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The Wealth of Nations: Introduction and Plan of the Work

The Wealth of Nations
Introduction and Plan of the Work
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table of contents
  1. Titlepage
  2. Imprint
  3. Editor’s Introduction
  4. Introduction and Plan of the Work
  5. The Wealth of Nations
    1. Book I
      1. I: Of the Division of Labour
      2. II: Of the Principle Which Gives Occasion to the Division of Labour
      3. III: That the Division of Labour Is Limited by the Extent of the Market
      4. IV: Of the Origin and Use of Money
      5. V: Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities, or of Their Price in Labour, and Their Price in Money
      6. VI: Of the Component Parts of the Price of Commodities
      7. VII: Of the Natural and Market Price of Commodities
      8. VIII: Of the Wages of Labour
      9. IX: Of the Profits of Stock
      10. X: Of Wages and Profit in the Different Employments of Labour and Stock
        1. I: Inequalities Arising from the Nature of the Employments Themselves
        2. II: Inequalities Occasioned by the Policy of Europe
      11. XI: Of the Rent of Land
        1. I: Of the Produce of Land Which Always Affords Rent
        2. II: Of the Produce of Land Which Sometimes Does, and Sometimes Does Not, Afford Rent
        3. 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
          1. Digression Concerning the Variations in the Value of Silver During the Course of the Four Last Centuries
            1. First Period
            2. Second Period
            3. Third Period
            4. Variations in the Proportion Between the Respective Values of Gold and Silver
            5. Grounds of the Suspicion That the Value of Silver Still Continues to Decrease
            6. Different Effects of the Progress of Improvement Upon Three Different Sorts of Rude Produce
              1. First Sort
              2. Second Sort
              3. Third Sort
            7. Conclusion of the Digression Concerning the Variations in the Value of Silver
          2. Effects of the Progress of Improvement Upon the Real Price of Manufactures
        4. Conclusion of the Chapter
    2. Book II
      1. Introduction
      2. I: Of the Division of Stock
      3. II: Of Money Considered as a Particular Branch of the General Stock of the Society, or of the Expense of Maintaining the National Capital
      4. III: Of the Accumulation of Capital, or of Productive and Unproductive Labour
      5. IV: Of Stock Lent at Interest
      6. V: Of the Different Employment of Capitals
    3. Book III
      1. I: Of the Natural Progress of Opulence
      2. II: Of the Discouragement of Agriculture in the Ancient State of Europe After the Fall of the Roman Empire
      3. III: Of the Rise and Progress of Cities and Towns, After the Fall of the Roman Empire
      4. IV: How the Commerce of the Towns Contributed to the Improvement of the Country
    4. Book IV
      1. Introduction
      2. I: Of the Principle of the Commercial or Mercantile System
      3. II: Of Restraints Upon the Importation from Foreign Countries of Such Goods as Can Be Produced at Home
      4. 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
        1. I: Of the Unreasonableness of Those Restraints Even Upon the Principles of the Commercial System
          1. Digression Concerning Banks of Deposit, Particularly Concerning That of Amsterdam
        2. II: Of the Unreasonableness of Those Extraordinary Restraints Upon Other Principles
      5. IV: Of Drawbacks
      6. V: Of Bounties
        1. Digression Concerning the Corn Trade and Corn Laws
      7. VI: Of Treaties of Commerce
      8. VII: Of Colonies
        1. I: Of the Motives for Establishing New Colonies
        2. II: Causes of the Prosperity of New Colonies
        3. III: 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
      9. VIII: Conclusion of the Mercantile System
      10. IX: Of the Agricultural Systems, or of Those Systems of Political Œconomy, Which Represent the Produce of Land as Either the Sole or the Principal Source of the Revenue and Wealth of Every Country
    5. Book V
      1. I: Of the Expenses of the Sovereign or Commonwealth
        1. I: Of the Expense of Defence
        2. II: Of the Expense of Justice
        3. III: Of the Expense of Public Works and Public Institutions
          1. Article I: Of the Public Works and Institutions for Facilitating the Commerce of the Society
            1. And, First, of Those Which Are Necessary for Facilitating Commerce in General
            2. Of the Public Works and Institutions Which Are Necessary for Facilitating Particular Branches of Commerce
          2. Article II: Of the Expense of the Institutions for the Education of Youth
          3. Article III: Of the Expense of the Institutions for the Instruction of People of All Ages
        4. IV: Of the Expense of Supporting the Dignity of the Sovereign
        5. Conclusion
      2. II: Of the Sources of the General or Public Revenue of the Society
        1. I: Of the Funds or Sources of Revenue Which May Peculiarly Belong to the Sovereign or Commonwealth
        2. II: Of Taxes
          1. Article I
            1. Taxes Upon Rent; Taxes Upon the Rent of Land
            2. Taxes Which Are Proportioned, Not to the Rent, but to the Produce of Land
            3. Taxes Upon the Rent of Houses
          2. Article II
            1. Taxes Upon Profit, or Upon the Revenue Arising from Stock
            2. Taxes Upon the Profit of Particular Employments
          3. Appendix to Articles I and II
          4. Article III: Taxes Upon the Wages of Labour
          5. Article IV: Taxes Which, It Is Intended, Should Fall Indifferently Upon Every Different Species of Revenue
            1. Capitation Taxes
            2. Taxes Upon Consumable Commodities
      3. III: Of Public Debts
  6. Appendix
  7. Endnotes 1–500
  8. Endnotes 501–1,000
  9. Endnotes 1,001–1,500
  10. Endnotes 1,501–1,647
  11. Colophon
  12. Uncopyright

Introduction and Plan of the Work

The annual97 labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life98 which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations.

