目录
Content
Chapter_1
Chapter_2
Chapter_3
Chapter_4
Chapter_5
Chapter_6
Chapter_7
Chapter_8
Chapter_9
Chapter_10
Chapter_11
Chapter_12
Chapter_13
Chapter_14
Chapter_15
Chapter_16
Chapter_17
Chapter_18
Chapter_19
Chapter_20
Chapter_21
Chapter_22
Chapter_23
Chapter_24
Chapter_25
Chapter_26
Chapter_27
Chapter_28
Chapter_29
Chapter_30
Chapter_31
Chapter_32
Chapter_33
Chapter_34
Chapter_35
Chapter_36
Chapter_37
Chapter_38
Chapter_39
Chapter_40
Chapter_41
Chapter_42
Chapter_43
Chapter_44
Chapter_45
Chapter_46
Chapter_47
Chapter_48
Chapter_49
Chapter_50
Chapter_51
Chapter_52
Chapter_53
Chapter_54
Chapter_55
Chapter_56
Chapter_57
Chapter_58
Chapter_59
Chapter_60
Chapter_61
Chapter_62
Chapter_63
Chapter_64
Chapter_65
Chapter_66
Chapter_67
Chapter_68
Chapter_69
Chapter_70
Chapter_71
Chapter_72
Chapter_73
Chapter_74
Chapter_1
An Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith
Introduction and Plan of the Work
THE annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the
necessaries and conveniences of life 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 conveniences for which it has occasion.
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; and, secondly,
by the proportion between the number of those who are emplo yed in useful labour, and that of
those who are not so employed. 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 conveniences of life, for himself,
or 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 civilised 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 conveniences of life than it is possible for any savage to acquire.
The causes of this improvement, in the productive powers of labour, and the order,
according to which its produce is naturally distributed 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 productive 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; 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 economy; 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 explain in what has consisted the revenue of the great body of the people, or what has
been the nature of those funds which, in different ages and nations, have supplied their annual
consumption, is the object of 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