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# Country Gentlemen

## Definition

Landowners who borrow money, typically through mortgages, not for immediate consumption but to replace capital they have already consumed through extended credit arrangements with tradesmen and shopkeepers. Their borrowing pattern represents a specific form of capital replacement rather than capital creation.

## Source Chapter

Book II, Chapter 4

## Context

Smith uses this group to illustrate a particular borrowing pattern where the capital is not truly new but replaces previously consumed capital. This analysis helps explain why lending to this group, while not highly profitable, is not necessarily economically destructive.

## Economic Domain

Distribution

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