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# Profits of Stock

## Definition

The portion of a commodity's price that compensates the owner of capital for advancing materials, wages, and risking their investment in production. This represents the return on capital employed in manufacturing or commercial ventures.

## Source Chapter

Book I, Chapter 6

## Context

One of the three component parts of price, distinguished from wages of labour. Smith argues that profits are regulated by the value of stock employed rather than by the quantity or hardship of supervision labour, using the example of different manufacturing scales to illustrate this principle.

## Economic Domain

Distribution

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