Adam Smith- The Wealth of Nations

[The Lawspeaker]

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
By Adam Smith (1776)





TABLE OF CONTENTS

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.

Book One Introduction
Chapter 1 - Of The Division of Labour
Chapter 2 - Of the Principle which gives occasion to the Division of Labour
Chapter 3 - That the Division of Labour is limited by the Extent of the Market
Chapter 4 - Of the Origin and Use of Money
Chapter 5 - Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities, or their Price in Labour, and their Price in Money
Chapter 6 - Of the Component Parts of the Price of Commodities
Chapter 7 - Of the Natural and Market Price of Commodities
Chapter 8 - Of the Wages of Labour
Chapter 9 - Of the Profits of Stock
Chapter 10 - Of Wages and Profit in the different Employments of Labour and Stock
Chapter 10 - Part 1 - Inequalities arising from the Nature of the Employments themselves
Chapter 10 - Part 2 - Inequalities by the Policy of Europe
Chapter 11 - Of the Rent of Land
Chapter 11 - Part 1 - Of the Produce of Land which always affords Rent
Chapter 11 - Part 2 - Of the Produce of Land which sometimes does, and sometimes does not, afford Rent
Chapter 11 - Part 3 - Of the Variations in the Proportion between the respective Values of that Sort of Produce ...
Chapter 11 - Tables referred to in Chapter 11, Part 3
Chapter 11 - Digressions concerning the variations in the value of silver during the course of the last four centuries
Chapter 11 - - - First Period
Chapter 11 - - - Second Period
Chapter 11 - - - Third Period
Chapter 11 - Variations in the proportion between the respective values of gold and silver
Chapter 11 - Grounds of the suspicion that the value of silver still continues to decrease
Chapter 11 - Different effects of the progress of improvement upon three different sorts of rude produce
Chapter 11 - - - First Sort
Chapter 11 - - - Second Sort
Chapter 11 - - - Third Sort
Chapter 11 - Conclusion of the Digression concerning variations in the value of silver
Chapter 11 - Effects of the progress of improvement upon the real price of manufactures
Chapter 11 - Conclusion of the Chapter

BOOK TWO - OF THE NATURE, ACCUMULATION, AND EMPLOYMENT OF STOCK

Book Two Introduction
Chapter 1 - Of The Division of Stock
Chapter 2 - Of Money considered as a particular Branch of the general Stock of the Society ...
Chapter 3 - Of the Accumulation of Capital, or of Productive and Unproductive Labour
Chapter 4 - Of Stock Lent at Interest
Chapter 5 - Of the Different Employment of Capitals

BOOK THREE - OF THE DIFFERENT PROGRESS OF OPULENCE IN DIFFERENT NATIONS

Chapter 1 - Of the Natural Progress of Opulence
Chapter 2 - Of the Discouragement of Agriculture in the ancient State of Europe after the Fall of the Roman Empire
Chapter 3 - Of the Rise and Progress of Cities and Towns after the Fall of the Roman Empire
Chapter 4 - How the Commerce of the Towns Contributed to the Improvement of the Country

BOOK FOUR - OF SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

Book Four Introduction
Chapter 1 - Of the Principle of the Commercial, or Mercantile System
Chapter 2 - Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries of such Goods as can be produced at Home
Chapter 3 - Of the extraordinary Restraints upon the Importation of Goods of almost all kinds from those Countries ...
Chapter 3 - Part 1 - Of the Unreasonableness of those Restraints even upon the Principles of the Commercial System
Chapter 3 - Part 1 - Digression concerning Banks of Deposit, particularly concerning that of Amsterdam
Chapter 3 - Part 2 - Of the Unreasonableness of those extraordinary Restraints upon other Principles
Chapter 4 - Of Drawbacks
Chapter 5 - Of Bounties
Chapter 5 - Digression concerning the Corn Trade and Corn Laws
Chapter 6 - Of Treaties of Commerce
Chapter 7 - Of Colonies
Chapter 7 - Part 1 - Of the Motives for establishing new Colonies
Chapter 7 - Part 2 - Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies
Chapter 7 - Part 3 - Of the Advantages which Europe has derived from the Discovery of America ... Passage to the East Indies ...
Chapter 8 - Conclusion of the Mercantile System
Chapter 9 - Of the Agricultural Systems, or of those Systems of Political Economy which represent the Produce of Land ...

