THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

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over and above bis own consumption, or what comes to thesame thing-, the price of that part of it, for manufactured pro-duce. Whatever reduces the real price of the latter, raisesthat of the former. An equal quantity of the former becomesthereby equivalent to a greater quantity of the latter; andthe landlord is enabled to purchase a greater quantity of theconveniencies, ornaments, or luxuries, which he has occa-sion for.

Every increase in the real wealth of the society, every in-crease in the quantity of useful labour employed within it,tends indirectly to raise the real rent of land. A certain pro-portion of this labour naturally goes to the land. A greaternumber of men and cattle are employed in its cultivation, theproduce increases with the increase of the stock which isthus employed in raising it, and the rent increases with theproduce.

The contrary circumstances, the neglect of cultivation andimprovement, the fall in the real price of any part of the rudeproduce of land, the rise in the real price of manufacturesfrom the decay ol manufacturing art and industry, the de-clension of the real wealth of the society, all tend, on theother hand, to lower the real rent of land, to reduce the realwealth of the landlord, to diminish his power of purchasingeither the labour, or the produce of the labour of other people.

The whole annual produce of the land and labour of everycountry, or what comes to the same thing, the whole price ofthat annual produce, naturally divides itself, it has alreadybeen observed, into three parts; the rent of land, the wagesof labour, and the profits of stock; and constitutes a revenueto three different orders of people; to those who live by rent,to those who live by wages, and to those who live by profit.These are the three great, original, and constituent orders ofevery civilized society, from whose revenue that of everyother order is ultimately derived.

The interest of the first of those three great orders, it ap-pears from what has been just now said, is strictly and inse-parably connected with the general interest of the society.Whatever either promotes or obstructs the one, necessarilypromotes or obstructs the other. When the public delibe-rates concerning any regulation of commerce or police, theproprietors of land never can mislead it, with a view to pro-mote the interest of their own particular order; at least, ifthey have any tolerable knowledge of that interest. They are,