한국어 번역을 먼저 읽고, 각 문단 아래에서 애덤 스미스의 영문 원문을 펼쳐 확인할 수 있습니다.
자본의 이윤은 노동의 임금이 오르는 것과는 전혀 다른 원리로 오르거나 내린다. 노동의 임금이 오르면 자본의 이윤은 내려가는 경향이 있고, 노동의 임금이 내리면 자본의 이윤은 올라가는 경향이 있다. 그러나 자본의 이윤 자체의 일반적인 수준은 자본의 크기뿐 아니라 자본이 사용되는 방식과 그 자본 사이의 경쟁에도 달려 있다.
The rise and fall in the profits of stock depend upon the same causes with the rise and fall in the wages of labour, the increasing or declining state of the wealth of the society; but those causes affect the one and the other very differently.
같은 사회 안에서도 자본의 이윤은 자본이 사용되는 방식에 따라 크게 달라진다. 그러나 한 나라의 일반적인 이윤율을 정확하게 확인하는 것은 노동의 일반적인 임금보다 훨씬 더 어렵다. 임금은 흔히 하루나 한 주에 지급되는 금액으로 알려지지만, 이윤은 불확실하고 변동이 크며, 사업의 위험과 성공 정도에 따라 달라진다.
The increase of stock, which raises wages, tends to lower profit. When the stocks of many rich merchants are turned into the same trade, their mutual competition naturally tends to lower its profit; and when there is a like increase of stock in all the different trades carried on in the same society, the same competition must produce the same effect in them all.
사업가는 자기 자본에 대해 해마다 얼마의 이윤을 얻는지 대체로 알고 있을 수 있다. 그러나 다른 사람의 자본이 어느 정도의 이윤을 얻는지를 정확히 알기는 어렵다. 서로 다른 사업의 상태와 위험도 크게 다르기 때문이다. 따라서 일반적인 이윤율은 직접 관찰하기보다 다른 지표를 통해 간접적으로 추정해야 한다.
It is not easy, it has already been observed, to ascertain what are the average wages of labour, even in a particular place, and at a particular time. We can, even in this case, seldom determine more than what are the most usual wages. But even this can seldom be done with regard to the profits of stock. Profit is so very fluctuating, that the person who carries on a particular trade, cannot always tell you himself what is the average of his annual profit. It is affected, not only by every variation of price in the commodities which he deals in, but by the good or bad fortune both of his rivals and of his customers, and by a thousand other accidents, to which goods, when carried either by sea or by land, or even when stored in a warehouse, are liable. It varies, therefore, not only from year to year, but from day to day, and almost from hour to hour. To ascertain what is the average profit of all the different trades carried on in a great kingdom, must be much more difficult; and to judge of what it may have been formerly, or in remote periods of time, with any degree of precision, must be altogether impossible.
그 가운데 가장 좋은 지표는 화폐의 이자율이다. 화폐의 사용에 대해 보통 지급되는 이자는 자본으로 얻을 수 있는 일반적인 이윤에 따라 결정된다. 자본의 사용으로 큰 이윤을 얻을 수 있을 때에는 그 사용을 위해 더 높은 이자를 지급할 수 있고, 이윤이 낮을 때에는 높은 이자를 지급할 수 없다.
But though it may be impossible to determine, with any degree of precision, what are or were the average profits of stock, either in the present or in ancient times, some notion may be formed of them from the interest of money. It may be laid down as a maxim, that wherever a great deal can be made by the use of money, a great deal will commonly be given for the use of it; and that, wherever little can be made by it, less will commonly he given for it. Accordingly, therefore, as the usual market rate of interest varies in any country, we may be assured that the ordinary profits of stock must vary with it, must sink as it sinks, and rise as it rises. The progress of interest, therefore, may lead us to form some notion of the progress of profit.
따라서 어느 나라에서나 보통의 시장 이자율은 그 나라 자본 이윤의 일반적인 수준을 어느 정도 보여 준다. 이자율의 변동을 살피면 이윤율의 변동도 대체로 추적할 수 있다.
