coulomb/markitect-main
2
0
Fork 0
Code Issues 61 Pull Requests Actions Projects 12 Releases 1 Wiki Activity

feat(llm): add LLM integration module with OpenRouter and Claude Code adapters

Browse Source 
Implements markitect/llm/ package with concrete LLMAdapter implementations:
- OpenRouterAdapter: HTTP via urllib with retry/backoff on 429/5xx
- ClaudeCodeAdapter: subprocess-based Claude CLI with stdin piping
- Factory pattern: create_adapter("openrouter") or create_adapter("claude-code")
- API key resolution chain: constructor > env var > project-root key file
- 42 unit tests, 2 integration tests (gated on API key / CLI availability)

Also adds the infospace-with-history example with Wealth of Nations VSM
analysis pipeline, templates, schemas, source chapters, and processed
output for chapters 1-2. process_chapters.py now supports --provider
and --model flags for automatic LLM-driven processing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Bernd Worsch
2026-02-11 01:17:58 +01:00
parent 360c3b1de2
commit fecc2fd4fa
82 changed files with 43767 additions and 0 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

610
examples/infospace-with-history/artifacts/sources/book-2-chapter-05.md Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,610 @@
---
id: book-2-chapter-05
title: "OF THE DIFFERENT EMPLOYMENTS OF CAPITALS."
book: "2"
chapter: 5
artifact_type: content
---
CHAPTER V.
OF THE DIFFERENT EMPLOYMENTS OF CAPITALS.
Though all capitals are destined for the maintenance of productive labour
only, yet the quantity of that labour which equal capitals are capable of
putting into motion, varies extremely according to the diversity of their
employment; as does likewise the value which that employment adds to the
annual produce of the land and labour of the country.
A capital may be employed in four different ways; either, first, in
procuring the rude produce annually required for the use and consumption
of the society; or, secondly, in manufacturing and preparing that rude
produce for immediate use and consumption; or, thirdly in transporting
either the rude or manufactured produce from the places where they abound
to those where they are wanted; or, lastly, in dividing particular
portions of either into such small parcels as suit the occasional demands
of those who want them. In the first way are employed the capitals of all
those who undertake improvement or cultivation of lands, mines, or
fisheries; in the second, those of all master manufacturers; in the third,
those of all wholesale merchants; and in the fourth, those of all
retailers. It is difficult to conceive that a capital should be employed
in any way which may not be classed under some one or other of those four.
Each of those four methods of employing a capital is essentially
necessary, either to the existence or extension of the other three, or to
the general conveniency of the society.
Unless a capital was employed in furnishing rude produce to a certain
degree of abundance, neither manufactures nor trade of any kind could
exist.
Unless a capital was employed in manufacturing that part of the rude
produce which requires a good deal of preparation before it can be fit for
use and consumption, it either would never be produced, because there
could be no demand for it; or if it was produced spontaneously, it would
be of no value in exchange, and could add nothing to the wealth of the
society.
Unless a capital was employed in transporting either the rude or
manufactured produce from the places where it abounds to those where it is
wanted, no more of either could be produced than was necessary for the
consumption of the neighbourhood. The capital of the merchant exchanges
the surplus produce of one place for that of another, and thus encourages
the industry, and increases the enjoyments of both.
Unless a capital was employed in breaking and dividing certain portions
either of the rude or manufactured produce into such small parcels as suit
the occasional demands of those who want them, every man would be obliged
to purchase a greater quantity of the goods he wanted than his immediate
occasions required. If there was no such trade as a butcher, for example,
every man would be obliged to purchase a whole ox or a whole sheep at a
time. This would generally be inconvenient to the rich, and much more so
to the poor. If a poor workman was obliged to purchase a month’s or six
months’ provisions at a time, a great part of the stock which he employs
as a capital in the instruments of his trade, or in the furniture of his
shop, and which yields him a revenue, he would be forced to place in that
part of his stock which is reserved for immediate consumption, and which
yields him no revenue. Nothing can be more convenient for such a person
than to be able to purchase his subsistence from day to day, or even from
hour to hour, as he wants it. He is thereby enabled to employ almost his
whole stock as a capital. He is thus enabled to furnish work to a greater
value; and the profit which he makes by it in this way much more than
compensates the additional price which the profit of the retailer imposes
upon the goods. The prejudices of some political writers against
shopkeepers and tradesmen are altogether without foundation. So far is it
from being necessary either to tax them, or to restrict their numbers,
that they can never be multiplied so as to hurt the public, though they
may so as to hurt one another. The quantity of grocery goods, for example,
which can be sold in a particular town, is limited by the demand of that
town and its neighbourhood. The capital, therefore, which can be employed
in the grocery trade, cannot exceed what is sufficient to purchase that
quantity. If this capital is divided between two different grocers, their
competition will tend to make both of them sell cheaper than if it were in
the hands of one only; and if it were divided among twenty, their
competition would be just so much the greater, and the chance of their
combining together, in order to raise the price, just so much the less.