According therefore, as this produce, or what is purchased with it, bears a greater or smaller proportion to the number of those who are to consume it, the nation will be better or worse supplied with all the necessaries and conveniencies for which it has occasion.99

But this proportion must in every nation be regulated by two different circumstances; first, by the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which its labour is generally applied;100 and, secondly, by the proportion between the number of those who are employed in useful labour, and that of those who are not so employed.101 Whatever be the soil, climate, or extent of territory of any particular nation, the abundance or scantiness of its annual supply must, in that particular situation, depend upon those two circumstances.

The abundance or scantiness of this supply too seems to depend more upon the former of those two circumstances than upon the latter. Among the savage nations of hunters and fishers, every individual who is able to work, is more or less employed in useful labour, and endeavours to provide, as well as he can, the necessaries and conveniencies of life, for himself, or102 such of his family or tribe as are either too old, or too young, or too infirm to go a hunting and fishing. Such nations, however, are so miserably poor, that from mere want, they are frequently reduced, or, at least, think themselves reduced, to the necessity sometimes of directly destroying, and sometimes of abandoning their infants, their old people, and those afflicted with lingering diseases, to perish with hunger, or to be devoured by wild beasts. Among civilized and thriving nations, on the contrary, though a great number of people do not labour at all, many of whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently of a hundred times more labour than the greater part of those who work; yet the produce of the whole labour of the society is so great, that all are often abundantly supplied, and a workman, even of the lowest and poorest order, if he is frugal and industrious, may enjoy a greater share of the necessaries and conveniencies of life than it is possible for any savage to acquire.

The causes103 of this improvement, in the productive powers of labour, and the order, according to which its produce is naturally distributed104 among the different ranks and conditions of men in the society, make the subject of the First Book of this Inquiry.

Whatever be the actual state of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which labour is applied in any nation, the abundance or scantiness of its annual supply must depend, during the continuance of that state, upon the proportion between the number of those who are annually employed in useful labour, and that of those who are not so employed. The number of useful and productive105 labourers, it will hereafter appear, is everywhere in proportion to the quantity of capital stock which is employed in setting them to work, and to the particular way in which it is so employed. The Second Book, therefore, treats of the nature of capital stock, of the manner in which it is gradually accumulated, and of the different quantities of labour which it puts into motion, according to the different ways in which it is employed.

Nations tolerably well advanced as to skill, dexterity, and judgment, in the application of labour, have followed very different plans in the general conduct or direction of it; and those plans have not all been equally favourable to the greatness of its produce. The policy of some nations has given extraordinary encouragement to the industry of the country; that of others to the industry of towns. Scarce any nation has dealt equally and impartially with every sort of industry. Since the downfall of the Roman empire, the policy of Europe has been more favourable to arts, manufactures, and commerce, the industry of towns; than to agriculture, the industry of the country. The circumstances which seem to have introduced and established this policy are explained in the Third Book.

Though those different plans were, perhaps, first introduced by the private interests and prejudices of particular orders of men, without any regard to, or foresight of, their consequences upon the general welfare of the society; yet they have given occasion to very different theories of political œconomy;106 of which some magnify the importance of that industry which is carried on in towns, others of that which is carried on in the country. Those theories have had a considerable influence, not only upon the opinions of men of learning, but upon the public conduct of princes and sovereign states. I have endeavoured, in the Fourth Book, to explain, as fully and distinctly as I can, those different theories, and the principal effects which they have produced in different ages and nations.

To explain107 in what has consisted the revenue of the great body of the people, or what has been the nature108 of those funds, which, in different ages and nations, have supplied their annual consumption, is the object of109 these Four first Books. The Fifth and last Book treats of the revenue of the sovereign, or commonwealth. In this book I have endeavoured to show; first, what are the necessary expenses of the sovereign, or commonwealth; which of those expenses ought to be defrayed by the general contribution of the whole society; and which of them, by that of some particular part only, or of some particular members of it:110 secondly, what are the different methods in which the whole society may be made to contribute towards defraying the expenses incumbent on the whole society, and what are the principal advantages and inconveniencies of each of those methods: and, thirdly and lastly, what are the reasons and causes which have induced almost all modern governments to mortgage some part of this revenue, or to contract debts, and what have been the effects of those debts upon the real wealth, the annual produce of the land and labour of the society.111

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