THE WEALTH OK NATIONS.

97

hat

ery

ish

ade

lve

of

be

est

to

not

ers

of

er-

the

nk-

tlie

of

let-

ter-

ace

for

ire-endf asf it,Theac-

but

ing

ne'

cw

ed'

ha 1

his

or'

c»rd

ni f

tl*

rii'

dence, is exposed. Were it not more, charity or friendshipcould be the only motives for lending.

In a country which had acquired its full complement ofriches, where in every particular branch of business there wasthe greatest quantity of stock that could be employed in it,as the ordinary rate of clear profit would be very small, sothe usual market rate of interest which could be afforded outof it would be so low as to render it impossible for any butthe very wealthiest people to live upon the interest of theirmoney. All people of small or middling fortunes would beobliged to superintend themselves the employment of theirown stocks. It would be necessary that almost every manshould be a man of business, or engage in some sort of trade.The province of Holland seems to be approaching near tothis state. It is there unfashionable not to be a man of busi-ness. Necessity makes it usual for almost every man to beso, and custom everywhere regulates fashion. As it is ridi-culous not to dress, so is it, in some measure, not to be em-ployed like other people. As a man of a civil professionseems awkward in a camp or garrison, and is even in somedanger of being despised there, so does an idle man amongmen of business.

The highest ordinary rate of profit may be such as, in theprice of the greater part of commodities, eats up the whole°f what should go to the rent of the land, and leaves onlywhat is sufficient to pay the labour of preparing and bring-mg them to market, according to the lowest rate at which la-bour can anywhere be paid, the bare subsistence of the la-bourer. The workman must always have been fed in someway or other while he was about the work; but the landlordmay not always have been paid. The profits of the tradewhich the servants of the East India company carry on inBengal may not perhaps be very far from this rate.

The proportion which the usual market rate of interest°ught to bear to the ordinary rate of clear profit, necessarilyY^ r ies as profit rises or falls. Double interest is in Greatritain reckoned, what the merchants call, a good, moderate,reasonable profit; terms which I apprehend mean no morelan a common and usual profit. In a country where theordinary rate of clear profit is eight or ten per cent, it mayo reasonable that one half of it should go to interest,w lerever business is carried on with borrowed money. The°ck is at the risk of the borrower, who, as it were, insures it