Their competition might, perhaps, ruin some of themselves; but to take
care of this, is the business of the parties concerned, and it may safely
be trusted to their discretion. It can never hurt either the consumer or
the producer; on the contrary, it must tend to make the retailers both
sell cheaper and buy dearer, than if the whole trade was monopolised by
one or two persons. Some of them, perhaps, may sometimes decoy a weak
customer to buy what he has no occasion for. This evil, however, is of too
little importance to deserve the public attention, nor would it
necessarily be prevented by restricting their numbers. It is not the
multitude of alehouses, to give the must suspicious example, that
occasions a general disposition to drunkenness among the common people;
but that disposition, arising from other causes, necessarily gives
employment to a multitude of alehouses.
The persons whose capitals are employed in any of those four ways, are
themselves productive labourers. Their labour, when properly directed,
fixes and realizes itself in the subject or vendible commodity upon which
it is bestowed, and generally adds to its price the value at least of
their own maintenance and consumption. The profits of the farmer, of the
manufacturer, of the merchant, and retailer, are all drawn from the price
of the goods which the two first produce, and the two last buy and sell.
Equal capitals, however, employed in each of those four different ways,
will immediately put into motion very different quantities of productive
labour; and augment, too, in very different proportions, the value of the
annual produce of the land and labour of the society to which they belong.
The capital of the retailer replaces, together with its profits, that of
the merchant of whom he purchases goods, and thereby enables him to
continue his business. The retailer himself is the only productive
labourer whom it immediately employs. In his profit consists the whole
value which its employment adds to the annual produce of the land and
labour of the society.
The capital of the wholesale merchant replaces, together with their
profits, the capitals of the farmers and manufacturers of whom he
purchases the rude and manufactured produce which he deals in, and thereby
enables them to continue their respective trades. It is by this service
chiefly that he contributes indirectly to support the productive labour of
the society, and to increase the value of its annual produce. His capital
employs, too, the sailors and carriers who transport his goods from one
place to another; and it augments the price of those goods by the value,
not only of his profits, but of their wages. This is all the productive
labour which it immediately puts into motion, and all the value which it
immediately adds to the annual produce. Its operation in both these
respects is a good deal superior to that of the capital of the retailer.
Part of the capital of the master manufacturer is employed as a fixed
capital in the instruments of his trade, and replaces, together with its
profits, that of some other artificer of whom he purchases them. Part of
his circulating capital is employed in purchasing materials, and replaces,
with their profits, the capitals of the farmers and miners of whom he
purchases them. But a great part of it is always, either annually, or in a
much shorter period, distributed among the different workmen whom he
employs. It augments the value of those materials by their wages, and by
their masters’ profits upon the whole stock of wages, materials, and
instruments of trade employed in the business. It puts immediately into
motion, therefore, a much greater quantity of productive labour, and adds
a much greater value to the annual produce of the land and labour of the
society, than an equal capital in the hands of any wholesale merchant.
No equal capital puts into motion a greater quantity of productive labour
than that of the farmer. Not only his labouring servants, but his
labouring cattle, are productive labourers. In agriculture, too, Nature
labours along with man; and though her labour costs no expense, its
produce has its value, as well as that of the most expensive workmen. The
most important operations of agriculture seem intended, not so much to
increase, though they do that too, as to direct the fertility of Nature
towards the production of the plants most profitable to man. A field
overgrown with briars and brambles, may frequently produce as great a
quantity of vegetables as the best cultivated vineyard or corn field.
