experience will inform him. The price of the one species of commodities
varies only with the variations in the demand; that of the other varies not
only with the variations in the demand, but with the much greater, and more
frequent, variations in the quantity of what is brought to market, in order
to supply that demand.

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. That part which resolves itself into rent
is less affected by them. A rent certain in money is not in the least
affected by them, either in its rate or in its value. A rent which consists
either in a certain proportion, or in a certain quantity, of the rude
produce, is no doubt affected in its yearly value by all the occasional and
temporary fluctuations in the market price of that rude produce; but it is
seldom affected by them in its yearly rate. In settling the terms of the
lease, the landlord and farmer endeavour, according to their best judgment,
to adjust that rate, not to the temporary and occasional, but to the average
and ordinary price of the produce.

Such fluctuations affect both the value and the rate, either of wages or of
profit, according as the market happens to be either overstocked or
understocked with commodities or with labour, with work done, or with work
to be done. A public mourning raises the price of black cloth ( with which
the market is almost always understocked upon such occasions), and augments
the profits of the merchants who possess any considerable quantity of it. It
has no effect upon the wages of the weavers. The market is understocked with
commodities, not with labour, with work done, not with work to be done. It
raises the wages of journeymen tailors. The market is here understocked with
labour. There is an effectual demand for more labour, for more work to be
done, than can be had. It sinks the price of coloured silks and cloths, and