onvenience to any Man: But observing I was something startled at the
Assertion, he made a short Pause, and then resumed the Discourse.

It may seem, says he, a Paradox, that the Price of Labour should be
reduced without an Abatement of Wages, or that Wages can be abated
without any Inconvenience to the Labourer, and yet nothing is more
certain than that both those Things may happen. The Wages of the
Labourers make the greatest Part of the Price of every Thing that is
useful; and if in Proportion with the Wages the Prices of all other
Things should be abated, every Labourer with less Wages would be still
able to purchase as many Necessaries of Life; where then would be the
Inconvenience? But the Price of Labour may be reduced by the Addition
of more Hands to a Manufacture, and yet the Wages of Persons remain as
high as ever. The admirable Sir William Petty [2] has given Examples
of this in some of his Writings: One of them, as I remember, is that
of a Watch, which I shall endeavour to explain so as shall suit my
present Purpose. It is certain that a single Watch could not be made
so cheap in Proportion by one only Man, as a hundred Watches by a
hundred; for as there is vast Variety in the Work, no one Person could
equally suit himself to all the Parts of it; the Manufacture would be
tedious, and at last but clumsily performed: But if an hundred Watches
were to be made by a hundred Men, the Cases may be assigned to one,
the Dials to another, the Wheels to another, the Springs to another,
and every other Part to a proper Artist; as there would be no need of
perplexing any one Person with too much Variety, every one would be
able to perform his single Part with greater Skill and Expedition; and
the hundred Watches would be finished in one fourth Part of the Time
of the first one, and every one of them at one fourth Part of the
Cost, tho the Wages of every Man were equal. The Reduction of the
Price of the Manufacture would increase the Demand of it, all the same
Hands would be still employed and as well paid. The same Rule will
hold in the Clothing, the Shipping, and all the other Trades
whatsoever. And thus an Addition of Hands to our Manufactures will
only reduce the Price of them; the Labourer will still have as much
Wages, and will consequently be enabled to purchase more Conveniencies
of Life; so that every Interest in the Nation would receive a Benefit