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# Certificates

## Definition

Official documents issued by one parish that certify a person's legal settlement there, allowing them to reside in another parish without gaining settlement rights there, serving as a partial remedy to the settlement laws' restrictions on labour mobility.

## Source Chapter

Book I, Chapter 10

## Context

Smith discusses certificates as an administrative mechanism developed to partially restore the free circulation of labour that settlement laws had obstructed. While certificates allow poor persons to move between parishes without automatically gaining settlement rights, Smith notes they are often difficult to obtain and create their own forms of administrative control.

## Economic Domain

Regulation

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