Ciiap. XV. Appendix.
187
On the Price of Products, compared with the Expense
OF RAISING THEM.
It is propofed, here, to give fome general idea of the value or priceof particular produ&s, and of the expenfe of railing them, at dif-ferent periods.
At the acceflion of his prefent Majefty, the money price of all thekinds of labour employed in Scottifh agriculture, was not one-third,in many diftridts not one-fourth part, of its prefent amount. In theSouthern counties, both the wages and maintenance of farm-fervantadid not exceed ten pounds a-vear; and a day labourer could earnonly from 8d, to lod. (rarely is.} a-day, according to his ftrengthor dexterity in working, and to the different feafons of the year.In the middle divifion of Scotland , farm fervants, at an average, didnot draw eight pounds a-year, feldom above feven, for both theirfee and maintenance; and in the Northern counties and ifland?,both thefe articles feldom exceeded five pounds. Day labourers, iuthe middle divifion, were not regularly employed ; and their wholewages were from 5 d. to 7 d., rarely 8d, a-day. Lime was little ufedas a manure, and did not coft above a fourth part of its prefentpuce. Street and farm dung (when fold, which happened but fel-dom) did not yield one-fixth part ; feldom amounted to an eighthof the fum at which a farmer is now eager to purchafe them. Thatof farm utenfils, from the low price of wood and iron, and the fmallwages paid to the artificers employed, was not an eighth part oftheir prefent money price, at an average of Scotland ; and i'uppof-■ag them to have been as good as they are at prefent, would nothave exceeded one-fourth of their prefent amount. The capital ofa farmer, who rented a given extent of arable land, (fuppofe io»acres) in the way in which he (locked his farm, with hories, blackcattle, and (beep, (for he generally raifed all the three kinds of live®°ck), feldom exceeded an eighth part of the value of its prefentamount; and if he had poffeffed the fame live (lock and other arti-dcs, would alfo have been below a fifth of the nominal value forwhich he could now fell it. But the real price of labour, and ofaN commodities, is different from their money price ; the value ofail human property is relative and variable ; and by the increase ofand industry, and the higher reward, or real price of labour,Cotwithllanding the depreciation of money, the farmers, (thoughWcy pay three, four, five, nay, in many cafes fix times as muck