By the 37th of Henry VIII. all interest above ten per cent. was declared unlawful. More, it seems, had sometimes been taken before that. In the reign of Edward VI. religious zeal prohibited all interest. This prohibition, however, like all others of the same kind, is said to have produced no effect, and probably rather increased than diminished the evil of usury. The statute of Henry VIII. was revived by the 13th of Elizabeth, cap. 8. and ten per cent. continued to be the legal rate of interest till the 21st of James I. when it was restricted to eight per cent. It was reduced to six per cent. soon after the Restoration, and by the 12th of Queen Anne, to five per cent. All these different statutory regulations seem to have been made with great propriety. They seem to have followed, and not to have gone before, the market rate of interest, or the rate at which people of good credit usually borrowed. Since the time of Queen Anne, five per cent. seems to have been rather above than below the market rate. Before the late war, the government borrowed at three per cent.; and people of good credit in the capital, and in many other parts of the kingdom, at three and a-half, four, and four and a-half per cent.
영국에서는 헨리 8세 시대에 법정 이자율이 10퍼센트로 정해졌다. 그 뒤 에드워드 6세 시대에는 모든 이자가 금지되었다가, 엘리자베스 시대에 다시 10퍼센트로 허용되었다. 제임스 1세 시대에는 8퍼센트로, 찰스 2세 시대에는 6퍼센트로, 앤 여왕 시대에는 5퍼센트로 낮아졌다. 이 법정 이자율의 점진적인 하락은 자본 이윤의 일반적인 하락을 나타내는 듯하다.
Since the time of Henry VIII. the wealth and revenue of the country have been continually advancing, and in the course of their progress, their pace seems rather to have been gradually accelerated than retarded. They seem not only to have been going on, but to have been going on faster and faster. The wages of labour have been continually increasing during the same period, and, in the greater part of the different branches of trade and manufactures, the profits of stock have been diminishing.
법정 이자율은 보통 시장 이자율보다 약간 높게 정해진다. 그렇지 않으면 정직한 사람들은 법을 어기지 않고서는 돈을 빌려 줄 수 없게 된다. 따라서 법정 이자율의 하락은 일반적인 시장 이자율이 이미 낮아졌음을 전제로 한다.
It generally requires a greater stock to carry on any sort of trade in a great town than in a country village. The great stocks employed in every branch of trade, and the number of rich competitors, generally reduce the rate of profit in the former below what it is in the latter. But the wages of labour are generally higher in a great town than in a country village. In a thriving town, the people who have great stocks to employ, frequently cannot get the number of workmen they want, and therefore bid against one another, in order to get as many as they can, which raises the wages of labour, and lowers the profits of stock. In the remote parts of the country, there is frequently not stock sufficient to employ all the people, who therefore bid against one another, in order to get employment, which lowers the wages of labour, and raises the profits of stock.
네덜란드는 영국보다 더 부유하고 자본이 더 많이 축적된 나라였기 때문에 이자율도 더 낮았다. 그곳에서는 신용이 좋은 사람이 3퍼센트로 돈을 빌리는 일이 흔했고, 정부는 그보다 낮은 이율로도 자금을 조달할 수 있었다.
In Scotland, though the legal rate of interest is the same as in England, the market rate is rather higher. People of the best credit there seldom borrow under five per cent. Even private bankers in Edinburgh give four per cent. upon their promissory-notes, of which payment, either in whole or in part may be demanded at pleasure. Private bankers in London give no interest for the money which is deposited with them. There are few trades which cannot be carried on with a smaller stock in Scotland than in England. The common rate of profit, therefore, must be somewhat greater. The wages of labour, it has already been observed, are lower in Scotland than in England. The country, too, is not only much poorer, but the steps by which it advances to a better condition, for it is evidently advancing, seem to be much slower and more tardy. The legal rate of interest in France has not during the course of the present century, been always regulated by the market rate {See Denisart, Article Taux des Interests, tom. iii, p.13}. In 1720, interest was reduced from the twentieth to the fiftieth penny, or from five to two per cent. In 1724, it was raised to the thirtieth penny, or to three and a third per cent. In 1725, it was again raised to the twentieth penny, or to five per cent. In 1766, during the administration of Mr Laverdy, it was reduced to the twenty-fifth penny, or to four per cent. The Abbé Terray raised it afterwards to the old rate of five per cent. The supposed purpose of many of those violent reductions of interest was to prepare the way for reducing that of the public debts; a purpose which has sometimes been executed. France is, perhaps, in the present times, not so rich a country as England; and though the legal rate of interest has in France frequently been lower than in England, the market rate has generally been higher; for there, as in other countries, they have several very safe and easy methods of evading the law. The profits of trade, I have been assured by British merchants who had traded in both countries, are higher in France than in England; and it is no doubt upon this account, that many British subjects chuse rather to employ their capitals in a country where trade is in disgrace, than in one where it is highly respected. The wages of labour are lower in France than in England. When you go from Scotland to England, the difference which you may remark between the dress and countenance of the common people in the one country and in the other, sufficiently indicates the difference in their condition. The contrast is still greater when you return from France. France, though no doubt a richer country than Scotland, seems not to be going forward so fast. It is a common and even a popular opinion in the country, that it is going backwards; an opinion which I apprehend, is ill-founded, even with regard to France, but which nobody can possibly entertain with regard to Scotland, who sees the country now, and who saw it twenty or thirty years ago.
