not so
much in their knowledge of the public interest, as in their having a better
knowledge of their own interest than he has of his. It is by this superior
knowledge of their own interest that they have frequently imposed upon his
generosity, and persuaded him to give up both his own interest and that of the
public, from a 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 they naturally would be, to
levy, for their own 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 accordingly have, upon many occasions, both
deceived and oppressed it.
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Smith, Adam (2011-01-12). AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND
CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS (non illustrated) (Kindle Locations 4147-4191). . Kindle Edition.