Planting and tillage frequently regulate more than they animate the active
fertility of Nature; and after all their labour, a great part of the work
always remains to be done by her. The labourers and labouring cattle,
therefore, employed in agriculture, not only occasion, like the workmen in
manufactures, the reproduction of a value equal to their own consumption,
or to the capital which employs them, together with its owner’s profits,
but of a much greater value. Over and above the capital of the farmer, and
all its profits, they regularly occasion the reproduction of the rent of
the landlord. This rent may be considered as the produce of those powers
of Nature, the use of which the landlord lends to the farmer. It is
greater or smaller, according to the supposed extent of those powers, or,
in other words, according to the supposed natural or improved fertility of
the land. It is the work of Nature which remains, after deducting or
compensating every thing which can be regarded as the work of man. It is
seldom less than a fourth, and frequently more than a third, of the whole
produce. No equal quantity of productive labour employed in manufactures,
can ever occasion so great reproduction. In them Nature does nothing; man
does all; and the reproduction must always be in proportion to the
strength of the agents that occasion it. The capital employed in
agriculture, therefore, not only puts into motion a greater quantity of
productive labour than any equal capital employed in manufactures; but in
proportion, too, to the quantity of productive labour which it employs, it
adds a much greater value to the annual produce of the land and labour of
the country, to the real wealth and revenue of its inhabitants. Of all the
ways in which a capital can be employed, it is by far the most
advantageous to society.
The capitals employed in the agriculture and in the retail trade of any
society, must always reside within that society. Their employment is
confined almost to a precise spot, to the farm, and to the shop of the
retailer. They must generally, too, though there are some exceptions to
this, belong to resident members of the society.
The capital of a wholesale merchant, on the contrary, seems to have no
fixed or necessary residence anywhere, but may wander about from place to
place, according as it can either buy cheap or sell dear.
The capital of the manufacturer must, no doubt, reside where the
manufacture is carried on; but where this shall be, is not always
necessarily determined. It may frequently be at a great distance, both
from the place where the materials grow, and from that where the complete
manufacture is consumed. Lyons is very distant, both from the places which
afford the materials of its manufactures, and from those which consume
them. The people of fashion in Sicily are clothed in silks made in other
countries, from the materials which their own produces. Part of the wool
of Spain is manufactured in Great Britain, and some part of that cloth is
afterwards sent back to Spain.
Whether the merchant whose capital exports the surplus produce of any
society, be a native or a foreigner, is of very little importance. If he
is a foreigner, the number of their productive labourers is necessarily
less than if he had been a native, by one man only; and the value of their
annual produce, by the profits of that one man. The sailors or carriers
whom he employs, may still belong indifferently either to his country, or
to their country, or to some third country, in the same manner as if he
had been a native. The capital of a foreigner gives a value to their
surplus produce equally with that of a native, by exchanging it for
something for which there is a demand at home. It as effectually replaces
the capital of the person who produces that surplus, and as effectually
enables him to continue his business, the service by which the capital of
a wholesale merchant chiefly contributes to support the productive labour,
and to augment the value of the annual produce of the society to which he
belongs.
It is of more consequence that the capital of the manufacturer should
reside within the country. It necessarily puts into motion a greater
quantity of productive labour, and adds a greater value to the annual
produce of the land and labour of the society. It may, however, be very
useful to the country, though it should not reside within it. The capitals
of the British manufacturers who work up the flax and hemp annually
imported from the coasts of the Baltic, are surely very useful to the
countries which produce them. Those materials are a part of the surplus
produce of those countries, which, unless it was annually exchanged for
something which is in demand there, would be of no value, and would soon
cease to be produced. The merchants who export it, replace the capitals of
the people who produce it, and thereby encourage them to continue the
production; and the British manufacturers replace the capitals of those
merchants.
A particular country, in the same manner as a particular person, may
frequently not have capital sufficient both to improve and cultivate all
its lands, to manufacture and prepare their whole rude produce for
immediate use and consumption, and to transport the surplus part either of
the rude or manufactured produce to those distant markets, where it can be
exchanged for something for which there is a demand at home. The
inhabitants of many different parts of Great Britain have not capital
sufficient to improve and cultivate all their lands. The wool of the
southern counties of Scotland is, a great part of it, after a long land
carriage through very bad roads, manufactured in Yorkshire, for want of a
capital to manufacture it at home. There are many little manufacturing
towns in Great Britain, of which the inhabitants have not capital
sufficient to transport the produce of their own industry to those distant
markets where there is demand and consumption for it. If there are any
merchants among them, they are, properly, only the agents of wealthier
merchants who reside in some of the great commercial cities.
