Ch. xiii. affects the Condition of the Poor. 223 



In the evidence brought before the House of 

 Lords during the inquiries which preceded the 

 Corn-Bill of 1815, various accounts are produced 

 from different manufactories, intended to shew 

 that the high price of corn has rather the effect of 

 lowering than of raising the price of manufac- 

 turing labour,* Adam Smith has clearly and 

 correctly stated that the money price of labour 

 depends upon the money price of provisions, and 

 the state of the demand and the supply of labour. 

 And he shews how much he thinks it is occasion- 

 ally affected by the latter cause, by explaining in 

 what manner it may vary in an opposite direction 

 from the price of provisions during the pressure of 

 a scarcity. The accounts brought before the 

 House of Lords are a striking illustration of this 

 part of his proposition ; but they certainly do not 

 prove the incorrectness of the other part of it, as 

 it is quite obvious that, whatever may take place 

 for a few years, the supply of manufacturing la- 

 bour cannot possibly be continued in the market 

 unless the natural or necessary price, that is, the 

 price necessary to continue it in the market, be 

 paid, and this of course is not done unless the 

 money price be so proportioned to the price of 

 provisions that labourers are enabled to bring up 

 families of such a size as will supply the number 

 of hands required. 



But though these accounts do not in any 

 degree invalidate the usual doctrines respecting 

 labour, or the statements of Adam Smith, they 



* Reports, p. 5 1 



