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

by Adam Smith

natural ...

prime cost of any commodity does not comprehend the profit of the person who is to sell it again, yet, if he sells it at a price which does not allow him the ordinary rate of profit in his neighbourhood, he is evidently a loser by the trade; since, by employing his stock in some other way, he might have made that profit.

His profit, besides, is his revenue,

The actual price at which any commodity is commonly sold, is called its market price.

It may either be above, or below, or exactly the same with its natural price.

The market price of every particular commodity is regulated by the proportion between the quantity which is act...

demand of those who are willing to pay the natural price of the commodity, or the whole value of the rent, labour, and profit, which must...

effectual dem...

effectual ...

absolute demand.

effectual demand,

effectual demand;

central price,

temporary fluctuations

market price of any commodity

lease,

the market price of every particular commodity is

gravitating,

towards the natur...

effectual demand

emoluments,

The exclusive privileges of corporations, statutes of apprenticeship, and all those laws which restrain in particular employments, the competition to a smaller number than might otherwise go into them, have the same tendency, though in a less degree. They are a sort of enlarged monopolies, and may frequently, for ages together, and in whole classes of employments, keep up the market price of particular commodities above the natural price, and maintain both the wages of the labour and the profits of the stock employed about them somewhat above their natural rate.

The market price of any particular commodity, though it may continue long above,

can seldom continue long below, its natural price.

int...

As in the one case they exclude many people from his employment, so in the other they exclude him from many employments.

Indostan

market price

natural price.

rate of wages,

in what manner those circumstances are affected by the riches or poverty, by the advancing, stationary, or declining state of the society.

rate of profit;

pecuniary

OF THE WAGES OF LABOUR.

produce

recom...

Let us suppose, for example, that in the greater part of employments the productive powers of labour had been improved to tenfold, or that a day's labour could produce ten times the quantity of work which it had done originally; but that in a particular employment they had been improved only to double, or that a day's labour could produce only twice the quantity of work which it had done before. In exchanging the produce of a day's labour in the greater part of employments for that of a day's labour in this particular one, ten times the original quantity of work in them would purchase only twice the original quantity in it. Any particular quantity in it, therefore, a pound weight, for example, would appear to be five times

dearer than before. In reality, however, it would be twice as cheap. Though it required five times the quantity of other goods to purchase it, it would require only half the quantity of labour either to purchase or to produce it. The acquisition, therefore, would be twice as easy as before.

appropriation of land

As soon as land becomes private property, the landlord demands a share of almost all the produce which the labourer can either raise or collect from it. His rent makes the first

deduction from the produce of the labour which is employed upon land.

where...

stock

This profit makes a second deduction from the produce of the labour which is employed upon land. The produce of almost all other labour is liable to the like deduction of profit.

to advance them the materials of their work,

It sometimes happens, indeed, that a single independent workman has stock sufficient both to purchase the materials of his work, and to maintain himself till it be completed. He is both master and workman,

common wages of labour, depends everywhere upon the contract

usually made between those two parties,

tacit,

reproach