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wealbk04-第66章

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tools; and wages advanced to them by their employer; and is the

fund destined for their employment and maintenance。 Its profits

are the fund destined for the maintenance of their employer。

Their employer; as he advances to them the stock of materials;

tools; and wages necessary for their employment; so he advances

to himself what is necessary for his own maintenance; and this

maintenance he generally proportions to the profit which he

expects to make by the price of their work。 Unless its price

repays to him the maintenance which he advances to himself; as

well as the materials; tools; and wages which he advances to his

workmen; it evidently does not repay to him the whole expense

which he lays out upon it。 The profits of manufacturing stock

therefore are not; like the rent of land; a net produce which

remains after completely repaying the whole expense which must be

laid out in order to obtain them。 The stock of the farmer yields

him a profit as well as that of the master manufacturer; and it

yields a rent likewise to another person; which that of the

master manufacturer does not。 The expense; therefore; laid out in

employing and maintaining artificers and manufacturers does no

more than continue; if one may say so; the existence of its own

value; and does not produce any new value。 It is therefore

altogether a barren and unproductive expense。 The expense; on the

contrary; laid out in employing farmers and country labourers;

over and above continuing the existence of its own value;

produces a new value; the rent of the landlord。 It is therefore a

productive expense。

     Mercantile stock is equally barren and unproductive with

manufacturing stock。 It only continues the existence of its own

value; without producing any new value。 Its profits are only the

repayment of the maintenance which its employer advances to

himself during the time that he employs it; or till he receives

the returns of it。 They are only the repayment of a part of the

expense which must be laid out in employing it。

     The labour of artificers and manufacturers never adds

anything to the value of the whole annual amount of the rude

produce of the land。 It adds; indeed; greatly to the value of

some particular parts of it。 But the consumption which in the

meantime it occasions of other parts is precisely equal to the

value which it adds to those parts; so that the value of the

whole amount is not; at any one moment of time; in the least

augmented by it。 The person who works the lace of a pair of fine

ruffles; for example; will sometimes raise the value of perhaps a

pennyworth of flax to thirty pounds sterling。 But though at first

sight he appears thereby to multiply the value of a part of the

rude produce about seven thousand and two hundred times; he in

reality adds nothing to the value of the whole annual amount of

the rude produce。 The working of that lace costs him perhaps two

years' labour。 The thirty pounds which he gets for it when it is

finished is no more than the repayment of the subsistence which

he advances to himself during the two years that he is employed

about it。 The value which; by every day's; month's; or year's

labour; he adds to the flax does no more than replace the value

of his own consumption during that day; month; or year。 At no

moment of time; therefore; does he add anything to the value of

the whole annual amount of the rude produce of the land: the

portion of that produce which he is continually consuming being

always equal to the value which he is continually producing。 The

extreme poverty of the greater part of the persons employed in

this expensive though trifling manufacture may satisfy us that

the price of their work does not in ordinary cases exceed the

value of their subsistence。 It is otherwise with the work of

farmers and country labourers。 The rent of the landlord is a

value which; in ordinary cases; it is continually producing; over

and above replacing; in the most complete manner; the whole

consumption; the whole expense laid out upon the employment and

maintenance both of the workmen and of their employer。

     Artificers; manufacturers; and merchants can augment the

revenue and wealth of their society by parsimony only; or; as it

in this system; by privation; that is; by depriving themselves a

part of the funds destined for their own subsistence。 They

annually reproduce nothing but those funds。 Unless; therefore;

they annually save some part of them; unless they annually

deprive themselves of the enjoyment of some part of them; the

revenue and wealth of their society can never be in the smallest

degree augmented by means of their industry。 Farmers and country

labourers; on the contrary; may enjoy completely the whole funds

destined for their own subsistence; and yet augment at the same

time the revenue and wealth of their society。 Over and above what

is destined for their own subsistence; their industry annually

affords a net produce; of which the augmentation necessarily

augments the revenue and wealth of their society。 Nations

therefore which; like France or England; consist in a great

measure of proprietors and cultivators can be enriched by

industry and enjoyment。 Nations; on the contrary; which; like

Holland and Hamburg; are composed chiefly of merchants;

artificers; and manufacturers can grow rich only through

parsimony and privation。 As the interest of nations so

differently circumstanced is very different; so is likewise the

common character of the people: in those of the former kind;

liberality; frankness and good fellowship naturally make a part

of that common character: in the latter; narrowness; meanness;

and a selfish disposition; averse to all social pleasure and

enjoyment。

     The unproductive class; that of merchants; artificers; and

manufacturers; is maintained and employed altogether at the

expense of the two other classes; of that of proprietors; and of

that of cultivators。 They furnish it both with the materials of

its work and with the fund of its subsistence; with the corn and

cattle which it consumes while it is employed about that work。

The proprietors and cultivators finally pay both the wages of all

the workmen of the unproductive class; and of the profits of all

their employers。 Those workmen and their employers are properly

the servants of the proprietors and cultivators。 They are only

servants who work without doors; as menial servants work within。

Both the one and the other; however; are equally maintained at

the expense of the same masters。 The labour of both is equally

unproductive。 It adds nothing to the value of the sum total of

the rude produce of the land。 Instead of increasing the value of

that sum total; it is a charge and expense which must be paid out

of it。

     The unproductive class; however; is not only useful; but

greatly useful to the other two classes。 By means of the industry

of merchants; artificers; and manufacturers; the proprietors and

cultivators can purchase both the foreign goods and the

manufactured produce of their own country which they have

occasion for with the produce of a much smaller quantity of their

own labour than what they would be obliged to employ if they were

to attempt; in an awkward and unskilful manner; either to import

the one or to make the other for their own use。 By means of the

unproductive class; the cultivators are delivered from many cares

which would otherwise distract their attention from the

cultivation of land。 The superiority of produce; which; in

consequence of this undivided attention; they are enabled to

raise; is fully sufficient to pay the whole expense which the

maintenance and employment of the unproductive class costs either

the proprietors or themselves。 The industry of merchants;

artificers; and manufacturers; though in its own nature

altogether unproductive; yet contributes in this manner

indirectly to increase the produce of the land。 It increases the

productive powers of productive labour by leaving it at liberty

to confine itself to its proper employment; the cultivation of

land; and the plough goes frequently the easier and the better by

means of the labour of the man whose business is most remote from

the plough。

     It can never be the interest of the proprietors and

cultivators to restrain or to discourage in any respect the

industry of merchants; artificers; and manufacturers。 The greater

the liberty which this unproductive class enjoys; the greater

will be the competition in all the different trades which compose

it; and the cheaper will the other two classes be supplied; both

with foreign goods and with the manufactured produce of their own

country。

     It can never be the interest of the unproductive class to

oppress the other two classes。 It is the surplus produce of the

land; or what remains after deducting the maintenance; first; of

the cultivators; and afterwards of the proprietors; that

maintains and employs the unproductive class。 The greater this

surplus the greater must likewise be the maintenance and

employment of that
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