Pagina 133 de 2651

As in a civilized country there are but few commodities of which

the exchangeable value arises from labour only, rent and profit

contributing largely to that of the far greater part of them, so

the annual produce of its labour will always be sufficient to

purchase or command a much greater quantity of labour than what

was employed in raising, preparing, and bringing that produce to

market. If the society were annually to employ all the labour

which it can annually purchase, as the quantity of labour would

increase greatly every year, so the produce of every succeeding

year would be of vastly greater value than that of the foregoing.

But there is no country in which the whole annual produce is

employed in maintaining the industrious.