BOOK
I.

CHAP. III.

That the Division of Labour is limited by the
Extent of the Market.

AS it is the power of exchanging that gives
occasion to the division of labour, so the
extent of this division must always be limited
by the extent of that power, or, in other words,
by the extent of the market. When the market
is very small, no person can have any encourage-
ment to dedicate himself entirely to one employ-
ment, for want of the power to exchange all that
surplus part of the produce of his own labour,
which is over and above his own consumption,
for such part of the produce of other men's la-
bour as he has occasion for.

There are some forts of industry, even of the lowest kind, which can be carried on no where but in a great town. A porter, for example, can find employment and subsistence in no other place. A village is by much too narrow a sphere for him; even an ordinary market town is scarce large enough to afford him constant occupation. In the lone houses and very small villages which are scattered about in so desert a country as the Highlands of Scotland, every farmer must be butcher, baker and brewer for his own family. In such situations we can scarce expect to find even a smith, a carpenter, or a mason, within less than twenty miles of another of the same trade. The scattered families that

live at eight or ten miles distance from the CHAR nearest of them, must learn to perform them-'"" selves a great number of little pieces of work, for which, in more populous countries, they would call in the assistance of those workmen. Country workmen are almost everywhere obliged to apply themselves to all the different branches of industry that have so much affinity to one another as to be employed about the fame fort of materials. A country carpenter deals in every fort of work that is made of wood: a country smith in every fort of work that is made of iron. The former is not only a carpenter, but a joiner, a cabinet maker, and even a carver in wood, as well as a wheelwright, a plough-wright, a cart and waggon maker. The employments of the latter are still more various. It is impossible there should be such a trade as even that of a nailer in the remote and inland parts of the Highlands of Scotland. Such a workman at the rate of a thoufand nails a day, and three hundred working days in the year, will make three hundred thoufand nails in the year. But in such a situation it would be impossible to dis pose of one thoufand, that is, of one day's work in the year.

As by means of water-carriage a more extensive market is open to every fort of industry than what land-carriage alone can afford it, so it is upon the sea-coast, and along the banks of navigable rivers, that industry of every kind naturally begins to subdivide and improve itself, and it is frequently not till a long time after that

those

Book those improvements extend themfelves to the inland parts of the country. A broad-wheeled waggon, attended by two men, and drawn by eight horfes, in about fix weeks time carries and brings back between London and Edinburgh near four ton weight of goods. In about the fame time a fhip navigated by fix or eight men, and failing between the ports of London and Leith, frequently carries and brings back two hundred ton weight of goods. Six or eight men, therefore, by the help of water-carriage, can carry and bring back in the fame time the fame quantity of goods between London and Edinburgh, as fifty broad-wheeled waggons, attended by a hundred men, and drawn by four hundred horfes. Upon two hundred tons of goods, therefore, carried by the cheapeft land, carriage from London to Edinburgh, there must be charged the maintenance of a hundred men for three weeks, and both the maintenance, and, what is nearly equal to the maintenance, the wear and tear of four hundred horfes as well as of fifty great waggons. Whereas, upon the fame quantity of goods carried by water, there is to be charged only the maintenance of fix or eight men, and the wear and tear of a fhip of two hundred tons burthen, together with the value of the superior rifk, or the difference of the in-, furance between land and water-carriage. Were there no other communication between those two places, therefore, but by land carriage, as no goods could be tranfported from the one to the other, except fuch whose price was very confi

derable

derable in proportion to their weight, they could carry on but a small part of that commerce which at present subsists between them, and consequently could give but a small part of that encouragement which they at present mutually afford to each other's industry. There could be little or no commerce of any kind between the distant parts of the world. What goods could bear the expence of land-carriage between London and Calcutta? Or if there were any so precious as to be able to support this expence, with what fafety could they be transported through the territories of so many barbarous nations? Those two cities, however, at present carry on a very considerable commerce with each other, and by mutually affording a market, give a good deal of encouragement to each other's industry. Since such, therefore, are the advantages of water-carriage, it is natural that the sirst improvements of art and industry should be made where this conveniency opens the whole world for a market to the produce of every fort of labour, and that they should always be much later in extending themselves into the inland parts of the country. The inland parts of the country can for a long time have no other market for the greater part of their goods, but the country which lies round about them, and separates them from the sea-coast, and the great navigable rivers. The extent of their market, therefore, must for a long time be in proportion to the riches and populousness of that country, and consequently their improvement must always be posterior to

the

BOOK the improvement of that country. In our North f American colonies the plantations have con stantly followed either the sea-coast or the banks of the navigable rivers, and have scarce any where extended themselves to any considerable distance from both.

The nations that, according to the best authenticated history, appear to have been sirst civilized, were those that dwelt round the coast of the Mediterranean sea. That sea, by far the greatest inlet that is known in the world, having no tides, nor consequently any waves except . such as are caused by the wind only, was, by the smoothness of its surface, as well as by the multitude of its islands, and the proximity of its neighbouring mores, extremely favourable to the infant navigation of the world ; when, from their ignorance of the compass, men were afraid to quit the view of the coast, and from the imperfection of the art of ship-building, to abandon themselves to the boisterous waves of the ocean. To pass beyond the pillars of Hercules, that is, to sail out of the Strcights of Gibraltar, was, in the antient world, long considered as a most wonderful and dangerous exploit of navigation. It was late before even the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, the most'skilful navigators and shipbuilders of those old times, attempted it, and they were for a long time the only nations that did attempt it.

Of all the countries on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, Egypt seems to have been the first, in which either agriculture or manusactures were

cultivated