When the capital of any country is not sufficient for all those three
purposes, in proportion as a greater share of it is employed in
agriculture, the greater will be the quantity of productive labour which
it puts into motion within the country; as will likewise be the value
which its employment adds to the annual produce of the land and labour of
the society. After agriculture, the capital employed in manufactures puts
into motion the greatest quantity of productive labour, and adds the
greatest value to the annual produce. That which is employed in the trade
of exportation has the least effect of any of the three.
The country, indeed, which has not capital sufficient for all those three
purposes, has not arrived at that degree of opulence for which it seems
naturally destined. To attempt, however, prematurely, and with an
insufficient capital, to do all the three, is certainly not the shortest
way for a society, no more than it would be for an individual, to acquire
a sufficient one. The capital of all the individuals of a nation has its
limits, in the same manner as that of a single individual, and is capable
of executing only certain purposes. The capital of all the individuals of
a nation is increased in the same manner as that of a single individual,
by their continually accumulating and adding to it whatever they save out
of their revenue. It is likely to increase the fastest, therefore, when it
is employed in the way that affords the greatest revenue to all the
inhabitants or the country, as they will thus be enabled to make the
greatest savings. But the revenue of all the inhabitants of the country is
necessarily in proportion to the value of the annual produce of their land
and labour.
It has been the principal cause of the rapid progress of our American
colonies towards wealth and greatness, that almost their whole capitals
have hitherto been employed in agriculture. They have no manufactures,
those household and coarser manufactures excepted, which necessarily
accompany the progress of agriculture, and which are the work of the women
and children in every private family. The greater part, both of the
exportation and coasting trade of America, is carried on by the capitals
of merchants who reside in Great Britain. Even the stores and warehouses
from which goods are retailed in some provinces, particularly in Virginia
and Maryland, belong many of them to merchants who reside in the mother
country, and afford one of the few instances of the retail trade of a
society being carried on by the capitals of those who are not resident
members of it. Were the Americans, either by combination, or by any other
sort of violence, to stop the importation of European manufactures, and,
by thus giving a monopoly to such of their own countrymen as could
manufacture the like goods, divert any considerable part of their capital
into this employment, they would retard, instead of accelerating, the
further increase in the value of their annual produce, and would obstruct,
instead of promoting, the progress of their country towards real wealth
and greatness. This would be still more the case, were they to attempt, in
the same manner, to monopolize to themselves their whole exportation
trade.
The course of human prosperity, indeed, seems scarce ever to have been of
so long continuance as to enable any great country to acquire capital
sufficient for all those three purposes; unless, perhaps, we give credit
to the wonderful accounts of the wealth and cultivation of China, of those
of ancient Egypt, and of the ancient state of Indostan. Even those three
countries, the wealthiest, according to all accounts, that ever were in
the world, are chiefly renowned for their superiority in agriculture and
manufactures. They do not appear to have been eminent for foreign trade.
The ancient Egyptians had a superstitious antipathy to the sea; a
superstition nearly of the same kind prevails among the Indians; and the
Chinese have never excelled in foreign commerce. The greater part of the
surplus produce of all those three countries seems to have been always
exported by foreigners, who gave in exchange for it something else, for
which they found a demand there, frequently gold and silver.
It is thus that the same capital will in any country put into motion a
greater or smaller quantity of productive labour, and add a greater or
smaller value to the annual produce of its land and labour, according to
the different proportions in which it is employed in agriculture,
manufactures, and wholesale trade. The difference, too, is very great,
according to the different sorts of wholesale trade in which any part of
it is employed.
All wholesale trade, all buying in order to sell again by wholesale, maybe
reduced to three different sorts: the home trade, the foreign trade of
consumption, and the carrying trade. The home trade is employed in
purchasing in one part of the same country, and selling in another, the
produce of the industry of that country. It comprehends both the inland
and the coasting trade. The foreign trade of consumption is employed in
purchasing foreign goods for home consumption. The carrying trade is
employed in transacting the commerce of foreign countries, or in carrying
the surplus produce of one to another.
The capital which is employed in purchasing in one part of the country, in
order to sell in another, the produce of the industry of that country,
generally replaces, by every such operation, two distinct capitals, that
had both been employed in the agriculture or manufactures of that country,
and thereby enables them to continue that employment. When it sends out
from the residence of the merchant a certain value of commodities, it
generally brings back in return at least an equal value of other
commodities. When both are the produce of domestic industry, it
necessarily replaces, by every such operation, two distinct capitals,
which had both been employed in supporting productive labour, and thereby
enables them to continue that support. The capital which sends Scotch
manufactures to London, and brings back English corn and manufactures to
Edinburgh, necessarily replaces, by every such operation, two British
capitals, which had both been employed in the agriculture or manufactures
of Great Britain.
