5. Pre-eminence of the husbandman who produces, over the
artificer who prepares. The husbandman is the first mover in the
circulation of labour: it is he who causes the earth to produce
the wages of every artificer.
It must, however, be observed that the husbandman, finishing
every one with the most important and the most considerable
objects of their consumption (I mean their food, and the
materials of almost all manufactures) has the advantage of a
greater degree of independence. His labour, among the different
species of labour, appropriated to the different members of
society, supports the same pre-eminence and priority, as the
procuring of food did among the different works he was obliged,
in his solitary state, to employ himself in, in order to minister
to his wants of every kind. This is not a pre-eminence of honour
or of dignity, but of physical necessity. The husbandman can,
generally speaking, subsist without the labour of other workmen;
but no other workmen can labour, if the husbandman does not
provide him wherewith to exist. It is this circulation, which, by
a reciprocal exchange of wants, renders mankind necessary to each
other, and which forms the bond of society: it is therefore the
labour of the husbandman which gives the first movement. What his
industry causes the earth to produce beyond his personal wants,
is the only fund for the wages, which all the other members of
society receive in recompence for their toil. The latter, by
availing themselves of the produce of this exchange, to purchase
in their turn the commodities of the husbandman, only return to
him precisely what they have received. There is here a very
essential difference between these two species of labour, on
which it is necessary to reflect, and to be well assured of the
ground on which they stand, before we trust to the innumerable
consequences which flow from them.
