BOOK FOUR INTRODUCTION ——————————————————————————– OF SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY POLITICAL economy, considered as a branch of the science of a statesman or legislator, proposes two distinct objects: first, to provide a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people, or more properly to enable them to provide such a revenue or subsistence for themselves; and secondly, […]

BOOK THREE CHAPTER ONE ——————————————————————————– OF THE DIFFERENT PROGRESS OF OPULENCE IN DIFFERENT NATIONS Of the Natural Progress of Opulence THE great commerce of every civilised society is that carried on between the inhabitants of the town and those of the country. It consists in the exchange of rude for manufactured produce, either immediately, or […]

BOOK TWO – INTRODUCTION OF THE NATURE, ACCUMULATION, AND EMPLOYMENT OF STOCK ——————————————————————————– IN that rude state of society in which there is no division of labour, in which exchanges are seldom made, and in which every man provides everything for himself, it is not necessary that any stock should be accumulated or stored up […]

BOOK ONE OF THE CAUSES OF IMPROVEMENT IN THE PRODUCTIVE POWERS. OF LABOUR, AND OF THE ORDER ACCORDING TO WHICH ITS. PRODUCE IS NATURALLY DISTRIBUTED AMONG THE DIFFERENT RANKS OF THE PEOPLE. CHAPTER I ——————————————————————————– Of the Division of Labour THE greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the […]

by Adam Smith – 1776 Adam Smith founded the science of political economy when he published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776. So significant were the effects of this book on the modern world that it has been described as one of the most important ever written. […]