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TIIK NATURE AND CAUSES OF
First, I shall endeavour to explain what are the circum-stances which natural Iv determine the rate of wages, and inwhat manner those circumstances are affected by the richesor poverty, by the advancing, stationary, or declining state ofthe society.
Secondly, I shall endeavour to shew what are the circum-stances which naturally determine the rate of profit, and inwhat manner too those circumstances are affected by the likevariations in the state of the society.
Though pecuniary wages and profit are very different in thedifferent employments of labour and stock; yet a certain pro-portion seems commonly to take place between both the pe-cuniary wages in all the different employments of labour, andthe pecuniary profits in all the different employments of stock.This proportion, it will appear hereafter, depends partly uponthe nature of the different employments, and partly upon thedifferent laws and policy of the society in which they arecarried on. But though in many respects dependent uponthe laws and policy, this proportion seems to be little affectedby the riches or poverty of that society; by its advancing,stationary, or declining condition; but to remain the same orvery nearly the same in all those different states. I shall, inthe third place, endeavour to explain all the different circum-stances which regulate this proportion.
In the fourth and last place, I shall endeavour to shew whatare the circumstances which regulate the rent of land, andwhich either raise or lower the real price of all the differentsubstances which it produces.
CHAP. VIII.
Of the Wages of Labour.
Tiie produce of labour constitutes the natural recompenseor wages of labour.
In that original state of things, which precedes both theappropriation of land and fhe accumulation of stock, thewhole produce of labour belongs to the labourer. He hasneither landlord nor master to share with him.
Had this state continued, the wages of labour would haveaugmented with all those improvements in its productivepowers, to which the division of labour gives occasion. Allthings would gradually have become cheaper. I hey wouldhave been produced by a smaller quantity of labour; and as