who are here very numerous, and would be ready to punish any tranf greflion of their ungallant laws with arbitrary fines. But nature and native manners will often baffle the effores even of tyranny. In all their cuftoms thefe manly ladies feem to have changed fexes with the men.— The woman rides aftride-the man fits fideways upon the horfe.-Nay I have been affured that the hufband's diftinguishing appellation is his wife's family name. The women have town and country houfes, in the manage ment of which the husband never darcs interfere. Their gardens, their fervants, are all their own and the husband, from every circumstance of his behaviour, appears to be no other than his wife's first domeftic, perpetually bound to her fervice, and five to her caprice. Hence it is that a tradition obtains in the country, that this ifland was formerly inhabited by Amazons, a tradition however founded upon no ancient hiftory that I know of. Sappho indeed, the most renowned female that this ifland has ver produced, is faid to have had manly inclinations, in which, as Lucian informs us, fie did but conform with the fingular manners of her countrywomen; but I do not find that the mode in which the chofe to fhew these inclinations is imitated by the prefent female inhabitants, who feem perfect ly content with the dear prerogative of abfolute fway, without endeavouring, in any other particular, to change the courfe of nature; yet will this circumitance, ferve to fhew that the women of Lefbos had always fomething peculiar, and even peculiarly mafcu line, in their manners and propenfities. But be this as it may, it is certain that no country whatfoever can afford a more perfect idea of an Amazonian commonwealth, or better ferve to render probable those ancient relations which our manners would induce us to efteem incredible, than

this island of Metelin. These lordly ladies are, for the most part, very handfome in spite of the:r drefs, which is fingular aud difadvantageous. Down to the girdle, which, as in the old Grecian garb, is raised far above what we ufually call the waift, they wear nothing but a fhift of thin and tranf parent gauze, red, green, or brown, through which every thing is visible, their breafts only excepted, which they cover with a fort of handkerchi.f; and this, as we are informed, the Turks have obliged them to wear, while they look upon it as an incumbrance, and as no inconfiderable portion of Turkish tyranny. Long fleeves of the fame thin material perfectly_thew their arms even to the shoulder. Their principal ornaments are chains of pearl, to which they hang fmall pieces of gold coin. Their eyes are large and fine, and the nofe, which we term Grecian, ufually prevails among them, as it does indeed among the women of all thefe iflands. Their complexions are naturally fine, but they ipoik them by paint, of which they make abundant ufe, and they disfigure their pretty faces by fhaving the hinder part of the eyebrow, and replacing it with a trait line of hair, neatly applied with fome fort of gam, the brow being thus continued in a strait and narrow line till it joins the hair on each fide of their face. They are well made, of the middle fize, and, for the most part, plump; but they are diftinguished by nothing fo much and fo univerfally as by a haughty, difdainful, and fupercilious air, with which they seem to look down upon all mankind as creatures of an inferior nature, born for their fervice, and doomed to be their flaves; neither does this peculiarity of countenance in any degree diminish their natural beauty, but ra ther adds to it that fort of bewitching attraction, which the French call pi quant.

Reflections

491

§. 1. THE impofibility of the exiftence of commerce upon the fuppofition of an equal divifion of Lands, where every man would poffefs only what is neceffary for his own fupport.

If the land was divided among all the inhabitants of a country, fo that each of them poffeffed precifely the quantity neceffary for his fupport, and nothing more, it is evident that all of them being equal, no one would work for another, neither would any of them poffefs wherewith to pay another for his labour, for each perfon having only fuch a quantity of land as was neceffary to produce a fubfiftence, would confume all the fhould gather, and would not have any thing to give in exchange for the labour of others.

§. 2. The above hypothefis neither has nor can exifi, the diverfity of foils and multiplicity of wants compel an exchange of the productions of the earth, against other productions.

This hypothefis never can have exifted, because the earth has been cultivated before it has been divided; the cultivation itself having been the only motive for a divifion, and for that law which fecures to every one his proper ty. For the first perfons who have employed themfelves in cultivation have probably worked as much land as their strength would permit, and confequently more than was neceffary for their own nourishment,

If this ftate could have exifted, it could not poflibly be durable, each one gathering from his field only a fubfittence, and not having wherewith to pay others for their labour, would

not be enabled to fupply his other wants of lodging, cloathing, &c. &c. except by the labour of his hands, which would be nearly impoflible, as every foil would not produce invari ably the fame.

The man whofe land was only fit to produce grain, and would neither bring forth cotton nor flax, would want linen to cloath him. Another would have ground proper for cotton, which would not yield grain. One would want fuel for his fire, and another be deftitute of corn to fupport him. Experience would foon teach every one what fpecies of productions his land was belt adapted to, and he would confine himfelf to the cultivation of it, in order to procure himself those things he stood in need of, by an exchange with his neighbours, who, having on their, part acquired the fame experience, would have cultivated thofe productions which were best fuited to their land, and would have abandoned the cultivation of any o.ther.

§. 3. The productions of the earth require long and difficult preparations, before they are made fit to fupply the wants of men.

