An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

by Adam Smith

appropriation

stock

subsistence,

or by what their labour adds to the value of the materials.

He could have no interest to employ them, unless he expected from the sale of their work something more than what was sufficient to replace his stock to him; and

he could have no interest to employ a great stock rather than a small one, unless his profits were to bear some proportion to the extent of his stock.

capital

reposed

discharged

regular proportion to his capital.

As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce. The wood of the forest, the grass of the field, and all the natural fruits of the earth, which, when land was in common, cost the labourer only the trouble of gathering them, come, even to him, to have an additional price fixed upon them. He must then pay for the licence to gather them, and must give up to the landlord a portion of what his labour either collects or produces. This portion, or, what comes to the same thing, the price of this portion, constitutes the rent of land, and in the price of the greater part of commodities, makes a third component part.

Labour measures the value, not only of that part of price which resolves itself into

labour,

but of that which resolves ...

r...

and of that which resolves ...

pr...

in every improved society, all the three enter, more or less, as component parts, into the price of the far greater part of commodities.

Labour, rent and profit

flax

linen

As any particular commodity comes to be more manufactured, that part of the price which resolves itself into wages and profit, comes to be greater in proportion to that which resolves itself into rent.

subsequent

foreg...

and the profits must always bear some proportion to the capital.

In the most improved societies,

there are always a few commodities of which the price resolves itself into two parts only the wages of la...

capital

commodity,

either as the wages of their labour, the profits of their stock, or the rent of their land.

Wages, profit, and rent, are the three original sources of all revenue,

as well as of all exchangeable value.

that derived from it by the person who does not employ it himself, but lends it to another, is called the interest or the use of money.

The interest of money is always a derivative revenue,

spendthrift,

revenue

of the farmer is derived partly from his labour, and partly from his stock.

wages of this...

profits of thi...

re...

salaries, pe...

annu...

mediately

the wages of labour, the profits of stock, or the rent of land.

re...

confounded

As in a civilized country there are but few commodities of which the exchangeable value arises from labour only, rent and profit contributing largely to that of the far greater part of them,

ordinary or average rate, both of wages and profit,

There is likewise in every society or neighbourhood an ordinary or average rate of rent, which is regulated, too, as I shall shew hereafter, partly by the general circumstances of the society or neighbourhood in which the land is situated, and partly by the natural or improved fertility of the land.

When the price of any commodity is neither more nor less than what is

sufficient to pay the rent of the land, the wages of the labour, and the profits of the stock employed in raising, preparing, and bringing it to market, according to their natural rates, the commodity is then sold for what may be called its