Pagina 151 de 2651

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 with materials which cost only half the price

of those commonly made use of, may, with good management, enjoy

the advantage of his discovery as long as he lives, and even

leave it as a legacy to his posterity. His extraordinary gains

arise from the high price which is paid for his private labour.

They properly consist in the high wages of that labour. But as

they are repeated upon every part of his stock, and as their

whole amount bears, upon that account, a regular proportion to

it, they are commonly considered as extraordinary profits of

stock.

Such enhancements of the market price are evidently the effects

of particular accidents, of which, however, the operation may

sometimes last for many years together.