The capital employed in purchasing foreign goods for home consumption,
when this purchase is made with the produce of domestic industry,
replaces, too, by every such operation, two distinct capitals; but one of
them only is employed in supporting domestic industry. The capital which
sends British goods to Portugal, and brings back Portuguese goods to Great
Britain, replaces, by every such operation, only one British capital. The
other is a Portuguese one. Though the returns, therefore, of the foreign
trade of consumption, should be as quick as those of the home trade, the
capital employed in it will give but one half of the encouragement to the
industry or productive labour of the country.
But the returns of the foreign trade of consumption are very seldom so
quick as those of the home trade. The returns of the home trade generally
come in before the end of the year, and sometimes three or four times in
the year. The returns of the foreign trade of consumption seldom come in
before the end of the year, and sometimes not till after two or three
years. A capital, therefore, employed in the home trade, will sometimes
make twelve operations, or be sent out and returned twelve times, before a
capital employed in the foreign trade of consumption has made one. If the
capitals are equal, therefore, the one will give four-and-twenty times
more encouragement and support to the industry of the country than the
other.
The foreign goods for home consumption may sometimes be purchased, not
with the produce of domestic industry but with some other foreign goods.
These last, however, must have been purchased, either immediately with the
produce of domestic industry, or with something else that had been
purchased with it; for, the case of war and conquest excepted, foreign
goods can never be acquired, but in exchange for something that had been
produced at home, either immediately, or after two or more different
exchanges. The effects, therefore, of a capital employed in such a
round-about foreign trade of consumption, are, in every respect, the same
as those of one employed in the most direct trade of the same kind, except
that the final returns are likely to be still more distant, as they must
depend upon the returns of two or three distinct foreign trades. If the
hemp and flax of Riga are purchased with the tobacco of Virginia, which
had been purchased with British manufactures, the merchant must wait for
the returns of two distinct foreign trades, before he can employ the same
capital in repurchasing a like quantity of British manufactures. If the
tobacco of Virginia had been purchased, not with British manufactures, but
with the sugar and rum of Jamaica, which had been purchased with those
manufactures, he must wait for the returns of three. If those two or three
distinct foreign trades should happen to be carried on by two or three
distinct merchants, of whom the second buys the goods imported by the
first, and the third buys those imported by the second, in order to export
them again, each merchant, indeed, will, in this case, receive the returns
of his own capital more quickly; but the final returns of the whole
capital employed in the trade will be just as slow as ever. Whether the
whole capital employed in such a round about trade belong to one merchant
or to three, can make no difference with regard to the country, though it
may with regard to the particular merchants. Three times a greater capital
must in both cases be employed, in order to exchange a certain value of
British manufactures for a certain quantity of flax and hemp, than would
have been necessary, had the manufactures and the flax and hemp been
directly exchanged for one another. The whole capital employed, therefore,
in such a round-about foreign trade of consumption, will generally give
less encouragement and support to the productive labour of the country,
than an equal capital employed in a more direct trade of the same kind.
Whatever be the foreign commodity with which the foreign goods for home
consumption are purchased, it can occasion no essential difference, either
in the nature of the trade, or in the encouragement and support which it
can give to the productive labour of the country from which it is carried
on. If they are purchased with the gold of Brazil, for example, or with
the silver of Peru, this gold and silver, like the tobacco of Virginia,
must have been purchased with something that either was the produce of the
industry of the country, or that had been purchased with something else
that was so. So far, therefore, as the productive labour of the country is
concerned, the foreign trade of consumption, which is carried on by means
of gold and silver, has all the advantages and all the inconveniencies of
any other equally round-about foreign trade of consumption; and will
replace, just as fast, or just as slow, the capital which is immediately
employed in supporting that productive labour. It seems even to have one
advantage over any other equally round-about foreign trade. The
transportation of those metals from one place to another, on account of
their small bulk and great value, is less expensive than that of almost
any other foreign goods of equal value. Their freight is much less, and
their insurance not greater; and no goods, besides, are less liable to
suffer by the carriage. An equal quantity of foreign goods, therefore, may
frequently be purchased with a smaller quantity of the produce of domestic
industry, by the intervention of gold and silver, than by that of any
other foreign goods. The demand of the country may frequently, in this
manner, be supplied more completely, and at a smaller expense, than in any
other. Whether, by the continual exportation of those metals, a trade of
this kind is likely to impoverish the country from which it is carried on
in any other way, I shall have occasion to examine at great length
hereafter.
