An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith [e book reader pdf TXT] 📗
- Author: Adam Smith
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demanders, and their demand the effectual demand; since it maybe sufficient
to effectuate the bringing of the commodity to market. It is different from
the absolute demand. A very poor man may be said, in some sense, to have a
demand for a coach and six; he might like to have it; but his demand is not
an effectual demand, as the commodity can never be brought to market in
order to satisfy it.
When the quantity of any commodity which is brought to market falls short of
the effectual demand, all those who are willing to pay the whole value of
the rent, wages, and profit, which must be paid in order to bring it
thither, cannot be supplied with the quantity which they want. Rather than
want it altogether, some of them will be willing to give more. A competition
will immediately begin among them, and the market price will rise more or
less above the natural price, according as either the greatness of the
deficiency, or the wealth and wanton luxury of the competitors, happen to
animate more or less the eagerness of the competition. Among competitors of
equal wealth and luxury, the same deficiency will generally occasion a more
or less eager competition, according as the acquisition of the commodity
happens to be of more or less importance to them. Hence the exorbitant price
of the necessaries of life during the blockade of a town, or in a famine.
When the quantity brought to market exceeds the effectual demand, it cannot
be all sold to those who are willing to pay the whole value of the rent,
wages, and profit, which must be paid in order to bring it thither. Some
part must be sold to those who are willing to pay less, and the low price
which they give for it must reduce the price of the whole. The market price
will sink more or less below the natural price, according as the greatness
of the excess increases more or less the competition of the sellers, or
according as it happens to be more or less important to them to get
immediately rid of the commodity. The same excess in the importation of
perishable, will occasion a much greater competition than in that of durable
commodities; in the importation of oranges, for example, than in that of old
iron.
When the quantity brought to market is just sufficient to supply the
effectual demand, and no more, the market price naturally comes to be either
exactly, or as nearly as can be judged of, the same with the natural price.
The whole quantity upon hand can be disposed of for this price, and can not
be disposed of for more. The competition of the different dealers obliges
them all to accept of this price, but does not oblige them to accept of
less.
The quantity of every commodity brought to market naturally suits itself to
the effectual demand. It is the interest of all those who employ their land,
labour, or stock, in bringing any commodity to market, that the quantity
never should exceed the effectual demand ; and it is the interest of all
other people that it never should fall short of that demand.
If at any time it exceeds the effectual demand, some of the component parts
of its price must be paid below their natural rate. If it is rent, the
interest of the landlords will immediately prompt them to withdraw a part of
their land; and if it is wages or profit, the interest of the labourers in
the one case, and of their employers in the other, will prompt them to
withdraw a part of their labour or stock, from this employment. The quantity
brought to market will soon be no more than sufficient to supply the
effectual demand. All the different parts of its price will rise to their
natural rate, and the whole price to its natural price.
If, on the contrary, the quantity brought to market should at any time fall
short of the effectual demand, some of the component parts of its price must
rise above their natural rate. If it is rent, the interest of all other
landlords will naturally prompt them to prepare more land for the raising of
this commodity ; if it is wages or profit, the interest of all other
labourers and dealers will soon prompt them to employ more labour and stock
in preparing and bringing it to market. The quantity brought thither will
soon be sufficient to supply the effectual demand. All the different parts
of its price will soon sink to their natural rate, and the whole price to
its natural price.
The natural price, therefore, is, as it were, the central price, to which
the prices of all commodities are continually gravitating. Different
accidents may sometimes keep them suspended a good deal above it, and
sometimes force them down even somewhat below it. But whatever may be the
obstacles which hinder them from settling in this centre of repose and
continuance, they are constantly tending towards it.
The whole quantity of industry annually employed in order to bring any
commodity to market, naturally suits itself in this manner to the effectual
demand. It naturally aims at bringing always that precise quantity thither
which may be sufficient to supply, and no more than supply, that demand.
