An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (ebook reader with highlighter txt) 📖

and causes which have induced

almost all modern governments to mortgage some part of this

revenue, or to contract debts; and what have been the effects of

those debts upon the real wealth, the annual produce of the land

and labour of the society. The following book, therefore, will

naturally be divided into three chapters.

 

APPENDIX TO BOOK IV

 

The two following accounts are subjoined, in order to illustrate

and confirm what is said in the fifth chapter of the fourth book,

concerning the Tonnage Bounty to the Whit-herring Fishery. The

reader, I believe, may depend upon the accuracy of both accounts.

 

An account of Busses fitted out in Scotland for eleven Years, with

the Number of empty Barrels carried out, and the Number of Barrels

of Herrings caught; also the Bounty, at a Medium, on each Barrel of

Sea-sricks, and on each Barrel when fully packed.

 

Years Number of Empty Barrels Barrels of Her-Bounty paid on

Busses carried out rings caught the Busses

�. s. d.

1771 29 5,948 2,832 2,885 0 0

1772 168 41,316 22,237 11,055 7 6

1773 190 42,333 42,055 12,510 8 6

1774 240 59,303 56,365 26,932 2 6

1775 275 69,144 52,879 19,315 15 0

1776 294 76,329 51,863 21,290 7 6

1777 240 62,679 43,313 17,592 2 6

1778 220 56,390 40,958 16,316 2 6

1779 206 55,194 29,367 15,287 0 0

1780 181 48,315 19,885 13,445 12 6

1781 135 33,992 16,593 9,613 15 6

 

Totals 2,186 550,943 378,347 �165,463 14 0

 

Sea-sticks 378,347 Bounty, at a medium, for each

barrel of sea-sticks, � 0 8 2�

But a barrel of sea-sticks

being only reckoned two thirds

of a barrel fully packed, one

third to be deducted, which

�/�deducted 126,115 brings the bounty to � 0 12 3�

Barrels fully

packed 252,231

And if the herings are exported, there is besides a

premium of � 0 2 8

So the bounty paid by government in money for each

barrel is � 0 14 11�

 

But if to this, the duty of the salt usually taken

credit for as expended in curing each barrel, which

at a medium, is, of foreign, one bushel and one-fourth of a bushel, at 10s. a-bushel, be added, viz 0 12 6

the bounty on each barrel would amount to � 1 7 5�

 

If the herrings are cured with British salt, it will

stand thus, viz.

Bounty as before � 0 14 11�

But if to this bounty, the duty on two bushels of

Scotch salt, at 1s.6d. per bushel, supposed to be

the quantity, at a medium, used in curing each

barrel is added, viz. 0 3 0

The bounty on each barrel will amount to � 0 17 11�

 

And when buss herrings are enterd for home

consumption in Scotland, and pay the shilling a

barrel of duty, the bounty stands thus, to wit,

as before � 0 12 3�

From which the shilling a barrel is to be deducted 0 1 0

� 0 11 3�

 

But to that there is to be added again, the duty of

the foreign salt used curing a barrel of herring viz 0 12 6

So that the premium allowed for each barrel of herrings entered for home consumption is � 1 3 9�

 

If the herrings are cured in British salt, it will

stand as follows viz.

Bounty on each barrel brought in by the busses, as

above � 0 12 3�

From which deduct 1s. a-barrel, paid at the time

they are entered for home consumption 0 1 0

� 0 11 3�

 

But if to the bounty, the the duty on two bushel

of Scotch salt, at 1s.6d. per bushel supposed to

be the quantity, at a medium, used in curing each

barrel, is added, viz 0 3 0

the premium for each barrel entered for home

consumption will be � 1 14 3�

 

Though the loss of duties upon herrings exported cannot, perhaps,

properly be considerd as bounty, that upon herrings entered for

home consumption certainly may.

 

An account of the Quantity of Foreign Salt imported into Scotland,

and of Scotch Salt delivered Duty-free from the Works there, for

the Fishery, from the 5th. of April 1771 to the 5th. of April 1782

with the Medium of both for one Year.

 

Foreign Salt Scotch Salt delivered

PERIOD imported from the Works

Bushels Bushels

 

From 5th. April 1771 to

5th. April 1782 936,974 168,226

Medium for one year 85,159� 15,293�

 

It is to be observed, that the bushel of foreign salt weighs 48lbs.,

that of British weighs 56lbs. only.

 

BOOK V. OF THE REVENUE OF THE SOVEREIGN OR COMMONWEALTH

 

CHAPTER I.

 

OF THE EXPENSES OF THE SOVEREIGN OR COMMONWEALTH.

 

PART I. Of the Expense of Defence.

 

The first duty of the sovereign, that of protecting the society

from the violence and invasion of other independent societies,

can be performed only by means of a military force. But the

expense both of preparing this military force in time of peace,

and of employing it in time of war, is very different in the

different states of society, in the different periods of

improvement.

