In our North American and West Indian colonies, not only the wages of labour, but the interest of money, and consequently the profits of stock, are higher than in England.In the different colonies both the legal and the market rate of interest run from six to eight per cent.High wages of labour and high profits of stock, however, are things, perhaps, which scarce ever go together, except in the peculiar circumstances of new colonies.Anew colony must always for some time be more understocked in proportion to the extent of its territory, and more underpeopled in proportion to the extent of its stock, than the greater part of other countries.They have more land than they have stock to cultivate.What they have, therefore, is applied to the cultivation only of what is most fertile and most favourably situated, the land near the sea shore, and along the banks of navigable rivers.Such land, too, is frequently purchased at a price below the value even of its natural produce.Stock employed in the purchase and improvement of such lands must yield a very large profit, and consequently afford to pay a very large interest.Its rapid accumulation in so profitable an employment enables the planter to increase the number of his hands faster than he can find them in a new settlement.Those whom he can find, therefore, are very liberally rewarded.As the colony increases, the profits of stock gradually diminish.When the most fertile and best situated lands have been all occupied, less profit can be made by the cultivation of what is inferior both in soil and situation, and less interest can be afforded for the stock which is so employed.In the greater part of our colonies, accordingly, both the legal and the market rate of interest have been considerably reduced during the course of the present century.As riches, improvement, and population have increased, interest has declined.The wages of labour do not sink with the profits of stock.The demand for labour increases with the increase of stock whatever be its profits; and after these are diminished, stock may not only continue to increase, but to increase much faster than before.It is with industrious nations who are advancing in the acquisition of riches as with industrious individuals.A great stock, though with small profits, generally increases faster than a small stock with great profits.Money, says the proverb, makes money.When you have got a little, it is often easy to get more.The great difficulty is to get that little.The connection between the increase of stock and that of industry, or of the demand for useful labour, has partly been explained already, but will be explained more fully hereafter in treating of the accumulation of stock.
The acquisition of new territory, or of new branches of trade, may sometimes raise the profits of stock, and with them the interest of money, even in a country which is fast advancing in the acquisition of riches.The stock of the country not being sufficient for the whole accession of business, which such acquisitions present to the different people among whom it is divided, is applied to those particular branches only which afford the greatest profit.Part of what had before been employed in other trades is necessarily withdrawn from them, and turned into some of the new and more profitable ones.In all those old trades, therefore, the competition comes to be less than before.
The market comes to be less fully supplied with many different sorts of goods.Their price necessarily rises more or less, and yields a greater profit to those who deal in them, who can, therefore, afford to borrow at a higher interest.For some time after the conclusion of the late war, not only private people of the best credit, but some of the greatest companies in London, commonly borrowed at five per cent, who before that had not been used to pay more than four, and four and a half per cent.The great accession both of territory and trade, by our acquisitions in North America and the West Indies, will sufficiently account for this, without supposing any diminution in the capital stock of the society.So great an accession of new business to be carried on by the old stock must necessarily have diminished the quantity employed in a great number of particular branches, in which the competition being less, the profits must have been greater.I shall hereafter have occasion to mention the reasons which dispose me to believe that the capital stock of Great Britain was not diminished even by the enormous expense of the late war.