That part of the capital of any country which is employed in the carrying
trade, is altogether withdrawn from supporting the productive labour of
that particular country, to support that of some foreign countries. Though
it may replace, by every operation, two distinct capitals, yet neither of
them belongs to that particular country. The capital of the Dutch
merchant, which carries the corn of Poland to Portugal, and brings back
the fruits and wines of Portugal to Poland, replaces by every such
operation two capitals, neither of which had been employed in supporting
the productive labour of Holland; but one of them in supporting that of
Poland, and the other that of Portugal. The profits only return regularly
to Holland, and constitute the whole addition which this trade necessarily
makes to the annual produce of the land and labour of that country. When,
indeed, the carrying trade of any particular country is carried on with
the ships and sailors of that country, that part of the capital employed
in it which pays the freight is distributed among, and puts into motion, a
certain number of productive labourers of that country. Almost all nations
that have had any considerable share of the carrying trade have, in fact,
carried it on in this manner. The trade itself has probably derived its
name from it, the people of such countries being the carriers to other
countries. It does not, however, seem essential to the nature of the trade
that it should be so. A Dutch merchant may, for example, employ his
capital in transacting the commerce of Poland and Portugal, by carrying
part of the surplus produce of the one to the other, not in Dutch, but in
British bottoms. It maybe presumed, that he actually does so upon some
particular occasions. It is upon this account, however, that the carrying
trade has been supposed peculiarly advantageous to such a country as Great
Britain, of which the defence and security depend upon the number of its
sailors and shipping. But the same capital may employ as many sailors and
shipping, either in the foreign trade of consumption, or even in the home
trade, when carried on by coasting vessels, as it could in the carrying
trade. The number of sailors and shipping which any particular capital can
employ, does not depend upon the nature of the trade, but partly upon the
bulk of the goods, in proportion to their value, and partly upon the
distance of the ports between which they are to be carried; chiefly upon
the former of those two circumstances. The coal trade from Newcastle to
London, for example, employs more shipping than all the carrying trade of
England, though the ports are at no great distance. To force, therefore,
by extraordinary encouragements, a larger share of the capital of any
country into the carrying trade, than what would naturally go to it, will
not always necessarily increase the shipping of that country.
The capital, therefore, employed in the home trade of any country, will
generally give encouragement and support to a greater quantity of
productive labour in that country, and increase the value of its annual
produce, more than an equal capital employed in the foreign trade of
consumption; and the capital employed in this latter trade has, in both
these respects, a still greater advantage over an equal capital employed
in the carrying trade. The riches, and so far as power depends upon
riches, the power of every country must always be in proportion to the
value of its annual produce, the fund from which all taxes must ultimately
be paid. But the great object of the political economy of every country,
is to increase the riches and power of that country. It ought, therefore,
to give no preference nor superior encouragement to the foreign trade of
consumption above the home trade, nor to the carrying trade above either
of the other two. It ought neither to force nor to allure into either of
those two channels a greater share of the capital of the country, than
what would naturally flow into them of its own accord.
Each of those different branches of trade, however, is not only
advantageous, but necessary and unavoidable, when the course of things,
without any constraint or violence, naturally introduces it.
When the produce of any particular branch of industry exceeds what the
demand of the country requires, the surplus must be sent abroad, and
exchanged for something for which there is a demand at home. Without such
exportation, a part of the productive labour of the country must cease,
and the value of its annual produce diminish. The land and labour of Great
Britain produce generally more corn, woollens, and hardware, than the
demand of the home market requires. The surplus part of them, therefore,
must be sent abroad, and exchanged for something for which there is a
demand at home. It is only by means of such exportation, that this surplus
can acquire a value sufficient to compensate the labour and expense of
producing it. The neighbourhood of the sea-coast, and the banks of all
navigable rivers, are advantageous situations for industry, only because
they facilitate the exportation and exchange of such surplus produce for
something else which is more in demand there.