반대로 자본이 부족하고 부가 빠르게 늘어나는 식민지에서는 이윤율이 높고 이자율도 높다. 북아메리카의 많은 지역에서는 법정 이자율이 6퍼센트였지만, 실제로는 그보다 높은 이율이 흔히 지급되었다. 자본 수요가 크고 사용할 기회가 많기 때문이다.
The province of Holland, on the other hand, in proportion to the extent of its territory and the number of its people, is a richer country than England. The government there borrow at two per cent. and private people of good credit at three. The wages of labour are said to be higher in Holland than in England, and the Dutch, it is well known, trade upon lower profits than any people in Europe. The trade of Holland, it has been pretended by some people, is decaying, and it may perhaps be true that some particular branches of it are so; but these symptoms seem to indicate sufficiently that there is no general decay. When profit diminishes, merchants are very apt to complain that trade decays, though the diminution of profit is the natural effect of its prosperity, or of a greater stock being employed in it than before. During the late war, the Dutch gained the whole carrying trade of France, of which they still retain a very large share. The great property which they possess both in French and English funds, about forty millions, it is said in the latter (in which, I suspect, however, there is a considerable exaggeration ), the great sums which they lend to private people, in countries where the rate of interest is higher than in their own, are circumstances which no doubt demonstrate the redundancy of their stock, or that it has increased beyond what they can employ with tolerable profit in the proper business of their own country; but they do not demonstrate that that business has decreased. As the capital of a private man, though acquired by a particular trade, may increase beyond what he can employ in it, and yet that trade continue to increase too, so may likewise the capital of a great nation.
새로 개척되는 나라에서는 임금과 이윤이 동시에 높을 수 있다. 노동이 부족하여 임금이 높고, 자본도 부족하여 이윤이 높기 때문이다. 그러나 나라가 발전하고 자본이 축적되면 노동 수요는 계속 늘어 임금은 오를 수 있지만, 자본 사이의 경쟁은 이윤을 낮추는 방향으로 작용한다.
In our North American and West Indian colonies, not only the wages of labour, but the interest of money, and consequently the profits of stock, are higher than in England. In the different colonies, both the legal and the market rate of interest run from six to eight percent. High wages of labour and high profits of stock, however, are things, perhaps, which scarce ever go together, except in the peculiar circumstances of new colonies. A new colony must always, for some time, be more understocked in proportion to the extent of its territory, and more underpeopled in proportion to the extent of its stock, than the greater part of other countries. They have more land than they have stock to cultivate. What they have, therefore, is applied to the cultivation only of what is most fertile and most favourably situated, the land near the sea-shore, and along the banks of navigable rivers. Such land, too, is frequently purchased at a price below the value even of its natural produce. Stock employed in the purchase and improvement of such lands, must yield a very large profit, and, consequently, afford to pay a very large interest. Its rapid accumulation in so profitable an employment enables the planter to increase the number of his hands faster than he can find them in a new settlement. Those whom he can find, therefore, are very liberally rewarded. As the colony increases, the profits of stock gradually diminish. When the most fertile and best situated lands have been all occupied, less profit can be made by the cultivation of what is inferior both in soil and situation, and less interest can be afforded for the stock which is so employed. In the greater part of our colonies, accordingly, both the legal and the market rate of interest have been considerably reduced during the course of the present century. As riches, improvement, and population, have increased, interest has declined. The wages of labour do not sink with the profits of stock. The demand for labour increases with the increase of stock, whatever be its profits; and after these are diminished, stock may not only continue to increase, but to increase much faster than before. It is with industrious nations, who are advancing in the acquisition of riches, as with industrious individuals. A great stock, though with small profits, generally increases faster than a small stock with great profits. Money, says the proverb, makes money. When you have got a little, it is often easy to get more. The great difficulty is to get that little. The connection between the increase of stock and that of industry, or of the demand for useful labour, has partly been explained already, but will be explained more fully hereafter, in treating of the accumulation of stock.
