258 Confideraitons on ReguJjtivg the Value of Labour. . Aug. 



conflant and convenient market of the town, to the more uncer- 

 tain, remote, and difagreeable maiket of an uncultivated coun- 

 try. Nor muil it be forgotten, that 



2. When the llcillcd labourer has removed to this new ii^Xd.y 

 \it fuffers much anxiety and fatigue, and undergoes numerous 

 difficulties and difappointirjents, before he "can take his tools in 

 his hands. The houfe he has engaged to build may perhaps be 

 many miles from the fpor where he was lait at work, and may 

 be a confiderable diilance from his own dwelling. He has firit 

 to tranfport his planks, fcaflblding, tools, and all the other 

 accompaniments of his labo\ir. He has to lay the foundation 

 ilone on an unfliekered heath, far perhaps from the habitations 

 of men, expofed to the frequent inclemencies of the weather, 

 without a Ihed to fave him from the v.'et, or \o fcreen him from 

 the wind ; in fliort, deftitute of all thofe conveniences which 

 adminillered to his accommodation in the tov.'n. 



Thefe circumrtances, it is obvious, mult be compenfated for 

 by an increafe of wages. But, above all, lie mull be remuner- 

 ated for the inconvenience he is obliged to fubmit to in leaving 

 his family. It has been well obferved, * that of all luggage, 

 man is the mod difficult to be tranfported. ' This obfervation is 

 julb, when only a few miles conilitute the diftance. Whether 

 the fite of the building is fo remote from the place of his dwell- 

 ing, that the workman is forced to abfent himfelf from his fa- 

 mily during the continuance of work, or whether it is only fo 

 far dillant as to oblige him to walk three or four miles to and 

 from the place, before and after his daily labour, (inftances of 

 which occur frequently), an increafed reward is the only pre- 

 mium which can tempt him to fubmit to fuch painful exertions. 

 It may be faid, that the dread of wanting employment will in- 

 duce him to put up with thefe inconveniences, without railing 

 liis wages. This is in facf a diminution in the rate of labour ; 

 but it will only occur in thofe places already well peopled, and 

 advanced in cultivation arid improvement, fuch as the Highlands 

 luill be at fome future period, but fuch as they are not at prefent. 

 Improvements have only commenced there ; the competition is 

 rather among the employers, than the workmen ; and when that 

 is the cafe, v/ages muil neccnarily rife ;— until the landed proprie- 

 tors, having advanced confiderably in the improvement of their 

 cilates, and workmen having become plentiful,' attradted by the 

 liberal reward, the fupply is thus brought on a level with the 

 demand, and a competition gradually is produced among the ^ 

 labourers. 



3. Dr Smith mentions, that the impoffibility of executing 

 malbn-work in foul wCuthcrj is a caufc of the incre: fad wages c^" 



labourciq 