The productions which the earth fupplies to fatisfy the wants of man, will not, for the most part, adminifter to thofe wants, in the ftate nature affords them; it is neceffary they thould undergo different operations, and be prepared by art. Wheat mult be convested into flour, then intɔ bread; hides must be dreff d or tanned; wool and cotton must be fpun; filk must be taken from the cod; hemp and flax muft

atten

must be foaked, peeled, fpun, and wove into different textures; then cut and fewed together again to make garments, &c. If the fame man who cultivates on his own land thefe different articles, and who raifes them to fupply his wants, was obliged to per form all the intermediate operations himfelf, it is certain he would fucceed very badly. The greater part of thefe preparations require care, at en tiou, and a long experience; all which are only to be acquired by progrefive labour, and that on a great quantity of materials. Let us refer, for example, to the preparation of hides: what labourer can purfue all the particular things neceffary to thofe operations, which continue feveral months, fometimes feveral years? If he is able to do it, can he do it with a fingle bide? What a lofs of time, of fouin, and of materials, which might be employed, either at the fame time or fucceffively, to tan a large quantity of fins! But thould he even fucceed in tanning a fingle fkin, he wants one pair of fhoes; what will be do with the remainder? Will he kill an ox to make this pair of thoes? Will he cut down a tree to make a pair of wooden fhoes? We may fay the fame thing of every other want of every other man, who, if he was reduced to his field, and the latour of his own hands, would walte much time, take much trouble, be very badly equipped in every respect, and would alfo cultivate his lands very ill. §. 4. The neceffity of the prepara. tions, being on the exchange of productions for labour.”

The fame motive which has eftablithed the exchange of commodity for commodity, between the cultivators of Jands of different natures, has alfo neceffarily brought on the exchange of commodities for labour, between the cultivators and another portion of fociety, who fhall have preferred the occupation of preparing and completing the productions of the earth, to the culivation of it. Every one profits

by this arrangement, for every one attaching him'elf to a peculiar species of labour, fucceeds much better therein. The hufbandman draws from his field the greatest quantity it is able to produce, and procures to hinrself, with greater facility, all the other objects of his wants, by an exchange of his fuperflux, than he could have done by his own labour. The fhoemaker, by making fhoes for the husbandman, fecures to himself a portion of the hari veft of the latter. Every workman labours for the wants of the workmen of every other trade, who, on their fide, toil alfo for him.

. 5. Pre-eminence of the lufbandman who produces, over the artifiçer who prepares. The husbandman is the firft inover in the circulation of labour į it is he who caufes the earth to produce the wages of every artificer.

It niuft, however, be obferved, that the husbandman, furnishing every one with the most important and the moit confiderable objects of their confumption (I mean their food, and the ma terials of almost all manufactures) has the advantage of a greater degrie of independence. His labour, among the different fpecies of labour, appro priated to the different members of focicty, fupports the fame pre-eminence and priority; as the procuring his food did among the different works he was obliged, in his folitary ftate, to employ himfelf in, to miniiter to his wants of every fort. This is not a pre-eminence of honour or of dignity, but of phyfical neceffity. The hufbaudman can, generally speaking, fubfit without the labour of other workmen'; but no other workman can labour, if the bufbandman does not provide him wherewith to exift. It is this circulation, which, by a reciprocal exchange of wants, rei ders mankind neceffary to each other, and which forms the bend of fociety: it is then the labour of the hufbandman which gives the first movement. What his induftry caufes the earth to produce

be youd

beyond his perfonal wants, is the only fund for the falaries which all the other members of fociety receive, in recompence for their toil. The latter, by availing themfelves of the produce of this exchange, to purchafe in their turn the commodities of the husbandman, only return to him precifely what they have received. There is reavery effential difference between thefe two fpecies of labours, on which it is neceffary to refle, and to be well affured of the ground they stand on, before we trut to the innumerable confequences which flow from them.

§. 6. The falary of the workman is limited by the competition among thofe gubo work for their fubfiftence. He only gains a lilibond.

The mere workman, who depends only on his hands and his industry, has nothing but fuch part of his labour as he is able to difpofe of. He fels at a cheaper or a dearer price; but this high or low price does not depend on himself alone; it refults from the agreement he has made with the perfon who employs him. The latter pays him as little as he can help; as he has the choice from among a great number of workmen, he prefers the perfon who works cheapeft. The workmen are therefore obliged to lower their price in oppofition to each other. In every fpecies of labour it muft, and, in c&, it does happen, that the wages of the work man are contined merely to what is Deceffary to procure him a fubfiftcace. §. 8. The bufbandman is the only one whofe industry produces more than the wages of his labour. He, therefore, is the only fource of all riches.

The fitnation of the husbandman is materially different. The foil, in dependent of any other man, or of any agreement, pays him immediately the price of his toil. Nature does not bargain with him, or compel him to content himself with what is abfolutely neceffary. What the grants is neither limited to his wants, nor to a

conditional valuation of the price of his day's work. It is a phyfical confequence of the fertility of the fol, and of justice, rather than of the difficulty of the means, which he has employed to render it fruitful. As foon as the labour of the husbandman produces more than fufficient for his ne ceffities, he can, with the excess which nature affords him of pure free-will, beyond the wages of his toils, pur chafe the labour of other members of fociety. The latter, in felling to him, only procures a livelihood; but the hufbandman, befides his fubfiitence, colleas an independent and disposable wealth, which he has not purchased, but can fell. He is, therefore, the only fource of all thofe riches which, by their circulation, animate the la boys of fociety; becaufe he is the quly one whole labour produces more than the w wages of his to 1.

§. 8. First divifion of fociety inte two claffes, the one productive, or the cultivators, the other ftipendiary, or the artificers.

Here then is the whole fociety divided, by a necetlity founded on the nature of things, into two claffes, both induftrious, of which the one, by its Labour, produces, or rather draws from the earth, tiches continually renewing, which fupply the whole fociety with fubfiftence, and with matc rils for all its wants. The other, employed in giving the faid materials fuch preparations and forms as render them proper for the use of man, fells to the firit perfon his labour, and receives in return a fubfiftence. The firft may be called the productive, the latter the ftipendiary clats.

8. 9. In the first ages of fociety, the proprietors cald not be dflingu fhed from the cultivators.

Hitherto we have pot diftinguishet the hafoandman from the propriet r of the land; and in the firit origin they were not in fact diftinguished. It is by the labour of those who have first cultivated the fields, and w