120 Of the Agricultural System. Bk. iii. 



necessaries of life, and that the condition of the 

 labouring classes of society is the best. 



The only drawback to the wealth of the labour- 

 ing classes under these circumstances is the re- 

 latively low value of the raw produce. 



If a considerable part of the manufactured com- 

 modities used in such a country be purchased by 

 the export of its raw produce, it follows as a ne- 

 cessary consequence that the relative value of its 

 raw produce will be lower, and of its manufactured 

 produce higher, than in the countries with which 

 such a trade is carried on. But where a given 

 portion of raw produce will not command so much 

 of manufactured and foreign commodities as in 

 other countries, the condition of the labourer can- 

 not be exactly measured by the quantity of raw 

 produce which falls to his share. If, for instance, 

 in one country the yearly earnings of a labourer 

 amount in money value to fifteen quarters of wheat 

 and in another to nine, it would be incorrect to 

 infer that their relative condition, and the com- 

 forts which they enjoy, were in the same propor- 

 tion, because the whole of a labourer's earnings 

 are not spent in food ; and if that part which is 

 not so spent will, in the country where the value 

 of fifteen quarters is earned, not go near so far in 

 the purchase of clothes and other conveniences as 

 in the countries where the value of nine quarters 

 is earned, it is clear that altogether the situation 

 of the labourer in the latter country may approach 

 nearer to that. of the labourer in the former than 

 might at first be suj)posed. 