부유한 나라에서는 거의 모든 사업 분야에 많은 자본이 몰려 있다. 같은 사업을 하려는 자본가들이 많기 때문에 서로 경쟁하며, 이 경쟁이 상품 가격에서 이윤 몫을 낮춘다. 따라서 자본이 축적될수록 일반적인 이윤율은 자연스럽게 내려가는 경향이 있다.
The acquisition of new territory, or of new branches of trade, may sometimes raise the profits of stock, and with them the interest of money, even in a country which is fast advancing in the acquisition of riches. The stock of the country, not being sufficient for the whole accession of business which such acquisitions present to the different people among whom it is divided, is applied to those particular branches only which afford the greatest profit. Part of what had before been employed in other trades, is necessarily withdrawn from them, and turned into some of the new and more profitable ones. In all those old trades, therefore, the competition comes to be less than before. The market comes to be less fully supplied with many different sorts of goods. Their price necessarily rises more or less, and yields a greater profit to those who deal in them, who can, therefore, afford to borrow at a higher interest. For some time after the conclusion of the late war, not only private people of the best credit, but some of the greatest companies in London, commonly borrowed at five per cent. who, before that, had not been used to pay more than four, and four and a half per cent. The great accession both of territory and trade by our acquisitions in North America and the West Indies, will sufficiently account for this, without supposing any diminution in the capital stock of the society. So great an accession of new business to be carried on by the old stock, must necessarily have diminished the quantity employed in a great number of particular branches, in which the competition being less, the profits must have been greater. I shall hereafter have occasion to mention the reasons which dispose me to believe that the capital stock of Great Britain was not diminished, even by the enormous expense of the late war.
한 나라가 더 이상 부유해지지 않고 정체되어 있다면 자본도 늘지 않으며, 노동 수요도 크게 늘지 않는다. 이런 상태에서는 임금은 낮은 수준에 머물 수 있지만, 자본의 이윤은 반드시 높은 것은 아니다. 이미 축적된 자본 사이의 경쟁이 계속되기 때문이다.
The diminution of the capital stock of the society, or of the funds destined for the maintenance of industry, however, as it lowers the wages of labour, so it raises the profits of stock, and consequently the interest of money. By the wages of labour being lowered, the owners of what stock remains in the society can bring their goods at less expense to market than before; and less stock being employed in supplying the market than before, they can sell them dearer. Their goods cost them less, and they get more for them. Their profits, therefore, being augmented at both ends, can well afford a large interest. The great fortunes so suddenly and so easily acquired in Bengal and the other British settlements in the East Indies, may satisfy us, that as the wages of labour are very low, so the profits of stock are very high in those ruined countries. The interest of money is proportionably so. In Bengal, money is frequently lent to the farmers at forty, fifty, and sixty per cent. and the succeeding crop is mortgaged for the payment. As the profits which can afford such an interest must eat up almost the whole rent of the landlord, so such enormous usury must in its turn eat up the greater part of those profits. Before the fall of the Roman republic, a usury of the same kind seems to have been common in the provinces, under the ruinous administration of their proconsuls. The virtuous Brutus lent money in Cyprus at eight-and-forty per cent. as we learn from the letters of Cicero.
중국은 매우 부유하지만 오랫동안 정체된 나라의 사례로 볼 수 있다. 그곳에서는 노동 임금은 낮지만, 자본 이윤은 유럽의 부유한 나라보다 높다고 알려져 있다. 이는 법과 제도가 자본 축적과 경쟁의 완전한 작동을 방해하기 때문일 수 있다.
In a country which had acquired that full complement of riches which the nature of its soil and climate, and its situation with respect to other countries, allowed it to acquire, which could, therefore, advance no further, and which was not going backwards, both the wages of labour and the profits of stock would probably be very low. In a country fully peopled in proportion to what either its territory could maintain, or its stock employ, the competition for employment would necessarily be so great as to reduce the wages of labour to what was barely sufficient to keep up the number of labourers, and the country being already fully peopled, that number could never be augmented. In a country fully stocked in proportion to all the business it had to transact, as great a quantity of stock would be employed in every particular branch as the nature and extent of the trade would admit. The competition, therefore, would everywhere be as great, and, consequently, the ordinary profit as low as possible.
반대로 부가 줄어드는 나라에서는 자본의 일부가 사라지고, 남은 자본이 사용할 수 있는 사업 기회는 줄어든다. 그러나 자본 자체도 줄어들기 때문에 경우에 따라 이윤이 높아질 수 있다. 특히 법과 질서가 불안하고 위험이 큰 곳에서는 높은 이윤이 위험에 대한 보상으로 요구된다.
