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

by Adam Smith

As riches, improvement, and population, have increased, interest has declined.

The demand for labour increases with the increase of stock,

A great stock, though with small profits, generally increases faster than a small stock with great profits. Money, says the

proverb, makes money.

When you have got a little, it is often easy to get more. The great difficult...

accumulation of stock.

accession

accession

capital stock

mortgaged

usury

A country which neglects or despises foreign commerce, and which admits the vessel of foreign nations into one or two of its ports only, cannot transact the same quantity of business which it might do with different laws and institutions.

In every different branch, the oppression of the poor must establish the monopoly of the rich, who, by engrossing the whole trade to themselves, will be able to make very large profits.

A defect in the law may sometimes raise the rate of interest considerably above what the condition of the country, as to wealth or poverty, would require. When the law does not enforce the performance of contracts, it puts all borrowers nearly upon the same footing with bankrupts, or people of doubtful credit, in better regulated countries.

usurious

Mahometan

The

lowest ordinary rate

of profit must always be something more than what is sufficient to compensate the occasional losses to which ever...

It is this surplus only which is neat or...

What is ...

gross p...

comprehends frequently no...

surplus, but what is retained for compensating such ext...

The interest which the borrower can afford to pay is in proportion to ...

prudence,

superintend

highest ordinary rate

market rate of interest

clear profit,

necessarily varies as profit ris...

clear profit

low rate of profit

The rise of profit operates like compound interest.

Pecuniary

collier,

The keeper of an inn or tavern, who is never master of his own house, and who is exposed to the brutality of every drunkard, exercises neither a very agreeable nor a very creditable business. But there is scarce any common trade in which a small stock yields so great a profit.

ingenious

pecuniary

recom...

One branch, either of foreign or domestic trade, cannot well be a much more intricate business than another.

Thirdly, the wages of labour in

different occupations vary with the constancy or inconsta...

artificers

inconstancy

collier

soever

probity

prudence. The different rates of profit, therefore, in the different branches of trade, cannot arise from the different

re...