There is another case in which, by the negligence of legal and official arrangements, a considerable and certain expense is attached to and made to precede a variable and uncertain reward.A new idea presents itself to some workman or artist.Knowing that the laws grant to every inventor a privilege to enable him exclusively to reap the profits of his invention, he enjoys by anticipation his success, and labours to perfect his invention.Having, in the prosecution of his discovery, consumed, perhaps, the greater part of his property and his life, his invention is complete.He goes, with a joyful heart, to the public office to ask for his patent.But what does he encounter? Clerks, lawyers, and officers of state, who reap beforehand the fruits of his industry.This privilege is not given, but is, in fact, sold for from £ 100 to £200---sums greater perhaps than he ever possessed in his life.He find himself caught in a snare, which the law, or rather extortion which has obtained the force of law, has spread for the industrious inventor.It is a tax levied upon ingenuity, and no man can set bounds to the value of the services it may have lost to the nation.
Rule III.Reward should be adjusted in such a manner to each particular service, that for every part of the benefit there may be a motive to induce a man to give birth to it.
In other words, the value of the reward ought to advance step by step with the value of the service.This rule is more accurately followed in respect of rewards than of punishments.If a man steal a quantity of corn, the punishment is the same, whether he steal one bushel or ten;but when a premium is given for the exportation of corn, the amount of the premium bears an exact proportion to the amount exported.To be consistent in matters of legislation, the scale ought to be as regular in the one case as in the other.
The utility of this rule is put beyond doubt by the difference that may be observed between the quantity of work performed by men employed by the day, and men employed by the piece.When a ditch is to be dug, and the work is divided between one set of men working by the day, and another set working by the piece, there is no difficulty in predicting which set will have finished first.
Hope, and perhaps emulation, are the motives which actuate the labourer by the piece: the motive which actuates the labourer by the day is fear---fear of being discharged in case of manifest and extraordinary idleness.
It must not, however, be forgotten, that there are many sorts of work in respect of which it is improper to adopt this mode of payment; which tends indeed to produce the greatest quantity of labour, but at the same time is calculated to give birth to negligence and precipitation.This method ought only to be employed in cases where the quality of the work can easily be discerned, and its imperfections (if any) detected.
The value of a reward may be increased or diminished, in respect of certainty as well as amount: when, therefore, any services require frequently renewed efforts, it is desirable that each effort should render the probability of its attainment more certain.
Arrangements should be made for connecting services with reward, in such manner that the attainment of the reward shall remain uncertain, without, however, ceasing to be more probable than the contrary event.The faculties of the individual employed will thus naturally be kept upon the full stretch.This is accomplished when a competition is established between two or more persons, and a reward is promised to that one who shall render service in the most eminent degree, whether it respect the quantity or the quality of the service proposed.
Rule IV.When two services come in competition, of which a man cannot be induced to perform both, the reward for the greater service ought to be sufficient to induce him to prefer it to the less.
In a certain country, matters are so arranged, that more is to be gained by building ships on the old plan, than by inventing better; by taking one ship, than by blockading a hundred; by plundering at sea, than by fighting; by distorting the established laws, than by executing them; by clamouring for or against ministers, than by showing in what manner the laws may be improved.It must however be admitted, that in respect of some of these abuses, it would be difficult to prescribe the proper remedy.
By what method can competition between two services be established? The individual from whom they are required must, either from personal qualifications or external circumstances, have it in his power to render either the one or the other.It is proper to distinguish the cases in which this position is transient, from those in which it is permanent.It is in the first that the fault committed, by suffering disproportion to subsist, is most irreparable.
During the American war, upwards of an hundred ships were at one time in one of the harbours of the revolted colonies.
It vas of great importance that they should be kept in a state of blockade, since many of them were loaded with military stores.An English captain received orders to blockade them.Sufficiently skilled in arithmetic, and in proverbs, to know that two or three birds in his cage were worth a hundred in the bush, he acted as the greater number of men would have acted in his place.He stood off to a sufficient distance to give the enemy hopes of escaping: as soon as they had quitted the harbour, he returned, captured half-a-dozen, and the rest proceeded to their destination.I do not answer for the truth of this anecdote; but true or not true, it is equally good as an apologue.It exhibits one of the fruits of that inconsiderate prodigality, which grants, without discrimination, the produce of their captures to the captors.
Another example.A man who has influence obtains the command of a frigate, with orders to go upon a cruise.The command of a first-rate is accepted by those only who cannot obtain a frigate.