But, perhaps, no country has ever yet arrived at this degree of opulence. China seems to have been long stationary, and had, probably, long ago acquired that full complement of riches which is consistent with the nature of its laws and institutions. But this complement may be much inferior to what, with other laws and institutions, the nature of its soil, climate, and situation, might admit of. A country which neglects or despises foreign commerce, and which admits the vessel of foreign nations into one or two of its ports only, cannot transact the same quantity of business which it might do with different laws and institutions. In a country, too, where, though the rich, or the owners of large capitals, enjoy a good deal of security, the poor, or the owners of small capitals, enjoy scarce any, but are liable, under the pretence of justice, to be pillaged and plundered at any time by the inferior mandarins, the quantity of stock employed in all the different branches of business transacted within it, can never be equal to what the nature and extent of that business might admit. In every different branch, the oppression of the poor must establish the monopoly of the rich, who, by engrossing the whole trade to themselves, will be able to make very large profits. Twelve per cent. accordingly, is said to be the common interest of money in China, and the ordinary profits of stock must be sufficient to afford this large interest.
자본의 이윤은 언제나 어느 정도 위험과 수고에 대한 보상을 포함한다. 그러나 보통 사업에서 얻는 이윤 전체가 모두 기업가의 노동 보수는 아니다. 상당 부분은 단지 자본 소유에 대한 보수다.
A defect in the law may sometimes raise the rate of interest considerably above what the condition of the country, as to wealth or poverty, would require. When the law does not enforce the performance of contracts, it puts all borrowers nearly upon the same footing with bankrupts, or people of doubtful credit, in better regulated countries. The uncertainty of recovering his money makes the lender exact the same usurious interest which is usually required from bankrupts. Among the barbarous nations who overran the western provinces of the Roman empire, the performance of contracts was left for many ages to the faith of the contracting parties. The courts of justice of their kings seldom intermeddled in it. The high rate of interest which took place in those ancient times, may, perhaps, be partly accounted for from this cause.
어떤 사업의 이윤이 특별히 높아 보일 때에는 흔히 그 사업이 특별한 위험이나 불쾌함, 또는 불확실성을 지니기 때문이다. 이러한 차이는 다음 장에서 더 자세히 설명할 수 있다.
When the law prohibits interest altogether, it does not prevent it. Many people must borrow, and nobody will lend without such a consideration for the use of their money as is suitable, not only to what can be made by the use of it, but to the difficulty and danger of evading the law. The high rate of interest among all Mahometan nations is accounted for by M. Montesquieu, not from their poverty, but partly from this, and partly from the difficulty of recovering the money.
자본의 일반적인 이윤율은 사회의 부가 증가함에 따라 낮아지는 경향이 있지만, 그 하락에는 한계가 있다. 이윤이 지나치게 낮아지면 사람들은 사업의 위험과 수고를 감수하려 하지 않을 것이고, 자본은 생산적인 용도에서 빠져나갈 것이다.
The lowest ordinary rate of profit must always be something more than what is sufficient to compensate the occasional losses to which every employment of stock is exposed. It is this surplus only which is neat or clear profit. What is called gross profit, comprehends frequently not only this surplus, but what is retained for compensating such extraordinary losses. The interest which the borrower can afford to pay is in proportion to the clear profit only. The lowest ordinary rate of interest must, in the same manner, be something more than sufficient to compensate the occasional losses to which lending, even with tolerable prudence, is exposed. Were it not, mere charity or friendship could be the only motives for lending.
마찬가지로 이자율에도 최저 한계가 있다. 이자가 지나치게 낮으면 돈을 빌려 주는 사람은 위험과 불편을 감수할 이유가 없게 된다. 따라서 이자는 언제나 어느 정도의 위험 보상과 관리 비용을 포함해야 한다.
In a country which had acquired its full complement of riches, where, in every particular branch of business, there was the greatest quantity of stock that could be employed in it, as the ordinary rate of clear profit would be very small, so the usual market rate of interest which could be afforded out of it would be so low as to render it impossible for any but the very wealthiest people to live upon the interest of their money. All people of small or middling fortunes would be obliged to superintend themselves the employment of their own stocks. It would be necessary that almost every man should be a man of business, or engage in some sort of trade. The province of Holland seems to be approaching near to this state. It is there unfashionable not to be a man of business. Necessity makes it usual for almost every man to be so, and custom everywhere regulates fashion. As it is ridiculous not to dress, so is it, in some measure, not to be employed like other people. As a man of a civil profession seems awkward in a camp or a garrison, and is even in some danger of being despised there, so does an idle man among men of business.
