Ch. V. Of Poor-Lcms. 11 



clearly the wants of the society respecting popu- 

 lation ; that is, whatever may be the number of 

 children to a marriage necessary to maintain ex- 

 actly the present population, the price of labour 

 will be just sufficient to support this number, or 

 be above it, or below it, according to the state of 

 the real funds for the maintenance of labour, whe- 

 ther stationary, progressive or retrograde. In- 

 stead, however, of considering it in this light, we 

 consider it as something which we may raise or 

 depress at pleasure, something which depends 

 principally upon his Majesty's justices of the 

 peace. When an advance in the price of pro- 

 visions already expresses that the demand is too 

 great for the supply, in order to put the labourer 

 in the same condition as before, we raise the price 

 of labour, that is, we increase the demand, and 

 are then much surprised that the price of pro- 

 visions continues rising. In this we act much in 

 the same manner as if, when the quicksilver in the 

 common weather-glass stood at stormy, we were 

 to raise it by some mechanical pressure to settled 

 fair, and then be greatly astonished that it con- 

 tinued raining. 



Dr. Smith has clearly shewn, that the natural 

 tendency of a year of scarcity is either to throw 

 a number of labourers out of employment, or to 

 oblige them to work for less than they did before, 

 from the inability of masters to employ the same 

 number at the same price. The raising of the 

 price of wages tends necessarily to throw more 

 out of employment, and completely to prevent the 



