G8 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

in the produce of his labour, or unless his stock was to bereplaced to him with a profit. This profit makes a seconddeduction from the produce of the labour which is employedupon land.

The produce of almost all other labour is liable to the likededuction of profits. In all arts and manufactures thegreater part of the workmen stand in need of a master to ad-vance them the materials of their work, and their wages andmaintenance till it be completed. He shares in the produceof their labour, or in the value which it adds to the materialsupon which it is bestowed; and in this share consists hisprofit.

It sometimes happens, indeed, that a single independentworkman lias stock sufficient both to purchase the materialsof his work, and to maintain himself till it be completed.He is both master and workman, and enjoys the whole pro-duce of his own labour, or the whole value which it adds tothe materials upon which it is bestowed. It includes whatare usually two distinct revenues, belonging to two distinctpersons, the profits of stock, and the wages of labour.

Such cases, however, are not very frequent, and in everypart of Europe , twenty workmen serve under a master forone that is independent; and the wages of labour are every-where understood to be, what they usually are, when the la-bourer is one person, and the owner of the stock which em-ploys him another.

What are the common wages of labour, depends every-where upon the contract usually made between those twoparties, whose interests are by no means the same. The work-men desire to get as much, the masters to give as little aspossible. The former are disposed to combine in order toraise, the latter in order to lower, the wages of labour.

It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of the twoparties must, upon all ordinary occasions, have the advantagein the dispute, and force the other into a compliance withtheir terms. The masters, being fewer in number, can com-bine much more easily; and the law, besides, authorizes, orat least does not prohibit their combinations, while it prohi-bits those of the workmen. We have no acts of parliamentagainst combining to lower the price of work; but manyagainst combining to raise it. In all such disputes the mas-ters can hold out much longer. A landlord, a farmer, a mas-ter manufacturer, or merchant, though they did not employ