But a fall arising from temporary distress, will be attended probably with no correspondent fall in the rate of wages; for the fall of price, and the distress, will be understood to be temporary, and the rate of wages, we know, is not so variable as the price of goods.
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.