BOOK FIVE - OF THE REVENUE OF THE SOVEREIGN OR COMMONWEALTH

Chapter 1 - Part 1 - Of the Expenses of the Sovereign or Commonwealth
Chapter 1 - - - Of the Expense of Defence - Militia
Chapter 1 - - - Of the Expense of Defence - Standing Army
Chapter 1 - Part 2 - Of the Expense of Justice
Chapter 1 - Part 3 - Of the Expense of Public Works and Public Institutions
Chapter 1 - Article 1 - Of the Public Works and Institutions for facilitating the Commerce of the Society ...
Chapter 1 - - - Of those which are necessary for facilitating Commerce in general
Chapter 1 - - - Of the Public Works and Institutions which are necessary for facilitating particular Branches of Commerce
Chapter 1 - - - Joint Stock Companies
Chapter 1 - Article 2 - Of the Expense of the Institutions for the Education of Youth
Chapter 1 - - - Modern Institutions for Education
Chapter 1 - - - Different Plans in Different Nations
Chapter 1 - - - Education of Women
Chapter 1 - Article 3 - Of the Expense of the Institutions for the Instruction of People of all Ages
Chapter 1 - - - Chiefly those for religious instruction
Chapter 1 - - - Austere or Liberal Schemes
Chapter 1 - - - Collation of Power in Europe to the Pope
Chapter 1 - - - Declension of the authority of the Church of Rome
Chapter 1 - - - The Lutheran and Calvinistic sects following the Reformation
Chapter 1 - - - University vs Church Benefices
Chapter 1 - - - Revenue for education
Chapter 1 - Part 4 - Of the Expense of Supporting the Dignity of the Sovereign - AND - Conclusion
Chapter 2 - Of the Sources of the General or Public Revenue of the Society
Chapter 2 - Part 1 - Of the Funds or Sources of Revenue which may peculiarly belong to the Sovereign or Commonwealth
Chapter 2 - Part 2 - Of Taxes
Chapter 2 - Article 1 - Taxes upon Rent. Taxes upon the Rent of Land
Chapter 2 - - - Taxes which are proportioned, not to the Rent, but to the Produce of Land
Chapter 2 - - - Taxes upon the Rent of House
Chapter 2 - Article 2 - Taxes on Profit, or upon the Revenue arising from Stock
Chapter 2 - - - Taxes upon Profit of particular Employments
Chapter 2 - Appendix to Articles 1 and 2 - Taxes upon the Capital Value of Land, Houses, and Stock
Chapter 2 - Article 3 - Taxes upon the Wages of Labour
Chapter 2 - Article 4 - Taxes which, it is intended, should fall indifferently upon every different Species of Revenue
Chapter 2 - - - Capitation Taxes
Chapter 2 - - - Taxes upon Consumable Commodities
Chapter 2 - - - The Mercantile System
Chapter 2 - - - Tax on Fermented and Spirituous liquors
Chapter 2 - - - Customs and Excise Duties
Chapter 2 - - - Absentee Tax
Chapter 2 - - - Taxes on Luxury Goods
Chapter 2 - - - Comparisons with other Countries
Chapter 2 - - - Administration of Tax Collecting
Chapter 3 - Of Public Debts
Chapter 3 - - - Public Borrowing
Chapter 3 - - - Defraying the cost of War
Chapter 3 - - - The rise of the Public Debt
Chapter 3 - - - Dealing with the Public Debt
Chapter 3 - - - Growth in Capital
Chapter 3 - - - Sources of Revenue
Chapter 3 - - - Inflation
Chapter 3 - - - Stamp Duties
Chapter 3 - Appendix

PREFACE

The Adam Smith Institute is proud to present the full text of Adam Smith's great book, The Wealth of Nations, online.

This remarkable book was published in 1776, at a time when the power of free trade and competition as stimulants to innovation and progress was scarcely understood. Governments granted monopolies and gave subsidies to protect their own merchants, farmers and manufacturers against 'unfair' competition. The guilds operated stern local cartels: artisans of one town were prevented from travelling to another to find work. Local and national laws forbade the use of new, labour-saving machinery.

And, not surprisingly to us today, poverty was accepted as the common, natural, and inevitable lot of most people.

Adam Smith railed against this restrictive, regulated, 'mercantilist' system, and showed convincingly how the principles of free trade, competition, and choice would spur economic development, reduce poverty, and precipitate the social and moral improvement of humankind. To illustrate his concepts, he scoured the world for examples that remain just as vivid today: from the diamond mines of Golconda to the price of Chinese silver in Peru; from the fisheries of Holland to the plight of Irish prostitutes in London. And so persuasive were his arguments that they not only provided the world with a new understanding of the wealth-creating process; they laid the intellectual foundation for the great era of free trade and economic expansion that dominated the Nineteenth Century.

The Wealth of Nations changed our understanding of the economic world just as Newton's Principia changed our understanding of the physical world and Darwin's Origin of Species. And now, it is here online, for you to read, and enjoy.

Dr. Aemmon Butler
Director of the Adam Smith Institute
London 2001

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