- •Contents
- •Introduction and Plan of the Work
- •Chapter I
- •Of the Division of Labour
- •Chapter II
- •Of the Principle which gives occasion to the Division of Labour
- •Chapter III
- •That the Division of Labour is limited by the Extent of the Market
- •Chapter IV
- •Of the Origin and Use of Money
- •Chapter V
- •Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities, or their Price in Labour, and their Price in Money
- •Chapter VI
- •Chapter VII
- •Of the Natural and Market Price of Commodities
- •Chapter VIII
- •Of the Wages of Labour
- •Chapter IX
- •Of the Profits of Stock
- •Chapter X
- •Of Wages and Profit in the different Employments of Labour and Stock
- •PART 1
- •Inequalities arising from the Nature of the Employments themselves
- •PART 2
- •Inequalities by the Policy of Europe
- •Chapter XI
- •Of the Rent of Land
- •PART 1
- •Of the Produce of Land which always affords Rent
- •PART 2
- •Of the Produce of Land which sometimes does, and sometimes does not, afford Rent
- •PART 3
- •DIGRESSION CONCERNING THE VARIATIONS IN THE VALUE OF SILVER DURING THE COURSE OF THE FOUR LAST CENTURIES
- •First Period
- •Second Period
- •Third Period
- •DIFFERENT EFFECTS OF THE PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT UPON THREE DIFFERENT SORTS OF RUDE PRODUCE
- •First Sort
- •Second Sort
- •Third Sort
- •CONCLUSION OF THE CHAPTER
- •Tables Referred to in Chapter 11, Part 3
- •Introduction
- •Chapter I
- •Of the Division of Stock
- •Chapter II
- •Chapter III
- •Of the Accumulation of Capital, or of Productive and Unproductive Labour
- •Chapter IV
- •Of Stock Lent at Interest
- •Chapter V
- •Chapter I
- •Chapter II
- •Chapter III
- •Chapter IV
- •Chapter I
- •Chapter II
- •Chapter III
- •PART 1
- •Of the Unreasonableness of those Restraints even upon the Principles of the Commercial System
- •PART 2
- •Of the Unreasonableness of those extraordinary Restraints upon other Principles
- •Chapter IV
- •Chapter V
- •Chapter VI
- •Chapter VII
- •PART 1
- •Of the Motives for establishing new Colonies
- •PART 2
- •Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies
- •PART 3
- •Chapter VIII
- •Chapter IX
- •Chapter I
- •Chapter II
- •PART 1
- •Of the Funds or Sources of Revenue which may peculiarly belong to the Sovereign or Commonwealth
- •PART 2
- •Of Taxes
- •ARTICLE I
- •Taxes upon Rent. Taxes upon the Rent of Land
- •Taxes which are proportioned, not to the Rent, but to the Produce of Land
- •Taxes upon the Rent of Houses
- •ARTICLE II
- •Taxes on Profit, or upon the Revenue arising from Stock
- •Taxes upon as Profit of particular Employments
- •Appendix to ARTICLES I and II.
- •Taxes upon the Capital Value of Land, Houses, and Stock
- •ARTICLE III
- •Taxes upon the Wages of Labour
- •ARTICLE IV
- •Taxes which, it is intended, should fall indifferently upon every different Species of Revenue
- •Capitation Taxes
- •Taxes upon Consumable Commodities
- •Chapter III
The Wealth of Nations: Book 1 |
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Chapter X
Of Wages and Profit in the different Employments of Labour and Stock
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. If in the same neighbourhood, there was any employment evidently either more or less advantageous than the rest, so many people would crowd into it in the one case, and so many would desert it in the other, that its advantages would soon return to the level of other employments. This at least would be the case in a society where things were left to follow their natural course, where there was perfect liberty, and where every man was perfectly free both to choose what occupation he thought proper, and to change it as often as he thought proper. Every man’s interest would prompt him to seek the advantageous, and to shun the disadvantageous employment.
Pecuniary wages and profit, indeed, are everywhere in Europe extremely different according to the different employments of labour and stock. But this difference arises partly from certain circumstances in the employments themselves, which, either really, or at least in the imaginations of men, make up for a small pecuniary gain in some, and counterbalance a great one in others; and partly from the policy of Europe, which nowhere leaves things at perfect liberty.
The particular consideration of those circumstances and of that
Adam Smith |
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