1.
It is just this fact which makes sugar a commodity that will keep almost indefinitely which is a distinct advantage from a commercial point of view but hardly from a health one
2.
In an age as fast-paced as ours the commodity of time provides wealth
3.
’ Mganga replied, naming one of the household names for this commodity
4.
In this state of things, the whole produce of labour belongs to the labourer; and the quantity of labour commonly employed in acquiring or producing any commodity, is the only circumstance which can regulate the quantity of labour which it ought commonly to purchase, command, or exchange
5.
Neither is the quantity of labour commonly employed in acquiring or producing any commodity, the only circumstance which can regulate the quantity which it ought commonly to purchase, command or exchange for
6.
In every society, the price of every commodity finally resolves itself into some one or other, or all of those three parts ; and in every improved society, all the three enter, more or less, as component parts, into the price of the far greater part of commodities
7.
As any particular commodity comes to be more manufactured, that part of the price which resolves itself into wages and profit, comes to be greater in proportion to that which resolves itself into rent
8.
As the price or exchangeable value of every particular commodity, taken separately, resolves itself into some one or other, or all of those three parts ; so that of all the commodities which compose the whole annual produce of the labour of every country, taken complexly, must resolve itself into the same three parts, and be parcelled out among different inhabitants of the country, either as the wages of their labour, the profits of their stock, or the rent of their land
9.
When the price of any commodity is neither more nor less than what is sufficient to pay the rent of the land, the wages of the labour, and the profits of the stock employed in raising, preparing, and bringing it to market, according to their natural rates, the commodity is then sold for what may be called its natural price
10.
The actual price at which any commodity is commonly sold, is called its market price
11.
The market price of every particular commodity is regulated by the proportion between the quantity which is actually brought to market, and the demand of those who are willing to pay the natural price of the commodity, or the whole value of the rent, labour, and profit, which must be paid in order to bring it thither
12.
Such people may be called the effectual demanders, and their demand the effectual demand; since it maybe sufficient to effectuate the bringing of the commodity to market
13.
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
14.
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
15.
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
16.
The market price of any particular commodity, though it may continue long above, can seldom continue long below, its natural price
17.
It is in this manner that the demand for men, like that for any other commodity, necessarily regulates the production of men, quickens it when it goes on too slowly, and stops it when it advances too fast
18.
price of any commodity rises above the ordinary or average rate, the profits of at least some
19.
It is partly paid in sea-fish; and one of the very few instances in which rent makes a part of the price of that commodity, is to be found in that country
20.
If it is not more, though the commodity may be brought to market, it can afford no rent to the landlord
21.
It is because high or low wages and profit must be paid, in order to bring a particular commodity to market, that its price is high or low
22.
Their lands, therefore, have been principally employed in the production of grass, the more bulky commodity, and which cannot be so easily brought from a great distance; and corn, the food of the great body of the people, has been chiefly imported from foreign countries
23.
Even this tax upon silver, too, gives more temptation to smuggling than the tax of one twentieth upon tin; and smuggling must be much easier in the precious than in the bulky commodity
24.
Corn, accordingly, it has already been observed, is, in all the different stages of wealth and improvement, a more accurate measure of value than any other commodity or set of commodities
25.
In all those different stages, therefore, we can judge better of the real value of silver, by comparing it with corn, than by comparing it with any other commodity or set of commodities
26.
Scotland receives almost every year very large supplies from England, and every commodity must commonly be somewhat dearer in the country to which it
27.
But the nominal sum which constitutes the market price of every commodity is necessarily regulated, not so much by the quantity of silver, which, according to the standard, ought to be contained in it, as by that which, it is found by experience, actually is contained in it
28.
And though the bounty which has taken place through the greater part of this century, must always raise the price of corn somewhat higher than it otherwise would be in the actual state of tillage ; yet, as in the course of this century, the bounty has had full time to produce all the good effects commonly imputed to it to encourage tillage, and thereby to increase the quantity of corn in the home market, it may, upon the principles of a system which I shall explain and examine hereafter, be supposed to have done something to lower the price of that commodity the one way, as well as to raise it the other
29.
