trade, cannot, in my
opinion, affect the rate of profits. The injury suffered will be what I
have just described; there will be a worse distribution of the general
capital and industry, and therefore less will be produced. The natural
price of commodities will be raised, and therefore, though the consumer
will be able to purchase to the same money value, he will obtain a less
quantity of commodities. It will be seen too, that if it even had the
effect of raising profits, it would not occasion the least alteration in
prices; prices being regulated neither by wages nor profits.

And does not Adam Smith agree in this opinion, when he says, that "the
prices of commodities, or the value of gold and silver, as compared with
commodities, depends upon the proportion between the _quantity of
labour_ which is necessary, in order to bring a certain quantity of gold
and silver to market, and that which is necessary to bring thither a
certain quantity of any other sort of goods?" That quantity will not be
affected, whether profits be high or low, or wages low or high. How then
can prices be raised by high profits?

CHAPTER XXIV.

ON GROSS AND NET REVENUE.

Adam Smith constantly magnifies the advantages which a country derives
from a large gross, rather than a large net income. "In proportion as a
greater share of the capital of a country is employed in agriculture,"
he says, "the greater will be the quantity of productive labour which it
puts into motion within the country; as will likewise be the value which
its employment adds to the annual produce of the land and labour of the
society. After agriculture, the capital employed in manufactures puts
into motion the greatest quantity of productive labour, and adds the
greatest value to the annual produce. That which is employed in the
trade of exportation has the least effect of any of the three."[43]

Granting for a moment that this were true; what would be the advantage
resulting to a country from the employment of a great quantity of
productive labour, if, whether it employed that quantity or a smaller,
its net rent and profits together would be the same. The whole produce
of the land and labour of every country is divided into three portions;
of these, one portion is devoted to wages, another to profits, and the
other to rent. It is from the two last portions only, that any
deductions can be made for taxes, or for savings; the former, if
moderate, constituting always