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In the ordinary variations of the prices of provisions, those two

opposite causes seem to counterbalance one another, which is

probably, in part, the reason why the wages of labour are

everywhere so much more steady and permanent than the price of

provisions.

The increase in the wages of labour necessarily increases the

price of many commodities, by increasing that part of it which

resolves itself into wages, and so far tends to diminish their

consumption, both at home and abroad. The same cause, however,

which raises the wages of labour, the increase of stock, tends to

increase its productive powers, and to make a smaller quantity of

labour produce a greater quantity of work. The owner of the stock

which employs a great number of labourers necessarily endeavours,

for his own advantage, to make such a proper division and

distribution of employment, that they may be enabled to produce

the greatest quantity of work possible. For the same reason, he

endeavours to supply them with the best machinery which either he

or they can think of. What takes place among the labourers in a

particular workhouse, takes place, for the same reason, among

those of a great society.