Corn, it has already been observed, is, at distant periods of time, a more accurate measure of value than either silver or, perhaps, any other commodity
30.
Upon all these accounts, the precious metals are a commodity which it always has been, and still continues to be, extremely advantageous to carry from Europe to India
31.
There is scarce any commodity which brings a better price there; or which, in proportion to the quantity of labour and commodities which it costs in Europe
32.
The whole quantity of a cheap commodity brought to market is commonly not only greater, but of greater value, than the whole quantity of a dear one
33.
There are so many more purchasers for the cheap than for the dear commodity, that, not only a greater quantity of it, but a greater value can commonly be disposed of
34.
The whole quantity, therefore, of the cheap commodity, must commonly be greater in proportion to the whole quantity of the dear one, than the value of a certain quantity of the dear one, is to the value of an equal quantity of the cheap one
35.
When we compare the precious metals with one another, silver is a cheap, and gold a dear commodity
36.
A commodity may be said to be dear or cheap not only according to the absolute greatness or smallness of its usual price, but according as that price is more or less above the lowest for which it is possible to bring it to market for any considerable time together
37.
This lowest price is that which barely replaces, with a moderate profit, the stock which must be employed in bringing the commodity thither
38.
The nature of the commodity renders it not quite so proper for being transported to distant markets as wool
39.
The real price of this commodity, therefore, naturally rises in the progress of improvement
40.
But in all cases in which the real price of the rude material either does not rise at all, or does not rise very much, that of the manufactured commodity sinks very considerably
41.
Since this is the case, it has been observed, with regard to every particular commodity, taken separately, it must be so with regard to all the commodities which compose the whole annual produce of the land and labour of
42.
But the labour of the manufacturer fixes and realizes itself in some particular subject or vendible commodity, which lasts for some time at least after that labour is past
43.
The labour of the menial servant, on the contrary, does not fix or realize itself in any particular subject or vendible commodity
44.
The labour of some of the most respectable orders in the society is, like that of menial servants, unproductive of any value, and does not fix or realize itself in any permanent subject, or vendible commodity, which endures after that labour is past, and for which an equal quantity of labour could afterwards be procured
45.
Their labour, when properly directed, fixes and realizes itself in the subject or vendible commodity upon which it is bestowed, and generally adds to its price the value at least of their own maintenance and consumption
46.
Whatever be the foreign commodity with which the foreign goods for home consumption are purchased, it can occasion no essential difference, either in the nature of the trade, or in the encouragement and support which it can give to the productive labour of the country from which it is carried on
47.
To what degree such restraints upon the inland commerce of this commodity, joined to the general prohibition of exportation, must have discouraged the cultivation of countries less fertile, and less favourably circumstanced, it is not, perhaps, very easy to imagine
48.
In consequence of its being the instrument of commerce, when we have money we can more readily obtain whatever else we have occasion for, than by means of any other commodity
49.
They could frequently buy more advantageously with gold and silver, than with any other commodity, the foreign goods which they wanted, either to import into their own, or to carry to some other foreign country
50.
The quantity of every commodity which human industry can either purchace or produce, naturally regulates itself in every country according to the effectual demand, or according to the demand of those who are willing to pay the whole rent, labour, and profits, which must be paid in order to prepare and bring it to market
51.
If, not withstanding all this, gold and silver should at any time fall short in a country which has wherewithal to purchase them, there are more expedients for supplying their place, than that of almost any other commodity
52.
We do not, however, reckon that trade disadvatageous, which consists in the exchange of the hardware of England for the wines of France, and yet hardware is a very durable commodity, and were it not for this continual exportation, might too be accumulated for ages together, to the incredible augmentation of the pots and pans of the country
53.
But when a commodity comes to be sold for a third part of what bad been its usual price, not only those who purchased it before can purchase three times their former quantity, but it is brought down to the level of a much greater number of purchasers, perhaps to more than ten, perhaps to more than twenty times the former number
54.
