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THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

annual consumption. In some employments, it has alreadybeen observed, the same quantity of industry will always pro-duce the same, or very nearly the same quantity of commodities.In the linen or woollen manufactures, for example, the samenumber of hands will annually work up very nearly the samequantity of linen and woollen cloth. The variations in themarket price of such commodities, therefore, can arise onlyfrom some accidental variation in the demand. A publicmourning raises the price of black cloth. But as the demandfor most sorts of plain linen and woollen cloth is pretty uni-form, so is likewise the price. But there are other employ-ments in which the same quantity of industry will not alwaysproduce the same quantity of commodities. The same quan-tity of industry, for example, will, in different years, producevery different quantities of corn, wine, hops, sugar, tobacco,&c. The price of such commodities, therefore, varies notonly with the variations of demand, but with the much greaterand more frequent variations of quantity, and is consequentlyextremely fluctuating. But the profit of some of the dealersmust necessarily fluctuate with the price of the commodities.The operations of the speculative merchant are principallyemployed about such commodities. lie endeavours to buythem up when he foresees that their price is likely to rise, andto sell them when it is likely to fall.

Thirdly, this equality in the whole of the advantages anddisadvantages of the different employments of labour andstock, can take place only in such as are the sole or principalemployments of those who occupy them.

When a person derives his subsistence from one employ-ment, which does not occupy the greater part of his time ;in the intervals of his leisure he is often willing to work atanother for less wages than would otherwise suit the nature olthe employment.

There still subsists in many parts of Scotland a set ofpeople called Cotters or Cottagers, though they were morefrequent some years ago than they are now. They are a sortof out-servants of the landlords and farmers. The usual re-ward which they receive from their masters is a house, a smallgarden for pot-herbs, as much grass as will feed a cow, and,perhaps, an acre or two of bad arable land. When their masterhas occasion for their labour, he gives them, besides, two pecksof oatmeal a week, worth about sixteen pence sterling. Duringa great part of the year he has little or no occasion for their