1355 lines
63 KiB
Markdown
1355 lines
63 KiB
Markdown
# Extract Economic Entities
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You are an analytical economist specializing in classical economic theory.
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Your task is to extract distinct economic entities from a chapter of
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Adam Smith's *The Wealth of Nations*.
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## Source Chapter
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---
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id: book-2-chapter-05
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title: "OF THE DIFFERENT EMPLOYMENTS OF CAPITALS."
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book: "2"
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chapter: 5
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artifact_type: content
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---
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CHAPTER V.
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OF THE DIFFERENT EMPLOYMENTS OF CAPITALS.
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Though all capitals are destined for the maintenance of productive labour
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only, yet the quantity of that labour which equal capitals are capable of
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putting into motion, varies extremely according to the diversity of their
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employment; as does likewise the value which that employment adds to the
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annual produce of the land and labour of the country.
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A capital may be employed in four different ways; either, first, in
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procuring the rude produce annually required for the use and consumption
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of the society; or, secondly, in manufacturing and preparing that rude
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produce for immediate use and consumption; or, thirdly in transporting
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either the rude or manufactured produce from the places where they abound
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to those where they are wanted; or, lastly, in dividing particular
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portions of either into such small parcels as suit the occasional demands
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of those who want them. In the first way are employed the capitals of all
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those who undertake improvement or cultivation of lands, mines, or
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fisheries; in the second, those of all master manufacturers; in the third,
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those of all wholesale merchants; and in the fourth, those of all
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retailers. It is difficult to conceive that a capital should be employed
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in any way which may not be classed under some one or other of those four.
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Each of those four methods of employing a capital is essentially
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necessary, either to the existence or extension of the other three, or to
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the general conveniency of the society.
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Unless a capital was employed in furnishing rude produce to a certain
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degree of abundance, neither manufactures nor trade of any kind could
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exist.
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Unless a capital was employed in manufacturing that part of the rude
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produce which requires a good deal of preparation before it can be fit for
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use and consumption, it either would never be produced, because there
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could be no demand for it; or if it was produced spontaneously, it would
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be of no value in exchange, and could add nothing to the wealth of the
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society.
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Unless a capital was employed in transporting either the rude or
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manufactured produce from the places where it abounds to those where it is
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wanted, no more of either could be produced than was necessary for the
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consumption of the neighbourhood. The capital of the merchant exchanges
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the surplus produce of one place for that of another, and thus encourages
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the industry, and increases the enjoyments of both.
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Unless a capital was employed in breaking and dividing certain portions
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either of the rude or manufactured produce into such small parcels as suit
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the occasional demands of those who want them, every man would be obliged
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to purchase a greater quantity of the goods he wanted than his immediate
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occasions required. If there was no such trade as a butcher, for example,
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every man would be obliged to purchase a whole ox or a whole sheep at a
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time. This would generally be inconvenient to the rich, and much more so
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to the poor. If a poor workman was obliged to purchase a month’s or six
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months’ provisions at a time, a great part of the stock which he employs
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as a capital in the instruments of his trade, or in the furniture of his
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shop, and which yields him a revenue, he would be forced to place in that
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part of his stock which is reserved for immediate consumption, and which
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yields him no revenue. Nothing can be more convenient for such a person
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than to be able to purchase his subsistence from day to day, or even from
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hour to hour, as he wants it. He is thereby enabled to employ almost his
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whole stock as a capital. He is thus enabled to furnish work to a greater
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value; and the profit which he makes by it in this way much more than
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compensates the additional price which the profit of the retailer imposes
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upon the goods. The prejudices of some political writers against
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shopkeepers and tradesmen are altogether without foundation. So far is it
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from being necessary either to tax them, or to restrict their numbers,
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that they can never be multiplied so as to hurt the public, though they
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may so as to hurt one another. The quantity of grocery goods, for example,
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which can be sold in a particular town, is limited by the demand of that
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town and its neighbourhood. The capital, therefore, which can be employed
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in the grocery trade, cannot exceed what is sufficient to purchase that
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quantity. If this capital is divided between two different grocers, their
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competition will tend to make both of them sell cheaper than if it were in
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the hands of one only; and if it were divided among twenty, their
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competition would be just so much the greater, and the chance of their
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combining together, in order to raise the price, just so much the less.