The high duties upon the importation of corn, which, in times of moderate plenty, amount to a prohibition, give a like advantage to the growers of that commodity
55.
The value of its annual produce is certainly more or less diminished, when it is thus turned away from producing commodities evidently of more value than the commodity which it is directed to produce
56.
According to the supposition, that commodity could be purchased from foreign countries cheaper than it can be made at home ; it could therefore have been purchased with a part only of the
57.
Live cattle are, perhaps, the only commodity of which the transportation is more expensive by sea than by land
58.
Salt provisions are not only a very bulky commodity, but when compared with fresh meat they are a commodity both of worse quality, and, as they cost more labour and expense, of higher price
59.
Corn is a much more bulky commodity than butcher's meat
60.
Every commodity, therefore, which is the produce of domestic industry, though not immediately taxed itself, becomes dearer in consequence of such taxes, because the labour which produces it becomes so
61.
Such taxes, therefore, are really equivalent, they say, to a tax upon every particular commodity produced at home
62.
In order to put domestic upon the same footing with foreign industry, therefore, it becomes necessary, they think, to lay some duty upon every foreign commodity, equal to this enhancement of the price of the home commodities with which it can come into competition
63.
Supposing, however, in the mean time, that they have this effect, and they have it undoubtedly, this general enhancement of the price of all commodities, in consequence of that labour, is a case which differs in the two following respects from that of a particular commodity, of which the price was enhanced by a particular tax immediately imposed upon it
64.
Madeira wine, not being an European commodity, could be imported directly into America and the West Indies, countries which, in all their non-enumerated commodities, enjoyed a free trade to the island of Madeira
65.
But it has been thought by many people, that it tends to encourage tillage, and that in two different ways ; first, by opening a more extensive foreign market to the corn of the farmer, it tends, they imagine, to increase the demand for, and consequently the production of, that commodity; and, secondly by securing to him a better price than he could otherwise expect in the actual state of tillage, it tends, they suppose, to
66.
I answer, that whatever extension of the foreign market can be occasioned by the bounty must, in every particular year, be altogether at the expense of the home market ; as every bushel of corn, which is exported by means of the bounty, and which would not have been exported without the bounty, would have remained in the home market to increase the consumption, and to lower the price of that commodity
67.
commodity, be paid by the whole body of the people
68.
In this particular commodity, therefore, this second tax is by much the heaviest of the two
69.
upon the exportation of the quarter of wheat raises the price of that commodity in the home market only 6d
70.
This enhancement of the money price of corn, however, it has been thought, by rendering that commodity more profitable to the farmer, must necessarily encourage its production
71.
By the one institution, they secured to themselves the monopoly of the home market, and by the other they endeavoured to prevent that market from ever being overstocked with their commodity
72.
The real value of every other commodity is finally measured and detemnined by the proportion which its average money price bears to the average money price of corn
73.
Bounties upon the exportation of any homemade commodity are liable, first, to that general objection which may be made to all the different expedients of the mercantile system ; the objection of forcing some part of the industry of the country into a channel less advantageous than that in which it would run of its own accord ; and, secondly, to the particular objection of forcing it not only into a channel that is less advantageous, but into one that is actually disadvantageous ; the trade which cannot be carried on but by means of a bounty being necessarily a losing trade
74.
The bounty upon the exportation of corn is liable to this further objection, that it can in no respect promote the raising of that particular commodity of which it was meant to encourage the production
75.
They loaded the public revenue with a very considerable expense: they imposed a very heavy tax upon the whole body of the people ; but they did not, in any sensible degree, increase the real value of their own commodity; and by lowering somewhat the real value of silver, they discouraged, in some degree, the general industry of the country, and, instead of advancing, retarded more or less the improvement of their own lands, which necessarily depend upon the general industry of the country
76.
To encourage the production of any commodity, a bounty upon production, one should imagine, would have a more direct operation than one upon exportation
77.
Instead of raising, it would tend to lower the price of the commodity in the home market ; and thereby, instead of imposing a second tax upon the people, it might, at least in part, repay them for what they had contributed to the first
78.