But, in some employments, the same quantity of industry will, in different
years, produce very different quantities of commodities ; while, in others,
it will produce always the same, or very nearly the same. The same number of
labourers in husbandry will, in different years, produce very different
quantities of corn, wine, oil, hops, etc. But the same number of spinners or
weavers will every year produce the same, or very nearly the same, quantity
of linen and woollen cloth. It is only the average produce of the one
species of industry which can be suited, in any respect, to the effectual
demand ; and as its actual produce is frequently much greater, and
frequently much less, than its average produce, the quantity of the
commodities brought to market will sometimes exceed a good deal, and
sometimes fall short a good deal, of the effectual demand. Even though that
demand, therefore, should continue always the same, their market price will
be liable to great fluctuations, will sometimes fall a good deal below, and
sometimes rise a good deal above, their natural price. In the other species
of industry, the produce of equal quantities of labour being always the
same, or very nearly the same, it can be more exactly suited to the
effectual demand. While that demand continues the same, therefore, the
market price of the commodities is likely to do so too, and to be either
altogether, or as nearly as can be judged of, the same with the natural
price. That the price of linen and woollen cloth is liable neither to such
frequent, nor to such great variations, as the price of corn, every man’s
experience will inform him. The price of the one species of commodities
varies only with the variations in the demand; that of the other varies not
only with the variations in the demand, but with the much greater, and more
frequent, variations in the quantity of what is brought to market, in order
to supply that demand.
The occasional and temporary fluctuations in the market price of any
commodity fall chiefly upon those parts of its price which resolve
themselves into wages and profit. That part which resolves itself into rent
is less affected by them. A rent certain in money is not in the least
affected by them, either in its rate or in its value. A rent which consists
either in a certain proportion, or in a certain quantity, of the rude
produce, is no doubt affected in its yearly value by all the occasional and
temporary fluctuations in the market price of that rude produce; but it is
seldom affected by them in its yearly rate. In settling the terms of the
lease, the landlord and farmer endeavour, according to their best judgment,
to adjust that rate, not to the temporary and occasional, but to the average
and ordinary price of the produce.
Such fluctuations affect both the value and the rate, either of wages or of
profit, according as the market happens to be either overstocked or
understocked with commodities or with labour, with work done, or with work
to be done. A public mourning raises the price of black cloth ( with which
the market is almost always understocked upon such occasions), and augments
the profits of the merchants who possess any considerable quantity of it. It
has no effect upon the wages of the weavers. The market is understocked with
commodities, not with labour, with work done, not with work to be done. It
raises the wages of journeymen tailors. The market is here understocked with
labour. There is an effectual demand for more labour, for more work to be
done, than can be had. It sinks the price of coloured silks and cloths, and
thereby reduces the profits of the merchants who have any considerable
quantity of them upon hand. It sinks, too, the wages of the workmen employed
in preparing such commodities, for which all demand is stopped for six
months, perhaps for a twelvemonth. The market is here overstocked both with
commodities and with labour.
But though the market price of every particular commodity is in this manner
continually gravitating, if one may say so, towards the natural price; yet
sometimes particular accidents, sometimes natural causes, and sometimes
particular regulations of policy, may, in many commodities, keep up the
market price, for a long time together, a good deal above the natural price.
When, by an increase in the effectual demand, the market price of some
particular commodity happens to rise a good deal above the natural price,
those who employ their stocks in supplying that market, are generally
careful to conceal this change. If it was commonly known, their great profit
would tempt so many new rivals to employ their stocks in the same way, that,
the effectual demand being fully supplied, the market price would soon be
reduced to the natural price, and, perhaps, for some time even below it. If
the market is at a great distance from the residence of those who supply it,
they may sometimes be able to keep the secret for several years together,
and may so long enjoy their extraordinary profits without any new rivals.
Secrets of this kind, however, it must be acknowledged, can seldom be long
kept; and the extraordinary profit can last very little longer than they are
kept.
Secrets in manufactures are capable of being longer kept than secrets in
trade. A dyer who has found the means of producing a particular colour with
materials which cost only half the price of those commonly made use of, may,
with good management, enjoy the advantage of his discovery as long as he
lives, and even leave it as a legacy to his posterity. His extraordinary
gains arise from the high price which is paid for his private labour. They
properly consist in the high wages of that labour. But as they are repeated
upon every part of his stock, and as their whole amount bears, upon that
account, a regular proportion to it, they are commonly considered as
extraordinary profits of stock.
Such enhancements of the market price are evidently the effects of
particular accidents, of which, however, the operation may sometimes last
for many years together.
Some natural productions require such a singularity of soil and situation,
that all the land in a great country, which is fit for producing them, may
not be sufficient to
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