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To compensate it completely, the common returns ought, over and

above the ordinary profits of stock, not only to make up for all

occasional losses, but to afford a surplus profit to the

adventurers, of the same nature with the profit of insurers. But

if the common returns were sufficient for all this, bankruptcies

would not be more frequent in these than in other trades.

Of the five circumstances, therefore, which vary the wages of

labour, two only affect the profits of stock; the agreeableness

or disagreeableness of the business, and the risk or security

with which it is attended. In point of agreeableness or

disagreeableness, there is little or no difference in the far

greater part of the different employments of stock, but a great

deal in those of labour; and the ordinary profit of stock, though

it rises with the risk, does not always seem to rise in

proportion to it. It should follow from all this, that, in the

same society or neighbourhood, the average and ordinary rates of

profit in the different employments of stock should be more

nearly upon a level than the pecuniary wages of the different

sorts of labour.