CONTENTS.1

Introduction and Plan of the Work

BOOK I.

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

PAGE

5

II. Of the Principle which gives occasion to the Division of

III. That the Division of Labour is limited by the Extent of the

Market

IV. Of the Origin and the Use of Money.

V. Of the real and nominal Price of Commodities, or of their

Price in Labour and their Price in Money

VI. Of the component Parts of the Price of Commodities

VII. Of the natural and market Price of Commodities

VIII. Of the Wages of Labour

IX. Of the Profits of Stock.

X.

Of Wages and Profit in the different Employments of Labour

and of Stock

PART I. Inequalities arising from the Nature of the

Employments themselves

PART II. Inequalities occasioned by the Policy of

Europe

PART I. Of the Produce of Land which always affords

Rent

1 The original table of contents is prefixed to indicate the relation of the selected

chapters and passages to the whole treatise. Chapters entirely unrepresented here

are bracketed.

CHAPTER

XI. (Cont.)

[PART II. Of the Produce of Land which sometimes

does, and sometimes does not, afford Rent.]

[PART III. Of the Variations in the Proportion between

the respective Values of that sort of Produce which
always affords Rent, and of that which sometimes does,
and sometimes does not, afford Rent.]
[Digression concerning the Variations in the Value of
Silver during the course of the four last Centuries.
First Period. Second Period. Third Period.]

[Variations in the Proportion between the respective

Values of Gold and Silver.]

[Grounds of the Suspicion that the Value of Silver may
still continue to decrease.]

[Different Effects of the Progress of Improvement upon
the real Price of three different Sorts of rude Produce.
First Sort. Second Sort. Third Sort.]

[Conclusion of the Digression concerning the Variations

in the Value of Silver.]

Effects of the Progress of Improvement upon the real

PAGE

139

OF THE NATURE, ACCUMULATION, AND EMPLOYMENT OF STOCK.

Introduction

I. Of the Division of Stock

[II. Of Money considered as a particular Branch of the general
Stock of the Society, or of the Expense of maintaining the
National Capital.]

III. Of the Accumulation of Capital, or of productive and unpro-

ductive Labour

IV. Of Stock lent at Interest

V. Of the different Employment of Capitals

BOOK III.

146

149

OF THE DIFFERENT PROGRESS OF OPULENCE IN DIFFERENT NATIONS.

189

I. Of the natural Progress of Opulence.

[II. Of the Discouragement of Agriculture in the ancient State of
Europe, after the Fall of the Roman Empire.]

CHAPTER

[III. Of the Rise and Progress of Cities and Towns, after the Fall of

the Roman Empire.]

[IV. How the Commerce of the Towns contributed to the Improve-

ment of the Country.]

BOOK IV.

OF SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.

PAGE

Introduction

I. Of the Principle of the Commercial or Mercantile System

II. Of the Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries

of such Goods as can be produced at Home

[III. Of the extraordinary Restraints upon the Importation of Goods
of almost all kinds, from those Countries with which the
Balance is supposed to be disadvantageous.

197

PART I. Of the Unreasonableness of those Restraints,
even upon the Principles of the Commercial System.
Digression concerning Banks of Deposit, particularly
concerning that of Amsterdam.

PART II. Of the Unreasonableness of those extraordi-
nary Restraints, upon other Principles.]

[IV. Of Drawbacks.]

[V. Of Bounties.

Digression concerning the Corn Trade and Corn Laws.]
[VI. Of Treaties of Cominerce.]
[VII. Of Colonies.

PART I. Of the Motives for establishing new Colonies.
PART II. Causes of the Prosperity of new Colonies.
PART III. Of the Advantages which Europe has de-
rived from the Discovery of America, and from that
of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good
Hope.]

VIII. Conclusion of the Mercantile System (in 3rd ed.)

IX. Of the Agricultural Systems, or of those Systems of Political

Economy which represent the Produce of Land as either

the sole or the principal Source of the Revenue and Wealth

of every Country

.

[APPENDIX.

Account of Herring Busses fitted out in Scotland, the amount
of their Cargoes and the Bounties on them.
Account of Foreign Salt imported into Scotland, and of
Scotch Salt delivered duty free, for the Herring Fishery.]

219

233

234

BOOK V.

OF THE REVENUE OF THE SOVEREIGN OR COMMONWEALTH.

CHAPTER

I. Of the Expenses of the Sovereign or Commonwealth

[PART I. Expense of Defence.]

[PART II. Of the Expense of Justice.]

PART III. Of the Expense of Public Works and Public

Institutions

[ARTICLE I. Of the Public Works and Institutions

for facilitating the Commerce of Society. Ist. For

facilitating the general Commerce of the So-

ciety. 2d. For facilitating particular Branches of

Commerce.]

ARTICLE II. Of the Expense of the Institutions for

the Education of Youth

[ARTICLE III. Of the Expense of the Institutions

for the Instruction of People of all Ages.]

[PART IV. Of the Expense of supporting the Dignity of

the Sovereign.]

II. Sources of the General or Public Revenue of the Society

[PART I. Of the Funds or Sources of Revenue which

may particularly belong to the Sovereign or Common-

wealth.]

PART II. Of Taxes

258

258

260

ARTICLE I. Taxes upon Rent; upon the Rent of

Land.

Taxes which are proportioned not to the Rent, but

to the Produce of Land

Taxes upon Rent of Houses

ARTICLE II. Taxes upon Profit, or upon the Rev-

enue arising from Stock

Taxes upon the Profit of particular Employments

[APPENDIX to Articles I. and II.

261

262

266

267

capital Value of Lands, Houses, and Stock.]

ARTICLE III. Taxes upon the Wages of Labour 276

ARTICLE IV. Taxes which, it is intended, should

fall indifferently upon every different Species of

Revenue

AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND

CAUSES OF THE WEALTH

NATIONS.

OF

INTRODUCTION AND PLAN OF THE WORK.

THE annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies 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 conveniencies 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 employed 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