When the foreign goods which are thus purchased with the surplus produce
of domestic industry exceed the demand of the home market, the surplus
part of them must be sent abroad again, and exchanged for something more
in demand at home. About 96,000 hogsheads of tobacco are annually
purchased in Virginia and Maryland with a part of the surplus produce of
British industry. But the demand of Great Britain does not require,
perhaps, more than 14,000. If the remaining 82,000, therefore, could not
be sent abroad, and exchanged for something more in demand at home, the
importation of them must cease immediately, and with it the productive
labour of all those inhabitants of Great Britain who are at present
employed in preparing the goods with which these 82,000 hogsheads are
annually purchased. Those goods, which are part of the produce of the land
and labour of Great Britain, having no market at home, and being deprived
of that which they had abroad, must cease to be produced. The most
round-about foreign trade of consumption, therefore, may, upon some
occasions, be as necessary for supporting the productive labour of the
country, and the value of its annual produce, as the most direct.
When the capital stock of any country is increased to such a degree that
it cannot be all employed in supplying the consumption, and supporting the
productive labour of that particular country, the surplus part of it
naturally disgorges itself into the carrying trade, and is employed in
performing the same offices to other countries. The carrying trade is the
natural effect and symptom of great national wealth; but it does not seem
to be the natural cause of it. Those statesmen who have been disposed to
favour it with particular encouragement, seem to have mistaken the effect
and symptom for the cause. Holland, in proportion to the extent of the
land and the number of its inhabitants, by far the richest country in
Europe, has accordingly the greatest share of the carrying trade of
Europe. England, perhaps the second richest country of Europe, is likewise
supposed to have a considerable share in it; though what commonly passes
for the carrying trade of England will frequently, perhaps, be found to be
no more than a round-about foreign trade of consumption. Such are, in a
great measure, the trades which carry the goods of the East and West
Indies and of America to the different European markets. Those goods are
generally purchased, either immediately with the produce of British
industry, or with something else which had been purchased with that
produce, and the final returns of those trades are generally used or
consumed in Great Britain. The trade which is carried on in British
bottoms between the different ports of the Mediterranean, and some trade
of the same kind carried on by British merchants between the different
ports of India, make, perhaps, the principal branches of what is properly
the carrying trade of Great Britain.
The extent of the home trade, and of the capital which can be employed in
it, is necessarily limited by the value of the surplus produce of all
those distant places within the country which have occasion to exchange
their respective productions with one another; that of the foreign trade
of consumption, by the value of the surplus produce of the whole country,
and of what can be purchased with it; that of the carrying trade, by the
value of the surplus produce of all the different countries in the world.
Its possible extent, therefore, is in a manner infinite in comparison of
that of the other two, and is capable of absorbing the greatest capitals.
The consideration of his own private profit is the sole motive which
determines the owner of any capital to employ it either in agriculture, in
manufactures, or in some particular branch of the wholesale or retail
trade. The different quantities of productive labour which it may put into
motion, and the different values which it may add to the annual produce of
the land and labour of the society, according as it is employed in one or
other of those different ways, never enter into his thoughts. In
countries, therefore, where agriculture is the most profitable of all
employments, and farming and improving the most direct roads to a splendid
fortune, the capitals of individuals will naturally be employed in the
manner most advantageous to the whole society. The profits of agriculture,
however, seem to have no superiority over those of other employments in
any part of Europe. Projectors, indeed, in every corner of it, have,
within these few years, amused the public with most magnificent accounts
of the profits to be made by the cultivation and improvement of land.
Without entering into any particular discussion of their calculations, a
very simple observation may satisfy us that the result of them must be
false. We see, every day, the most splendid fortunes, that have been
acquired in the course of a single life, by trade and manufactures,
frequently from a very small capital, sometimes from no capital. A single
instance of such a fortune, acquired by agriculture in the same time, and
from such a capital, has not, perhaps, occurred in Europe, during the
course of the present century. In all the great countries of Europe,
however, much good land still remains uncultivated; and the greater part
of what is cultivated, is far from being improved to the degree of which
it is capable. Agriculture, therefore, is almost everywhere capable of
absorbing a much greater capital than has ever yet been employed in it.
What circumstances in the policy of Europe have given the trades which are
carried on in towns so great an advantage over that which is carried on in
the country, that private persons frequently find it more for their
advantage to employ their capitals in the most distant carrying trades of
Asia and America than in the improvement and cultivation of the most
fertile fields in their own neighbourhood, I shall endeavour to explain at
full length in the two following books.
BOOK III.
OF THE DIFFERENT PROGRESS OF OPULENCE IN
DIFFERENT NATIONS