Page:The wealth of nations, volume 1.djvu/179

 to the very uncertain duration of human life, in the same manner as to the more certain duration of the machine.

The difference between the wages of skilled labor and those of common labor, is founded upon this principle. The policy of Europe considers the labor of all mechanics, artificers, and manufacturers, as skilled labor; and that of all country laborers as common labor. It seems to suppose that of the former to be of a more nice and delicate nature than that of the latter. It is so perhaps in some cases; but in the greater part it is quite otherwise, as I shall endeavor to show by and by. The laws and customs of Europe, therefore, in order to qualify any person for exercising the one species of labor, impose the necessity of an apprenticeship, though with different degrees of rigor in different places. They leave the other free and open to everybody. During the continuance of the apprenticeship, the whole labor of the apprentice belongs to his master. In the meantime he must, in many cases, be maintained by his parents or relations, and in almost all cases must be clothed by them. Some money too is commonly given to the master for teaching him his trade. They who cannot give money, give time, or become bound for more than the usual number of years; a consideration which, though it is not always advantageous to the master, on account of the usual idleness of apprentices, is always disadvantageous to the apprentice. In country labor, on the contrary, the laborer, while he is employed about the easier, learns the more difficult parts of his business, and his own labor maintains him through all the different stages of his employment. It is reasonable, therefore, that in Europe the wages of mechanics, artificers, and manufacturers, should be somewhat higher than those of common laborers. They are so