Page:The wealth of nations, volume 1.djvu/212

. They give the traders and artificers in the town an advantage over the landlords, farmers, and laborers in the country, and break down that natural equality which would otherwise take place in the commerce which is carried on between them. The whole annual produce of the labor of the society is annually divided between those two different sets of people. By means of those regulations a greater share of it is given to the inhabitants of the town than would otherwise fall to them; and a less to those of the country.

The price which the town really pays for the provisions and materials annually imported into it, is the quantity of manufactures and other goods annually exported from it. The dearer the latter are sold, the cheaper the former are bought. The industry of the town becomes more, and that of the country less advantageous.

That the industry which is carried on in town is, everywhere in Europe, more advantageous than that which is carried on in the country, without entering into any very nice computations, we may satisfy ourselves by one very simple and obvious observation. In every country of Europe we find at least a hundred people who have acquired great fortunes from small beginnings by trade and manufactures, the industry which properly belongs to towns, for one who has done so by that which properly belongs to the country, the raising of rude produce by the improvement and cultivation of land. Industry, therefore, must be better rewarded, the wages of labor and the profits of stock must evidently be greater in the one situation than in the other. But stock and labor naturally seek the most advantageous employment. They naturally, therefore, resort as much as they can to the town, and desert the country.