31G

THE XATIII1K AM) CAUSES OE

nual produce is, it seems, three or four times greater than thewhole had been before. In the progress of improvement, rent,though it increases in proportion to the extent, diminishes inproportion to the produce of the land.

In the opulent countries of Europe , great capitals are atpresent employed in trade and manufactures. In the ancientstate, the little trade that was stirring, and the few homelyand coarse manufactures that were carried on, required butvery small capitals. These, however, must haveyieded verylarge profits. The rate of interest was nowhere less thanten per cent, and their profits must have been sufficient to af-ford this great interest. At present the rate of interest, in theimproved parts of Europe , is nowhere higher than six percent, and in some of the most improved it is so low as four,three, and two per cent. Though that part of the revenue ofthe inhabitants which is derived from the profits of stock isalways much greater in rich than in poor countries, it is be-cause the stock is much greater: in proportion to the stockthe profits are generally much less.

That part of the annual produce, therefore, which, as soonas it comes either from the ground, or from the hands of theproductive labourers, is destined for replacing a capital, is notonly much greater in rich than in poor countries, but bearsa much greater proportion to that which is immediately des-tined for constituting a revenue either as rent or as profit.The funds destined for the maintenance of productive labour,are not only much greater in the former than in the latter, butbear a much greater proportion to those which, though theymay be employed to maintain either productive or unproduc-tive hands, have generally a predilection for the latter.

The proportion between those different funds necessarilydetermines in every country the general character of the in-habitants as to industry or idleness. We are more industri-ous than our forefathers; because in the present times thefunds destined for the maintenance of industry, are muchgreater in proportion to those which are likely to be employedin the maintenance of idleness, than they were two or threecenturies ago. Our ancestors were idle for want of a suffi-cient encouragement to industry. It is better, says the pro-verb, to play for nothing, than to work for nothing. Inmercantile and manufacturing towns, where the inferiorranks of people are chiefly maintained by the employmentof capital,they are in general industrious, sober, and thriving;