124 Of the Agricultural System. Bk. iii. 



and want of skill which usually accompany such 

 a state of things tend further to render all wrought 

 commodities comparatively dear. In home manu- 

 factures, therefore, a great relative disadvantage 

 will be suffered, and a still greater both in the raw 

 and manufactured produce of foreign countries. 

 The value of the food which the Irish labourer 

 earns above what he and his family consume will 

 go but a very little way in the purchase of clothing, 

 lodging and other conveniences ; and the conse- 

 quence is that his condition in these respects is 

 extremely miserable, at the same time that his 

 means of subsistence, such as they are, may be 

 comparatively abundant. 



In Ireland the money price of labour is not 

 much more than the half of what it is in England. 

 The quantity of food earned by no means makes 

 up for its very low price. A certain portion 

 therefore of the Irish labourer's wages (a fourth 

 or a fifth for instance) will go but a very little 

 way in the purchase of manufactures and foreign 

 produce. In the United States, on the other hand, 

 even the money wages of labour are nearly double 

 those of England. Though the American labourer 

 therefore cannot purchase manufactures and fo- 

 reign produce with the food that he earns so 

 cheap as the English labourer, yet the greater 

 quantity of this food more than makes up for its 

 lower price. His condition, compared with the 

 labouring classes of England, though it may not 

 be so much superior as their relative means of 

 (subsistence might indicate, inust still on the whole 