이윤율이 낮은 부유한 나라에서는 작은 가격 변동도 상인에게 큰 영향을 미친다. 이윤의 몫이 작기 때문에 약간의 손실만 있어도 전체 이윤이 사라질 수 있다. 따라서 상인은 거래량을 크게 늘리고 더 세밀하게 계산하며 비용을 줄이려 한다.
The highest ordinary rate of profit may be such as, in the price of the greater part of commodities, eats up the whole of what should go to the rent of the land, and leaves only what is sufficient to pay the labour of preparing and bringing them to market, according to the lowest rate at which labour can anywhere be paid, the bare subsistence of the labourer. The workman must always have been fed in some way or other while he was about the work, but the landlord may not always have been paid. The profits of the trade which the servants of the East India Company carry on in Bengal may not, perhaps, be very far from this rate.
이윤율이 높은 나라에서는 상인이 적은 거래만으로도 큰 이익을 얻을 수 있으므로, 비용 절감이나 세밀한 관리에 덜 주의를 기울일 수 있다. 높은 이윤은 때때로 낭비와 부주의를 낳는다.
The proportion which the usual market rate of interest ought to bear to the ordinary rate of clear profit, necessarily varies as profit rises or falls. Double interest is in Great Britain reckoned what the merchants call a good, moderate, reasonable profit; terms which, I apprehend, mean no more than a common and usual profit. In a country where the ordinary rate of clear profit is eight or ten per cent. it may be reasonable that one half of it should go to interest, wherever business is carried on with borrowed money. The stock is at the risk of the borrower, who, as it were, insures it to the lender; and four or five per cent. may, in the greater part of trades, be both a sufficient profit upon the risk of this insurance, and a sufficient recompence for the trouble of employing the stock. But the proportion between interest and clear profit might not be the same in countries where the ordinary rate of profit was either a good deal lower, or a good deal higher. If it were a good deal lower, one half of it, perhaps, could not be afforded for interest; and more might be afforded if it were a good deal higher.
높은 이윤은 높은 임금보다 상품 가격을 더 크게 올리는 경향이 있다. 임금의 상승은 생산의 각 단계에서 노동에 지급되는 몫만 늘리지만, 이윤의 상승은 각 단계에서 이미 투입된 전체 자본에 대해 반복해서 붙기 때문이다.
In countries which are fast advancing to riches, the low rate of profit may, in the price of many commodities, compensate the high wages of labour, and enable those countries to sell as cheap as their less thriving neighbours, among whom the wages of labour may be lower.
그러므로 사회 전체의 관점에서 지나치게 높은 이윤은 높은 임금보다 더 해로울 수 있다. 높은 임금은 노동자의 생활을 개선하지만, 높은 이윤은 상품 가격을 올리고 소비자의 부담을 늘린다. 자본이 충분히 축적되고 경쟁이 활발할수록 이윤율은 낮아지고, 이는 일반적으로 사회의 생산과 소비에 유리하다.
In reality, high profits tend much more to raise the price of work than high wages. If, in the linen manufacture, for example, the wages of the different working people, the flax-dressers, the spinners, the weavers, etc. should all of them be advanced twopence a-day, it would be necessary to heighten the price of a piece of linen only by a number of twopences equal to the number of people that had been employed about it, multiplied by the number of days during which they had been so employed. That part of the price of the commodity which resolved itself into the wages, would, through all the different stages of the manufacture, rise only in arithmetical proportion to this rise of wages. But if the profits of all the different employers of those working people should be raised five per cent. that part of the price of the commodity which resolved itself into profit would, through all the different stages of the manufacture, rise in geometrical proportion to this rise of profit. The employer of the flax dressers would, in selling his flax, require an additional five per cent. upon the whole value of the materials and wages which he advanced to his workmen. The employer of the spinners would require an additional five per cent. both upon the advanced price of the flax, and upon the wages of the spinners. And the employer of the weavers would require alike five per cent. both upon the advanced price of the linen-yarn, and upon the wages of the weavers. In raising the price of commodities, the rise of wages operates in the same manner as simple interest does in the accumulation of debt. The rise of profit operates like compound interest. Our merchants and master manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price, and thereby lessening the sale of their goods, both at home and abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits; they are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains; they complain only of those of other people.