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THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

which he can charge them, upon the price of his drugs. Thegreater part of the apparent profit is real wages disguised inthe garb of profit.

In a small sea-port town, a little grocer will make forty orfifty per cent, upon a stock of a single hundred pounds, whilea considerable wholesale merchant in the same place willscarce make eight or ten per cent, upon a stock of ten thou-sand. The trade of the grocer may be necessary for the con-veniency of the inhabitants, and the narrowness of the marketmay not admit the employment of a larger capital in business.The man, however, must not only live by his trade, but liveby it suitably to the qualifications which it requires. Besidespossessing a little capital, he must be able to read, write, andaccount, and must be a tolerable judge too of, perhaps, fiftyor sixty different sorts of goods, their prices, qualities, andthe markets where they are to be had cheapest. He musthave all the knowledge, in short, that is necessary for a greatmerchant, which nothing hinders him from becoming butthe want of a sufficient capital. Thirty or forty pounds ayear cannot be considered as too great a recompense for thelabour of a person so accomplished. Deduct this from theseemingly great profits of his capital, and little more willremain, perhaps, than the ordinary profits of stock. Thegreater part of the apparent profit is, in this case too, realwages.

The difference between the apparent profit of the retail andthat of the wholesale trade, is much less in the capital than insmall towns and country villages. Where ten thousandpounds can be employed in the grocery trade, the wages ofthe grocer’s labour must be a very trifling addition to the realprofits of so great a stock. The apparent profits of thewealthy retailer, therefore, are there more nearly upon a levelwith those of the wholesale merchant. It is upon this ac-count that goods sold by retail are generally as cheap andfrequently much cheaper in the capital than small towns andcountry villages. Grocery goods, lor example, are generallymuch cheaper; bread and butcher’s meat frequently as cheap.It costs no more to bring grocery goods to the great town thanto the country village; but it costs a great deal more to bringcorn and cattle, as the greater part of them must be broughtfrom a much greater distance. The prime cost of grocerygoods, therefore, being the same in both places, they arecheapest, where the least profit is charged upon them. The