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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 Improvement of the Country.]

BOOK IV.

OF SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.

PAGE

Introduction

II.

1. Of the Principle of the Commercial or Mercantile System
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.

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 Commerce.]
[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.]

196 X 197 X

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.]

PAGE

258

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. 1st. For
facilitating the general Commerce of the So-
ciety. 2d. For facilitating particular Branches of
Commerce.]

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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

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260

261

ARTICLE I. Taxes upon Rent; upon the Rent of
Land.

262

Taxes which are proportioned not to the Rent, but

to the Produce of Land

266

Taxes upon Rent of Houses

267

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274

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.
Taxes upon the

capital Value of Lands, Houses, and Stock.]
ARTICLE III. Taxes upon the Wages of Labour
ARTICLE IV. Taxes which, it is intended, should

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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

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 conveniencies 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 civilized 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 conveniencies 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; and 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 these different plans were, perhaps, first introduced by the private interests and prejudices of particular

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