The Effects of Civilization On the People in European States

of the produce of his own labour or work a labourer or workman makes use of, and enjoys himself, we have but few data to proceed on: we have, however, some that will pretty satisfactorily solve the problem. The things which he consumes must be procured by his income; to it, therefore, they must be proportionable, and be limited by it. The earnings are the labourer's income : we have, therefore, only to see what proportion this income of the labourers, collected, bears to that of the rest of the people, also collected. We have seen before, that the labourer's wages are about £25 per annum: that the number of the labouring people amounts to about eight- tenths of the whole: that, supposing their families to consist of fivepersons each, in a nation consisting of ten millions of souls, there will be 1,600,000 families; this multiplied by 25 makes 40 millions, which is the amount in value of what is consumed by the labouring class of people. It is not an easy thing to obtain the amount of the income of the rest of the people, viz., the rich. But, with regard to our argument, it is the same thing if we get the amount in value of the whole produce of the labour of the poor; for, having done that, if we deduct from it the amount of what is consumed by the poor, the remainder must consequently be what is consumed by the rich. To speak with respect to England, in this instance : the rent of all the lands in it, about twenty years ago, was supposed by Adam Smith, an...