THE WEALTH OK NATIONS.

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best credit there seldom borrow under five per cent. Evenprivate bankers in Edinburgh give four per cent, upon theirpromissory notes, of which payment either in whole or inpart may be demanded at pleasure. Private bankers in Lon-don give no interest for the money which is deposited withthem. There are few trades which cannot be carried on witha smaller stock in Scotland than in England. The commonrate of profit, therefore, must be somewhat greater. Thewages of labour, it has already been observed, are lower inScotland than in England. The country too is not onlymuch poorer, but the steps by which it advances to a bettercondition, for it is evidently advancing, seem to be muchslower and more tardy.

The legal rate of interest in France has not, during thecourse of the present century, been always regulated by themarket rate.* In 1720 interest was reduced from the twen-tieth to the fiftieth penny, or from five or two per cent. In1724 it was raised to the thirtieth penny, or to 3 j per cent.In 1725 it was again raised to the twentieth penny, or to fiveper cent. In 1760, during the administration of Mr. Laverdy,it was reduced to the twenty-fifth penny, or to four percent.The abbey Terray raised it afterwards to the old rate offive per cent. The supposed purpose of many of those violentreductions of interest was to prepare the way for reducingthat of the public debts; a purpose which has sometimes beenexecuted. France is perhaps in the present times not so richa country as England; and though the legal rate of interesthas in France frequently been lower than in England, themarket rate has generally been higher ; for there, as in othercountries, they have several very safe and easy methods ofevading the law. The profits of trade, I have been assuredby British merchants who had traded in both countries, arehigher in France than in England; and it is no doubt uponthis account that many British subjects choose rather to em-ploy their capitals in a country where trade is in disgrace,than in one where it is highly respected. The wages of la-bour are lower in France than in England. When you gofrom Scotland to England, the difference which you may re-mark between the dress and countenance of the common peo-ple in the one country and in the other, sufficiently indicatesthe difference in their condition. The contrast is still greaterwhen you return from France . France, though no doubt a

* See Denisart, Article Taux des Interets, tom. iii. p. 18 .

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