146 Enrichment consequent on the Division of Production , fyc. [May, 
soever, who, whether advantageously or not for the society, continued to inter- 
pose himself between the original preparers of goods, and those by whom they are 
ultimately consumed. It is because through a saving of time, or labour, an 
increased power of production has been obtained, which yields a return not only 
equal, but superior to the gain of the merchants, that their business becomes a 
» 
source of general advantage, or one, indeed, which can exist at all : and not merely 
because they hare contrived to thrust themselves between consumers and produc- 
ers. If there should be no depdts in which the products of different descriptions 
of industry could he obtained by little and little, to meet the immediate wants of 
consumers, the division of production would necessarily be incomplete: the 
principles which prove the enriching consequences of the division of production, 
establish also the enriching consequences of every thing which tends further to 
facilitate this division : and it will readily be seen, that, when different classes of 
producers devote themselves exclusively to the wholesale production, each of 
one description of wares, while the consumption effected by each individual in 
the society, is that of a small quantity of a vast number of different products, 
there must be in existence the means of obtaining products in retail, before the 
division of production can be looked on as complete. The gains of the retail dealers, 
and of the society which employs them, proceed, in this case, from the superior 
productiveness of that industry, which is thus enabled to devote itself, exclusirely, 
to wholesale commerce and production. In the case of the retail trade, if the 
members of the community ultimately consuming goods, could obtain from one 
another, through the means of wholesale dealers, as great a quantity of products 
as they do when a class of retailers is established, they never would employ the 
retail dealers ; and the reason of the above is precisely the same as that which 
would deter the two agriculturalists, whose case we formerly considered, from 
employing the carrier between them. 
It it not, any more than in wholesale business, merely because labour happens 
to be employed in the letail trade, that men consent to give a remuneration to 
those who carry on this trade ; but, as in the case of the employment of all other 
merchants, and meie dealers in commodities, it is because the society is enriched 
by employing them, that they are enabled to make their gains. 
In what has been written, I have endeavoured to establish, and to keep con- 
stantly before the mind, the ultimate connexion with, and absolute dependence of, 
all wealth and aU revenue, whether of a primary or secondary nature; whether 
proceeding from actual reproduction, from manufactures, or from commerce, oh 
the reproductive and incremental principle: for although we have seen society 
enriched by the addition of all the wrought wares which were produced; by the 
increased net produce evolved, when men were, 'through the means of the division 
° ., Pr “i UC “? n ’ T 1 etl l ° tle ™ te t,lems elves exclusively to one peculiar business; 
and although we have marked the further enrichment, and evolvement of general^ 
peculiar income, which follows the establishment of the mercantile class ; still 
we cannot forget that it is this paramount principle of reproduction and increase, 
which yields, m the first instance to the cultivator, that which forms his income; 
and which affords support, not only to him and his, but of which the excess, pass- 
sunnorT h,s hands > “ change for wrought products, yields periodically the 
sides wh ! basis of the income of the manufacturer; and which, be- 
— • - — 
the income of those classes als’o who ~ 