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Their competition might, perhaps, ruin some of themselves; but to take
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care of this, is the business of the parties concerned, and it may safely
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be trusted to their discretion. It can never hurt either the consumer or
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the producer; on the contrary, it must tend to make the retailers both
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sell cheaper and buy dearer, than if the whole trade was monopolised by
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one or two persons. Some of them, perhaps, may sometimes decoy a weak
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customer to buy what he has no occasion for. This evil, however, is of too
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little importance to deserve the public attention, nor would it
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necessarily be prevented by restricting their numbers. It is not the
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multitude of alehouses, to give the must suspicious example, that
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occasions a general disposition to drunkenness among the common people;
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but that disposition, arising from other causes, necessarily gives
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employment to a multitude of alehouses.
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The persons whose capitals are employed in any of those four ways, are
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themselves productive labourers. Their labour, when properly directed,
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fixes and realizes itself in the subject or vendible commodity upon which
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it is bestowed, and generally adds to its price the value at least of
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their own maintenance and consumption. The profits of the farmer, of the
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manufacturer, of the merchant, and retailer, are all drawn from the price
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of the goods which the two first produce, and the two last buy and sell.
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Equal capitals, however, employed in each of those four different ways,
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will immediately put into motion very different quantities of productive
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labour; and augment, too, in very different proportions, the value of the
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annual produce of the land and labour of the society to which they belong.
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The capital of the retailer replaces, together with its profits, that of
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the merchant of whom he purchases goods, and thereby enables him to
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continue his business. The retailer himself is the only productive
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labourer whom it immediately employs. In his profit consists the whole
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value which its employment adds to the annual produce of the land and
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labour of the society.
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The capital of the wholesale merchant replaces, together with their
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profits, the capitals of the farmers and manufacturers of whom he
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purchases the rude and manufactured produce which he deals in, and thereby
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enables them to continue their respective trades. It is by this service
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chiefly that he contributes indirectly to support the productive labour of
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the society, and to increase the value of its annual produce. His capital
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employs, too, the sailors and carriers who transport his goods from one
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place to another; and it augments the price of those goods by the value,
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not only of his profits, but of their wages. This is all the productive
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labour which it immediately puts into motion, and all the value which it
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immediately adds to the annual produce. Its operation in both these
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respects is a good deal superior to that of the capital of the retailer.
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Part of the capital of the master manufacturer is employed as a fixed
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capital in the instruments of his trade, and replaces, together with its
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profits, that of some other artificer of whom he purchases them. Part of
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his circulating capital is employed in purchasing materials, and replaces,
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with their profits, the capitals of the farmers and miners of whom he
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purchases them. But a great part of it is always, either annually, or in a
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much shorter period, distributed among the different workmen whom he
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employs. It augments the value of those materials by their wages, and by
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their masters’ profits upon the whole stock of wages, materials, and
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instruments of trade employed in the business. It puts immediately into
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motion, therefore, a much greater quantity of productive labour, and adds
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a much greater value to the annual produce of the land and labour of the
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society, than an equal capital in the hands of any wholesale merchant.
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No equal capital puts into motion a greater quantity of productive labour
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than that of the farmer. Not only his labouring servants, but his
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labouring cattle, are productive labourers. In agriculture, too, Nature
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labours along with man; and though her labour costs no expense, its
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produce has its value, as well as that of the most expensive workmen. The
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most important operations of agriculture seem intended, not so much to
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increase, though they do that too, as to direct the fertility of Nature
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towards the production of the plants most profitable to man. A field
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overgrown with briars and brambles, may frequently produce as great a
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quantity of vegetables as the best cultivated vineyard or corn field.