The operation of the bounty upon corn must have been wonderfully different, if it has lowered the money price of that commodity
79.
When the undertakers of fisheries, after such liberal bounties have been bestowed upon them, continue to sell their commodity at the same, or even at a higher price than they were accustomed to do before, it might be expected that their profits should be very great ; and it is not improbable that those of some individuals may have been so
80.
As, in every civilized country, it is the commodity of which the annual consumption is the greatest ; so a greater quantity of industry is annually employed in pruducing corn than in producing any other commodity
81.
When it first comes from the ground, too, it is necessarily divided among a greater number of owners than any other commodity ; and these owners can never be collected into one place, like a number of independent manufacturers, but are necessarily scattered through all the different corners of the country
82.
The inland dealers in corn, therefore, including both the farmer and the baker, are necessarily more numerous than the dealers in any other commodity ; and their dispersed situation renders it altogether impossible for them to enter into any general combination
83.
That this extraordinary profit, however, is no more than sufficient to put his trade upon a fair level with other trades, and to compensate the many losses which he sustains upon other occasions, both from the perishable nature of the commodity itself, and from the frequent and unforeseen fluctuations of its price, seems evident enough, from this single circumstance, that great fortunes are as seldom made in this as in any other trade
84.
Gold, like every other commodity, is always somewhere or another to be got for its value by those who have that value to give for it
85.
When the tax upon a commodity is so moderate as not to encourage smuggling, the merchant who deals in it, though he advances, does not properly pay the tax, as he gets it back in the price of the commodity
86.
But money is a commodity, with regard to which every man is a merchant
87.
By allowing to American cattle, in all shapes, dead and alive, a very extensive market, the law endeavours to raise the value of a commodity, of which the high price is so very essential to improvement
88.
Sugar was originally an enumerated commodity, which could only be exported to Great Britain; but in 1751, upon a representation of the sugar-planters, its exportation was permitted to all parts of the world
89.
But that those great events should likewise have contributed to encourage the industry of countries such as Hungary and Poland, which may never, perhaps, have sent a single commodity of their own produce to America, is not, perhaps, altogether so evident
90.
To depress the price of this commodity below what may be called its natural and proper price, was the avowed purpose of those regulations ; and there seems to be no doubt of their having produced the effect that was expected from them
91.
discouraging the growing of wool, must have reduced very much the annual produce of that commodity, though not below what it formerly was, yet below what, in the present state of things, it would probably have been, had it, in consequence of an open and free market, been allowed to rise to the natural and proper price
92.
They have obtained likewise the drawback of two-thirds of the excise duties imposed upon their commodity, even when exported without further manufacture
93.
As long as anything remains to be done, in order to fit any commodity for immediate use and consumption, our manufacturers think that they themselves ought to have the doing of it
94.
This enormous duty presented such a temptation to smuggling, that great quantities of this commodity were clandestinely exported, probably to all the manufacturing countries of Europe, but particularly to Holland, not only from Great Britain, but from Afrira
95.
By the same law, a duty of eighteen pence the pound was imposed upon the exportation of beaver wool or woumbs, without making any alteration in the duty upon the importation of that commodity, which, when imported by British, and in British shipping, amounted at that time to between fourpence and fivepence the piece
96.
Heavy duties, accordingly, have been imposed upon their exportation, amounting at present (1783) to more than five shillings the ton, or more than fifteen shillings the chaldron, Newcastle measure ; which is, in most cases, more than the original value of the commodity at the coal-pit, or even at the shipping port for exportation
97.
The home consumer is obliged to pay, first the tax which is necessary for paying the bounty ; and, secondly, the still greater tax which necessarily arises from the enhancement of the price of the commodity in the home market
98.
By the famous treaty of commerce with Portugal, the consumer is prevented by duties from purchasing of a neighbouring country, a commodity which our own climate does not produce ; but is obliged to purchase it of a distant country, though it is acknowledged, that the commodity of the distant country is of a worse quality than that of the near one
99.
After all, money was a virtual commodity, not
100.
Clean water was a precious commodity back in the