142 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OK
impartially, it would, treat the masters in the same manner.But the 8th of George III . enforces by law that very regu-lation which masters sometimes attempt to establish by suchcombinations. The complaint of the workmen, that it putsthe ablest and most industrious upon the same footing withan ordinary workman, seems perfectly well founded.
In ancient times too it was usual to attempt to regulatethe profit of merchants and other dealers, by rating the priceboth of provisions and other goods. The assize of bread is,so far as I know, the only remnant of this ancient usage.Where there is an exclusive corporation, it may perhaps beproper to regulate the price of the first necessary of life.But where there is none, the competition will regulate it muchbetter than any assize. The method of fixing the assize ofbread established by the 31st of George II . could not be putin practice in Scotland , on account of a defect in law; itsexecution depending upon the office of clerk of the market,which does not exist there. This defect was not remediedtill the 3d of George III . The want of an assize occasionedno sensible inconveniency, and the establishment of one inthe few places where it has yet taken place, has producedno sensible advantage. In the greater part of the towns ofScotland , however, there is an incorporation of bakers whoclaim exclusive privileges, though they are not very strictlyguarded.
The proportion between the different rates both of wagesand profit in the different employments of labour and stock,seems not to be much affected, as has already been observed,by the riches or poverty, the advancing, stationary, or de-clining state of the society. Such revolutions in the publicwelfare, though they affect the general rates both of wagesand profit, must in the end affect them equally in all differentemployments. The proportion between them, therefore,must remain the same, and cannot well be altered, at leastfor any considerable time, by any such revolutions.
CHAP. XI.
Of the Rent of Land.
Rent, considered as the price paid for the use of land, isnaturally the highest which the tenant can afford to pay inthe actual circumstances of the land. In adjusting the terms