There is reason, therefore, to fear that the unnatural and extraordinary low price arising from the sort of distress of which we now speak, would occasion much discouragement of the fabrication of manufactures. (Thornton 1978, pp. 118-19) Thornton, like Hume, notes that the reason the diminution of money affects employment is the rigidity of money wage contracts.
He believes that if wages fall to the extent that prices do at the same time, there will be no effect on employment. However, because there is downward rigidity in the rate of wages, a fall in prices will affect the real economy.