 

Among nations of hunters, the lowest and rudest state of society,

such as we find it among the native tribes of North America,

every man is a warrior, as well as a hunter. When he goes to war,

either to defend his society, or to revenge the injuries which

have been done to it by other societies, he maintains himself by

his own labour, in the same manner as when he lives at home. His

society (for in this state of things there is properly neither

sovereign nor commonwealth) is at no sort of expense, either to

prepare him for the field, or to maintain him while he is in it.

 

Among nations of shepherds, a more advanced state of society,

such as we find it among the Tartars and Arabs, every man is, in

the same manner, a warrior. Such nations have commonly no fixed

habitation, but live either in tents, or in a sort of covered

waggons, which are easily transported from place to place. The

whole tribe, or nation, changes its situation according to the

different seasons of the year, as well as according to other

accidents. When its herds and flocks have consumed the forage of

one part of the country, it removes to another, and from that to

a third. In the dry season, it comes down to the banks of the

rivers; in the wet season, it retires to the upper country. When

such a nation goes to war, the warriors will not trust their

herds and flocks to the feeble defence of their old men, their

women and children; and their old men, their women and children,

will not be left behind without defence, and without subsistence.

The whole nation, besides, being accustomed to a wandering life,

even in time of peace, easily takes the field in time of war.

Whether it marches as an army, or moves about as a company of

herdsmen, the way of life is nearly the same, though the object

proposed by it be very different. They all go to war together,

therefore, and everyone does as well as he can. Among the

Tartars, even the women have been frequently known to engage in

battle. If they conquer, whatever belongs to the hostile tribe is

the recompence of the victory ; but if they are vanquished, all

is lost; and not only their herds and flocks, but their women and

children. become the booty of the conqueror. Even the greater

part of those who survive the action are obliged to submit to him

for the sake of immediate subsistence. The rest are commonly

dissipated and dispersed in the desert.

 

The ordinary life, the ordinary exercise of a Tartar or Arab,

prepare him sufficiently for war. Running, wrestling,

cudgel-playing, throwing the javelin, drawing the bow, etc. are

the common pastimes of those who live in the open air, and are

all of them the images of war. When a Tartar or Arab actually

goes to war, he is maintained by his own herds and flocks, which

he carries with him, in the same manner as in peace. His chief or

sovereign (for those nations have all chiefs or sovereigns) is at

no sort of expense in preparing him for the field ; and when he

is in it, the chance of plunder is the only pay which he either

expects or requires.

 

An army of hunters can seldom exceed two or three hundred men.

The precarious subsistence which the chace affords, could seldom

allow a greater number to keep together for any considerable

time. An army of shepherds, on the contrary, may sometimes amount

to two or three hundred thousand. As long as nothing stops their

progress, as long as they can go on from one district, of which

they have consumed the forage, to another, which is yet entire;

there seems to be scarce any limit to the number who can march on

together. A nation of hunters can never be formidable to the

civilized nations in their neighbourhood; a nation of shepherds

may. Nothing can be more contemptible than an Indian war in North

America; nothing, on the contrary, can be more dreadful than a

Tartar invasion has frequently been in Asia. The judgment of

Thucydides, that both Europe and Asia could not resist the

Scythians united, has been verified by the experience of all

ages. The inhabitants of the extensive, but defenceles plains of

Scythia or Tartary, have been frequently united under the

dominion of the chief of some conquering horde or clan; and the

havock and devastation of Asia have always signalized their

union. The inhabitants of the inhospitable deserts of Arabia, the

other great nation of shepherds, have never been united but once,

under Mahomet and his immediate successors. Their union, which

was more the effect of religious enthusiasm than of conquest, was

signalized in the same manner. If the hunting nations of America

should ever become shepherds, their neighbourhood would be much

more dangerous to the European colonies than it is at present.

 

In a yet more advanced state of society, among those nations of

husbandmen who have little foreign commerce, and no other

manufactures but those coarse and household ones, which almost

every private family prepares for its own use, every man, in the

same manner, either is a warrior, or easily becomes such. Those

who live by agricuiture generally pass the whole day in the open

air, exposed to all the inclemencies of the seasons. The

hardiness of their ordinary life prepares them for the fatigues

of war, to some of which their necessary occupations bear a great

analogy. The necessary occupation of a ditcher prepares him to

work in the trenches, and to fortify a camp, as well as to

inclose a field. The ordinary pastimes of such husbandmen are the

same as those of shepherds, and are in the same manner the images

of war. But as husbandmen have less leisure than shepherds, they

are not so frequently employed in those pastimes. They are

soldiers but soldiers not quite so much masters of their

exercise. Such as they are, however, it seldom costs the

sovereign or commonwealth any expense to prepare them for the

field.

 

Agriculture, even in its rudest and lowest state, supposes a

settlement, some sort of fixed habitation, which cannot be

abandoned without great loss. When a nation of mere husbandmen,

therefore, goes to war, the whole people cannot take the field

together. The old men, the women and children, at least, must

remain at home, to take care of the habitation. All the men of

the military age, however, may take the field, and in