Ch. xi. Bounties upoji E.vportation. 171 



namely, the one to the government to pay this 

 bounty, and the other paid in the advanced price 

 of the commodity, must either reduce the sub- 

 sistence of the labouring poor, or occasion an 

 augmentation in their pecuniary wages propor- 

 tioned to that in the pecuniary price of their 

 subsistence. So far as it operates in the one 

 way it must reduce the ability of the labouring 

 poor to educate and bring up their children, and 

 nust so far tend to restrain the population of the 

 country. So far as it operates in the other, it 

 must reduce the ability of the employers of the 

 poor to employ so great a number as they other- 

 wise might do, and must so far tend to restrain 

 the industry of the country. 



It will be readily allowed that the tax occa- 

 sioned by the bounty will have the one or the 

 other of the effects here contemplated ; but it 

 cannot be allowed that it will have both. Yet it 

 is observed, that though the tax, which that in- 

 stitution imposes upon the whole body of the 

 people, be very burdensome to those who pay it, 

 it is of very little advantage to those who receive 

 it. This is surely a contradiction. If the price 

 of labour rise in proportion to the price of wheat, 

 as is subsequently asserted, how is the labourer 

 rendered less competent to support a family ? 

 If the price of labour do not rise in proportion to 

 the price of wheat, how is it possible to maintain 

 that the landlords and farmers are not able to 

 employ more labourers on their land ? Yet in this 

 contradiction the author of the Wealth of Nations 



