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The increase of stock, which raises wages, tends to lower profit.

When the stocks of many rich merchants are turned into the same

trade, their mutual competition naturally tends to lower its

profit; and when there is a like increase of stock in all the

different trades carried on in the same society, the same

competition must produce the same effect in them all.

It is not easy, it has already been observed, to ascertain what

are the average wages of labour, even in a particular place, and

at a particular time. We can, even in this case, seldom determine

more than what are the most usual wages. But even this can seldom

be done with regard to the profits of stock. Profit is so very

fluctuating, that the person who carries on a particular trade,

cannot always tell you himself what is the average of his annual

profit. It is affected, not only by every variation of price in

the commodities which he deals in, but by the good or bad fortune

both of his rivals and of his customers, and by a thousand other

accidents, to which goods, when carried either by sea or by land,

or even when stored in a warehouse, are liable. It varies,

therefore, not only from year to year, but from day to day, and

almost from hour to hour.