Book I: Chapter 8 - Page 2

land.

It seldom happens that the person who tills the ground has wherewithal to
maintain himself till he reaps the harvest. His maintenance is generally
advanced to him from the stock of a master, the farmer who employs him, and
who would have no interest to employ him, unless he was to share in the
produce of his labour, or unless his stock was to be replaced to him with a
profit. This profit makes a second deduction from the produce of the labour
which is employed upon land.

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
in need of a master, to advance them the materials of their work, and their
wages and maintenance, till it be completed. He shares in the produce of
their labour, or in the value which it adds to the materials upon which it
is bestowed; and in this share consists his profit.

It sometimes happens, indeed, that a single independent workman has stock
sufficient both to purchase the materials of his work, and to maintain
himself till it be completed. He is both master and workman, and enjoys the
whole produce of his own labour, or the whole value which it adds to the
materials upon which it is bestowed. It includes what are usually two
distinct revenues, belonging to two distinct persons, the profits of stock,
and the wages of labour.

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
wages of labour are everywhere understood to be, what they usually are, when
the labourer is one person, and the owner of the stock which employs him
another.

What are the common wages of labour, depends everywhere upon the contract
usually made between those two parties, whose interests are by no means the
same. The workmen desire to get as much, the masters to give as little, as
possible. The former are disposed to combine in order to raise, the latter
in order to lower, the wages of labour.

It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of the two parties must, upon
all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the dispute, and force the
other into a compliance with their terms. The masters, being fewer in
number, can combine much more easily: and the law, besides, authorises, or
at least does not prohibit, their combinations, while it prohibits those of
the workmen. We have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the
price of work, but many against combining to raise it. In all such disputes,
the masters can hold out much longer. A landlord, a farmer, a master
manufacturer, or merchant, though they did not employ a single workman,
could generally live a year or two upon the