An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsP. F. Collier & son, 1909 - 590 pages |
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advantage afford altogether annual produce artificers balance of trade bank bounty Britain cattle cent cheaper circulating capital circulation coin commerce commodities commonly consequence considerable consumed corn dealers declension diminish division of labour duties employment England equal Europe exchange expence exportation farmer favour foreign trade France frequently fund gold and silver importation increase industry inhabitants interest joint stock companies kind land and labour landlord less maintain manner manufactures ment merchants metals money price nations natural natural price necessarily necessary obliged occasion ordinary profits paid particular pence perhaps Peru pound weight pounds pounds sterling productive labour profits of stock prohibition proportion purchase quantity of labour raise regulated rent of land revenue rude produce Scotland seems seldom sell shillings society sometimes sort sovereign subsistence sufficient supposed things tion tivation town trade of consumption wages of labour wealth whole wines of Portugal wool workmen
Popular passages
Page 323 - By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.
Page 137 - People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment and diversion but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or in some contrivance to raise prices.
Page 129 - The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable.
Page 20 - It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their selflove, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.
Page 52 - 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.
Page 126 - The whole of the advantages and disadvantages of the different employments of labour and stock must, in the same neighbourhood, be either perfectly equal or continually tending to equality.
Page 22 - ... different genius which appears to distinguish men of different professions, when grown up to maturity, is not upon many occasions so much the cause as the effect of the division of labor.
Page 324 - It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy. The tailor does not attempt to make his own shoes, but buys them of the shoemaker. The shoemaker does not attempt to make his own clothes, but employs a tailor.
Page 219 - ... the interest of the public. The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufacture, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers. To widen the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the public ; but to narrow the competition must always be against...
Page 113 - The over-weening conceit which the greater part of men have of their own abilities, is an ancient evil remarked by the philosophers and moralists of all ages. Their absurd presumption in their own good fortune, has been less taken notice of.