The same for our Product; Mines and Pits are drained by Engines and Aquæducts instead of Hands: The Husbandman turns up the Ground with his Sullow, not digs it with his Spade; covers his Grain with the Harrow, not with the Rake; brings home his Harvest with Carts, not on Mens Backs; and many other easier Methods are used, both for improving of Land, and raising its Product, which lessen the Number of Labourers, and make Room for better Wages to be given those that are employed.
Nor am I of their Opinion, who think the running down the Price of our Growth and Product, that so they may buy Provisions cheap, an Advantage to the inland Trade of this Kingdom, but of the contrary.
To understand this rightly, let us begin with the Shop-keeper, or Buyer and Seller, who is the Wheel whereon the inland Trade turns, as he buys of the Importer and Manufacturer, and sells again to the Country; suppose this Man spends two hundred Pounds per Annum, in all Things necessary for himself and Family, as Provisions, Cloaths, House-Rent, and other Expences, the Question will be, what Part of this is laid out in Flesh, Corn, Butter, Cheese, &c. barely considered according to their first cost in the Market? I presume fifty or sixty Pounds per Annum to be the most, whereon the Advance to him will not be so much, by keeping up our Product to a good Rate, as the Profits which will consequently arise in his Trade will amount unto: For by this Means the Farmer will be enabled to give a better Rent to his Landlord, who may then keep a more plentiful Table, spend more Wine, Fruit, Sugar, Spices, and other Things wherewith he is furnished from the City, suit himself and his Family oftner, and carry on a great Splendor in every Thing; the Farmer according to his Condition may do the same, and give higher Wages to the Labourers imployed in Husbandry, who may then live better, and buy new Cloathes oftner, instead of patching up old ones; by this means the Manufacturers will be encouraged to give a better Price for Wool and Labour, when they shall find a Vent as fast as they can make; and a Flux of Wealth causing a Variety of Fashions, will add Wings to their Inventions, when they shall see their Manufactures advanced in their Values by the Buyer’s Fancy; this likewise will encourage the Merchants to encrease their Exports, when they shall find a quick Vent for their Imports; by which regular Circulation, Payments will be short, and all will grow rich; but when Trade deadens in the Fountain, when the Gentlemen and the Farmers are kept low, every one in his Order feels it: It being most certain, and grounded on the Observation of all Men who have lookt into it, that in those Countries where Provisions are Cheap, the People are generally Poor, both proceeding from the want of Trade; so that he who will give a right Judgment in this Matter, must not consider Things only as they offer themselves at the first Sight, but as they will be in their Consequences.
As to the other Part of Great Britain, called Scotland, I can say little with Relation to this Matter, my Knowledge of that part of the Kingdom being not sufficient to enable me to do it: But I am apt to believe, that the same general Maxim must hold good there also, viz. That the Rates of Labour must be according to the Prices of Provisions, and those according to the Rents of the Lands.
The Poor.Having thus gone through the State of the Nation with respect to its Trade, I will next consider it with respect to the Poor.
And here it cannot but seem strange, that this Kingdom, which so much abounds in Product and Manufactures, besides the Imployment given in Navigation, should want work for any of its People; the Dutch, who have little of the two former, if compared with us, and do not exceed us in the latter, suffer no Beggars; whereas we, whose Wealth consists in the Labour of our Inhabitants, seem to encourage them in an idle way of Living, contrary to their own and the Nations Interest.
The Curse under which Man first fell, was Labour; That by the Sweat of his Brows he should eat his Bread: This is a state of Happiness, if compared to that which attends Idleness: He that walks the Streets of London, and observes the Fatigues used by Beggars, to make themselves seem Objects of Charity, must conclude, that they take more Pains than an honest Man doth at his Trade, and yet seem not to get Bread to eat: Beggary is now become an Art or Mystery, to which Children are brought up from their Cradles; any thing that may move Compassion is made a Livelyhood, a sore Leg or Arm, or for want thereof a pretended one; the Tricks and Devices I have observed to be used by these People, have often made me think, that those Parts, if better employed, might be made useful to the Nation.
Here I will consider,
1. What hath been the Cause of this Mischief of Idleness, and how it hath crept in upon us.
2. What must be done to restrain its going farther.