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Planting and tillage frequently regulate more than they animate the active
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fertility of Nature; and after all their labour, a great part of the work
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always remains to be done by her. The labourers and labouring cattle,
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therefore, employed in agriculture, not only occasion, like the workmen in
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manufactures, the reproduction of a value equal to their own consumption,
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or to the capital which employs them, together with its owner’s profits,
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but of a much greater value. Over and above the capital of the farmer, and
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all its profits, they regularly occasion the reproduction of the rent of
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the landlord. This rent may be considered as the produce of those powers
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of Nature, the use of which the landlord lends to the farmer. It is
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greater or smaller, according to the supposed extent of those powers, or,
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in other words, according to the supposed natural or improved fertility of
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the land. It is the work of Nature which remains, after deducting or
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compensating every thing which can be regarded as the work of man. It is
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seldom less than a fourth, and frequently more than a third, of the whole
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produce. No equal quantity of productive labour employed in manufactures,
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can ever occasion so great reproduction. In them Nature does nothing; man
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does all; and the reproduction must always be in proportion to the
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strength of the agents that occasion it. The capital employed in
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agriculture, therefore, not only puts into motion a greater quantity of
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productive labour than any equal capital employed in manufactures; but in
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proportion, too, to the quantity of productive labour which it employs, it
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adds a much greater value to the annual produce of the land and labour of
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the country, to the real wealth and revenue of its inhabitants. Of all the
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ways in which a capital can be employed, it is by far the most
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advantageous to society.
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The capitals employed in the agriculture and in the retail trade of any
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society, must always reside within that society. Their employment is
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confined almost to a precise spot, to the farm, and to the shop of the
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retailer. They must generally, too, though there are some exceptions to
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this, belong to resident members of the society.
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The capital of a wholesale merchant, on the contrary, seems to have no
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fixed or necessary residence anywhere, but may wander about from place to
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place, according as it can either buy cheap or sell dear.
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The capital of the manufacturer must, no doubt, reside where the
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manufacture is carried on; but where this shall be, is not always
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necessarily determined. It may frequently be at a great distance, both
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from the place where the materials grow, and from that where the complete
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manufacture is consumed. Lyons is very distant, both from the places which
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afford the materials of its manufactures, and from those which consume
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them. The people of fashion in Sicily are clothed in silks made in other
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countries, from the materials which their own produces. Part of the wool
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of Spain is manufactured in Great Britain, and some part of that cloth is
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afterwards sent back to Spain.
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Whether the merchant whose capital exports the surplus produce of any
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society, be a native or a foreigner, is of very little importance. If he
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is a foreigner, the number of their productive labourers is necessarily
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less than if he had been a native, by one man only; and the value of their
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annual produce, by the profits of that one man. The sailors or carriers
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whom he employs, may still belong indifferently either to his country, or
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to their country, or to some third country, in the same manner as if he
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had been a native. The capital of a foreigner gives a value to their
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surplus produce equally with that of a native, by exchanging it for
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something for which there is a demand at home. It as effectually replaces
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the capital of the person who produces that surplus, and as effectually
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enables him to continue his business, the service by which the capital of
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a wholesale merchant chiefly contributes to support the productive labour,
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and to augment the value of the annual produce of the society to which he
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belongs.
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It is of more consequence that the capital of the manufacturer should
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reside within the country. It necessarily puts into motion a greater
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quantity of productive labour, and adds a greater value to the annual
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produce of the land and labour of the society. It may, however, be very
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useful to the country, though it should not reside within it. The capitals
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of the British manufacturers who work up the flax and hemp annually
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imported from the coasts of the Baltic, are surely very useful to the
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countries which produce them. Those materials are a part of the surplus
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produce of those countries, which, unless it was annually exchanged for
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something which is in demand there, would be of no value, and would soon
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cease to be produced. The merchants who export it, replace the capitals of
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the people who produce it, and thereby encourage them to continue the
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production; and the British manufacturers replace the capitals of those
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merchants.
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A particular country, in the same manner as a particular person, may
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frequently not have capital sufficient both to improve and cultivate all
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its lands, to manufacture and prepare their whole rude produce for
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immediate use and consumption, and to transport the surplus part either of
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the rude or manufactured produce to those distant markets, where it can be
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exchanged for something for which there is a demand at home. The
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inhabitants of many different parts of Great Britain have not capital
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sufficient to improve and cultivate all their lands. The wool of the
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southern counties of Scotland is, a great part of it, after a long land
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carriage through very bad roads, manufactured in Yorkshire, for want of a
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capital to manufacture it at home. There are many little manufacturing
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towns in Great Britain, of which the inhabitants have not capital
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sufficient to transport the produce of their own industry to those distant
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markets where there is demand and consumption for it. If there are any
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merchants among them, they are, properly, only the agents of wealthier
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merchants who reside in some of the great commercial cities.
