118 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OE

is to be found in tlie capital of a very rich one. There is nocity in Europe , I believe, in which house-rent is dearer thanin London , and yet I know no capital in which a furnishedapartment can be hired so cheap. Lodging is not only muchcheaper in London than in Paris ; it is much cheaper than inEdinburgh of the same degree of goodness ; and what mayseem extraordinary, the dearness of house-rent is the cause ofthe cheapness of lodging. The dearness of house-rent inLondon arises, not only from those causes which render itdear in all great capitals, the dearness of labour, the dearnessof all the materials of building, which must generally bebrought from a great distance, and above all, the dearness ofground-rent, every landlord acting the part of a monopolist,and frequently exacting a higher rent for a single acre of badland in a town, than can be had for a hundred of the best inthe country; but it arises in part from the peculiar mannersand customs of the people, which oblige every master of afamily to hire a whole house from top to bottom. A dwelling-house in England means every thing that is contained underthe same roof. In France, Scotland , and many other parts ofEurope , it frequently means no more than a single story. Atradesman in London is obliged to hire a whole house in thatpart of the town where his customers live. Ills shop is uponthe ground-floor, and he and his family sleep in the garret;and lie endeavours to pay a part of his house-rent by lettingthe two middle stories to lodgers. He expects to maintain hisfamily by his trade, and not by his lodgers. Whereas, atParis and Edinburgh , the people who let lodgings have com-monly no other means of subsistence ; and the price of thelodging must pay, not only the rent of the house, but thewhole expense of the family.

PART II.

Inequalities occasioned by the Policy of Europe.

Such are the inequalities in the whole of the advantagesand disadvantages of the different employments of labour andstock, which the defect of any of the three requisites abovementioned must occasion, even where there is the most per-fect liberty. But the policy of Europe , by not leaving thingsat perfect liberty, occasions other inequalities of much greaterimportance.

It does this chiefly in the three following ways. First, by