A Treatise on the Industry of Nations, or Volume 2; On Distribution, Consumption and Taxation (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1839 Excerpt: ...poverty, can be expected by that man who has no knowledge of the arts of life, or, even if he have this knowledge, when he must hire his lodging, his furniture, his tools, and pay for them out of his earnings, with, perhaps, interest of money advanced upon the pledge of his clothing; or a repayment with a large profit for the advance of subsistence until his labour is completed and his earnings come in, as is the custom in some countries? With such deductions from the earnings of labour, a man cannot expect to have a great deal left for himself; much less for his comfortable support. One may affirm that a moderate enjoyment of life cannot be anticipated unless a man have of his own, a dwelling, furniture, clothing, tools, and a supply of food sufficient to maintain him until the returns from his labour come in; or property yielding productively in some other shape an equivalent to the payment which must be made for the hire of these. We frequently see artisans and others, without any property, gaining sufficient for a comfortable subsistence by their labour. But in these instances we generally find, that they have served a long and expensive apprenticeship, and are thus enabled to procure a higher rate of wages than they otherwise would have been able to earn. Some persons, indeed, have wages given them from kind feeling or other motives on the part of their employers, which are rather proportionate to their wants, and for the purpose of enabling them to maintain themselves in comfort, than to what they might be had for, if their pay were regulated only by the demand and supply of their labour. These cases, however, do not invalidate the general principle that the earnings of common or unskilful labour are insufficient, under natural circumstances, to yield...