bOOK the country, either as the wages of their labour, r^ , the profits of their stock, or the rent of their land. But though the whole value of the annual produce of the land and labour of every country is thus divided among and constitutes a revenue to its different inhabitants; yet as in the rent of a private estate we distinguish between the gross rent and the neat rent, so may we likewise in the revenue of all the inhabitants of a great country. The gross rent of a private estate comprehends whatever is paid by the farmer; the neat rent, what remains free to the landlord, aster deducting the expence of management, of repairs, and all other necessary charges; or what, with* out hurting his estate, he can afford to place in his stock reserved for immediate consumption, or to spend upon his table, equipage, the ornaments of his house and furniture, his private enjoyments and amusements. His real wealth is in proportion, not to his gross, but to his neat rent. The gross revenue of all the inhabitants of a great country, comprehends the whole annual produce of their land and labour; the neat revenue, what remains free to them after deducting the expence of maintaining; first, their fixed ; and, secondly, their circulating capital; or what, without encroaching upon their capital, they can place in their stock reserved for immediate consumption, or spend upon their subsistence, conveniencies, and amusements. Their real wealth too too is in proportion, not to their gross, but to C H A P. their neat revenue. . * The whole expence of maintaining the fixed capital, must evidently be excluded from the neat revenue of the society. Neither the materials necessary for supporting their useful machines and instruments of trade, their profitable buildings, &c. nor the produce of the labour necessary for fashioning those materials into the proper form, can ever make any part of it. The price of that labour may indeed make a part of it; as the workmen so employed may place the whole value of their wages in their stock reserved for immediate consumption. But in other sorts of labour, both the price and the produce go to this stock, the price to that of the workmen, the produce to that of other people, whose subsistence, conveniencies, and amusements are augmented by the labour of those workmen. The intention of the fixed capital is to in crease the productive powers of labour, or to enable the fame number of labourers to perform a much greater quantity of work. In a farm where all the necessary buildings, fences, drains, communications, &c, are in the most perfect good order, the fame number of labourers and labouring cattle will raise a much greater produce, than in one of equal extent and equally good ground, but not furnished with equal conveniencies. In manufactures the fame number of hands, assisted with the best machinery, will work up a much greater quantity of goods than with more imperfect instruments of trade. The expence Book expence which is properly laid out upon a fixed capital of any kind, is always repaid with great profit, and increases the annual produce by a much greater value than that of the fupport which fuch improvements require. This fI1pport, however, ftill requires a certain portion of that produce. A certain quantity of materials, and the labour of a certain number of workmen, both of which might have been immediately employed to augment the food, clothing and lodging, the fubfiftence and conveniences of the fociety, are thus diverted to another employment, highly advantageous indeed, but ftill, different from this one. It is upon this account that all fuch improvements in mechanics, as enable the fame number of workmen to perform an equal quantity of work with cheaper and simpler machinery than had been ufual before, are always regarded as advantageous to every society. A certain quantity of materials, and the labour of a certain number of workmen, which had before been employed in fupporting a more complex and expenfive machinery, can afterwards be applied to augment the quantity of work which that or any other machinery is ufeful only for performing. The undertaker of fome great manufactory who employs a thoufand a-year in the maintenance of his machinery, if he dean reduce this expense to five hundred, will naturally employ the other five hundred in purchafing an additional quantity of materials to be wrought up by an additional number of workmen. The quantity of that work, therefore, which his machinery was useful only for per- c forming, will naturally be augmented, and with it all the advantage and conveniency which the society can derive from that work. The expence of maintaining the fixed capital in a great country, may very properly be compared to that of repairs in a private estate. The expence of repairs may frequently be necessary for supporting the produce of the estate, and consequently both the gross and the neat rent of the landlord. When by a more proper direction, however, it can be diminished without occasioning any diminution of produce, the gross rent remains at least the fame as before, and the neat rent is necessarily augmented. But though the whole expence of maintaining the fixed capital is thus necessarily excluded from the neat revenue of the society, it is not the fame case with that of maintaining the circulating capital. Of the four parts of which this latter capital is composed, money, provisions,materials,andsinished work, the three last, it has already been observed, are regularly withdrawn from it, and placed either in the fixed capital of the society, or in their stock reservedfor immediate consumption. Whatever portion of those consumable goods is not employed in maintaining the former, goes all to the latter, and makes a partof the neat revenue of the society. The maintenance of those three parts of the circulating capital, therefore, withdraws no portion of the annual produce from the neat revenue of the society, besides what is necessary for maintaining the fixed capital. The BOOK The circulating capital of a society is in this _^_^ respect different from that of an individual. That of an individual is totally excluded from making any part of his neat revenue, which must consist altogether in his profits. But though the circulating capital of every individual makes a part of that of the society to which he belongs, it is not upon that account totally excluded from making a part likewise of their meat revenue. Though the whole goods in a merchant's shop must by no means be placed in his own stock reserved for immediate consumption, they may in that of other people, who, from a revenue derived from other funds, may regularly replace their value to him, together with its profits, without occasioning any diminution either of his capital or of theirs. Money, therefore, is the only part of the circulating capital of a society, of which the maintenance can occasion any diminution in their neat revenue. The fixed capital, and that part of the circulating capital which consists in money, so far as they affect the revenue of the society, bear a very great resemblance to one another. First, as those machines and instruments of trade, &c. require a certain expence, sirst to erect them, and afterwards to support them, both which expences, though they make a part of the gross, are deductions from the neat revenue of the society; so the stock of money which circulates in any country must require a certain expence, first to collect it, and asterwards to support |