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The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith an INQUIRY into the Nature and Causes of the — Books I, II, III, IV and V — Wealth of Nations Adam Smith p q xΜεταLibriy Copyright © 2007 ΜεταLibri this digital edition ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this digital edition may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, eletronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the copyright holder. ΜεταLibri http://metalibri.incubadora.fapesp.br Amsterdam • Lausanne • Melbourne Milan • New York • São Paulo 29th May 2007 IN this edition references are made to corresponding pages of the best mod- ern edition of the WealthEditorial of Nations: the Note second volume of The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith [1]. These refer- ences are printed as margin notes. For example, ‘G.ed.p26’ means ‘page 26 of the Glasgow Edition’. Smith’s own footnotes are marked with ‘[Smith]’ in bold face just before the footnote. Paragraph number are printed inside brackets on the left margin and the numbering restarts at the beginning of every section. References to this edition can be made in this way: Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edited by S. M. Soares. MetaLibri Digital Library, 29th May 2007. SÁLVIO MARCELO SOARES Lausanne, 29th May 2007 [email protected] CONTENTS Editorial Note iii Advertisement to the Third Edition 2 Advertisement to the Fourth Edition 3 Introduction and Plan of the Work 4 BOOK I Of The Causes of Improvement in the Productive Powers of Labour, and of the Order According to which Its Produce Is Naturally Distributed Among the Different Ranks of the People 7 CHAPTER I Of the Division of Labour 8 CHAPTER II Of the Principle which gives occasion to the Division of Labour 15 CHAPTER III That the Division of Labour is limited by the Extent of the Market 18 CHAPTER IV Of the Origin and Use of Money 22 CHAPTER V Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities, or their Price in Labour, and their Price in Money 28 CHAPTER VI Of the Component Parts of the Price of Commodities 41 CHAPTER VII Of the Natural and Market Price of Commodities 47 CHAPTER VIII Of the Wages of Labour 55 CHAPTER IX Of the Profits of Stock 73 CHAPTER X Of Wages and Profit in the different Employments of Labour and Stock 82 Part I. Inequalities arising from the Nature of the Employments themselves 83 Part II. Inequalities occasioned by the Policy of Europe 97 CHAPTER XI Of the Rent of Land 117 Part I. Of the Produce of Land which always affords Rent 119 Part II. Of the Produce of Land which sometimes does, and sometimes does not, afford Rent 131 Part III. Of the Variations in the Proportion between the respective Values of that Sort of Produce which always affords Rent, and of that which sometimes does and sometimes does not afford Rent 141 Digression concerning the Variations in the Value of Silver during the Course of the Four last Centuries 143 FIRST PERIOD 143 SECOND PERIOD 154 THIRD PERIOD 155 Variations in the Proportion between the respective Values of Gold and Silver 168 Grounds of the Suspicion that the Value of Silver still continues to decrease 172 Different Effects of the Progress of Improvement upon the real price of three different Sorts of rude Produce 173 First Sort 173 Second Sort 175 Third Sort 182 Conclusion of the Digression concerning the Variations in the Value of Silver 190 Effects of the Progress of Improvement upon the real Price of Manufactures 194 CONCLUSION of the CHAPTER 198 BOOK II Of the Nature, Accumulation, and Employment of Stock 211 Introduction 212 CHAPTER I Of the Division of Stock 214 CHAPTER II Of Money considered as a particular Branch of the general Stock of the Society, or of the Expense of maintaining the National Capital 221 CHAPTER III Of the Accumulation of Capital, or of Productive and Unproductive Labour 258 CHAPTER IV Of Stock Lent at Interest 274 CHAPTER V Of the Different Employment of Capitals 281 BOOK III Of the different Progress of Opulence in different Nations 294 CHAPTER I Of the natural Progress of Opulence 295 CHAPTER II Of the Discouragement of Agriculture in the ancient State of Europe after the Fall of the Roman Empire 299 CHAPTER III Of the Rise and Progress of Cities and Towns after the Fall of the Roman Empire 308 CHAPTER IV How the Commerce of the Towns Contributed to the Improvement of the Country 317 BOOK IV Of Systems of political Œconomy 327 Introduction 328 CHAPTER I Of the Principle of the commercial, or mercantile System 329 CHAPTER II Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries of such Goods as can be produced at Home 347 CHAPTER III Of the extraordinary Restraints upon the Importation of Goods of almost all Kinds from those Countries with which the Balance is supposed to be disadvantageous 363 Part I. Of the Unreasonableness of those Restraints even upon the Principles of the Commercial System 363 Digression concerning Banks of Deposit, particularly concerning that of Amsterdam 368 Part II. Of the Unreasonableness of those extraordinary Restraints upon other Principles 376 CHAPTER IV Of Drawbacks 385 CHAPTER V Of Bounties 390 Digression concerning the Corn Trade and Corn Laws 404 CHAPTER VI Of Treaties of Commerce 420 CHAPTER VII Of Colonies 430 Part First. Of the Motives for establishing new Colonies 430 Part Second. Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies 437 Part Third. Of the Advantages which Europe has derived from the Discovery of America, and from that of a Passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope 457 CHAPTER VIII Conclusion of the Mercantile System 498 CHAPTER IX Of the Agricultural Systems, or of those Systems of Political Economy which represent the Produce of Land as either the sole or the principal Source of the Revenue and Wealth every Country 514 BOOK V Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth 535 CHAPTER I Of the Expenses of the Sovereign or Commonwealth 536 Part Third. Of the Expense of Defence 536 Part Third. Of the Expense of Justice 549 Part Third. Of the Expense of Public Works and Public Institutions 559 Article I. Of the Public Works and Institutions for facilitating the Commerce of the Society 560 And, first, of those which are necessary for facilitating Commerce in general 560 Of the Public Works and Institutions which are necessary for facilitat- ing particular Branches of Commerce 566 Article II. Of the Expense of the Institutions for the Education of Youth 587 Article III. Of the Expense of the Institutions for the Instruction of People of all Ages 608 Part Third. Of the Expense of Supporting the Dignity of the Sovereign 629 Conclusion of the chapter 630 CHAPTER II Of the Sources of the General or Public Revenue of the Society 632 Part Third. Of the Funds or Sources of Revenue which may peculiarly belong to the Sovereign or Commonwealth 632 Part Third. Of Taxes 639 Article I. Taxes upon Rent 641 Taxes upon the Rent of Land 641 Taxes which are proportioned, not to the Rent, but to the Produce of Land 648 Taxes upon the Rent of Houses 651 Article II. Taxes upon Profit, or upon the Revenue arising from Stock 657 Taxes upon as Profit of particular Employments 661 Appendix to Articles I and II. Taxes upon the Capital Value of Land, Houses, and Stock 666 Article . Taxes upon the Wages of Labour 671 Article . Taxes which, it is intended, should fall indifferently upon every different Species of Revenue 674 Captalization Taxes 674 Taxes upon consumable Commodities 676 CHAPTER III Of Public Debts 707 Appendix 741 References I AN INQUIRY INTO THE Nature and Causes OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS 1 G.ed. p8 1 [ 1 ] THE first Edition of the following Work was printed in the end of the year 1775, and in the beginningAdvertisement of the year 1776. Through the greater part of the Book, therefore, whenever the present state of things is men- tioned, it is to be understood of the state they were in, either about that time, or at some earlier period, during the time I was employed in writing the Book. To this third Edition, however, I have made several additions, particularly to the chapter upon Drawbacks, and to that upon Bounties; likewise a new chapter entitled, The Conclusion of the Mercantile System; and a new article to the chapter upon the expences of the sovereign. In all these additions, the present state of things means always the state in which they were during the year 1783 and the beginning of the present year 1784. 1To the Third Edition. G.ed. p9 Advertisement to the 2 [ 1 ] IN this fourth Edition I have made no alterations of any kind. I now, how- ever, find myself at libertyFourth to acknowledge Edition my very great obligations to Mr. Henry Hope of Amsterdam. To that Gentleman I owe the most dis- tinct, as well as liberal information, concerning a very interesting and im- portant subject, the Bank of Amsterdam; of which no printed account had ever appeared to me satisfactory, or even intelligible. The name of that Gentleman is so well known in Europe, the information which comes from him must do so much honour to whoever has been favoured with it, and my vanity is so much interested in making this acknowledgement, that I can no longer refuse myself the pleasure of prefixing this Advertisement to this new Edition of my Book.
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