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When the capital of any country is not sufficient for all those three
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purposes, in proportion as a greater share of it is employed in
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agriculture, the greater will be the quantity of productive labour which
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it puts into motion within the country; as will likewise be the value
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which its employment adds to the annual produce of the land and labour of
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the society. After agriculture, the capital employed in manufactures puts
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into motion the greatest quantity of productive labour, and adds the
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greatest value to the annual produce. That which is employed in the trade
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of exportation has the least effect of any of the three.
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The country, indeed, which has not capital sufficient for all those three
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purposes, has not arrived at that degree of opulence for which it seems
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naturally destined. To attempt, however, prematurely, and with an
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insufficient capital, to do all the three, is certainly not the shortest
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way for a society, no more than it would be for an individual, to acquire
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a sufficient one. The capital of all the individuals of a nation has its
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limits, in the same manner as that of a single individual, and is capable
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of executing only certain purposes. The capital of all the individuals of
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a nation is increased in the same manner as that of a single individual,
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by their continually accumulating and adding to it whatever they save out
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of their revenue. It is likely to increase the fastest, therefore, when it
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is employed in the way that affords the greatest revenue to all the
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inhabitants or the country, as they will thus be enabled to make the
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greatest savings. But the revenue of all the inhabitants of the country is
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necessarily in proportion to the value of the annual produce of their land
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and labour.
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It has been the principal cause of the rapid progress of our American
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colonies towards wealth and greatness, that almost their whole capitals
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have hitherto been employed in agriculture. They have no manufactures,
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those household and coarser manufactures excepted, which necessarily
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accompany the progress of agriculture, and which are the work of the women
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and children in every private family. The greater part, both of the
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exportation and coasting trade of America, is carried on by the capitals
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of merchants who reside in Great Britain. Even the stores and warehouses
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from which goods are retailed in some provinces, particularly in Virginia
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and Maryland, belong many of them to merchants who reside in the mother
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country, and afford one of the few instances of the retail trade of a
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society being carried on by the capitals of those who are not resident
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members of it. Were the Americans, either by combination, or by any other
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sort of violence, to stop the importation of European manufactures, and,
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by thus giving a monopoly to such of their own countrymen as could
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manufacture the like goods, divert any considerable part of their capital
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into this employment, they would retard, instead of accelerating, the
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further increase in the value of their annual produce, and would obstruct,
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instead of promoting, the progress of their country towards real wealth
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and greatness. This would be still more the case, were they to attempt, in
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the same manner, to monopolize to themselves their whole exportation
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trade.
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The course of human prosperity, indeed, seems scarce ever to have been of
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so long continuance as to enable any great country to acquire capital
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sufficient for all those three purposes; unless, perhaps, we give credit
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to the wonderful accounts of the wealth and cultivation of China, of those
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of ancient Egypt, and of the ancient state of Indostan. Even those three
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countries, the wealthiest, according to all accounts, that ever were in
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the world, are chiefly renowned for their superiority in agriculture and
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manufactures. They do not appear to have been eminent for foreign trade.
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The ancient Egyptians had a superstitious antipathy to the sea; a
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superstition nearly of the same kind prevails among the Indians; and the
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Chinese have never excelled in foreign commerce. The greater part of the
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surplus produce of all those three countries seems to have been always
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exported by foreigners, who gave in exchange for it something else, for
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which they found a demand there, frequently gold and silver.
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It is thus that the same capital will in any country put into motion a
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greater or smaller quantity of productive labour, and add a greater or
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smaller value to the annual produce of its land and labour, according to
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the different proportions in which it is employed in agriculture,
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manufactures, and wholesale trade. The difference, too, is very great,
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according to the different sorts of wholesale trade in which any part of
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it is employed.
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All wholesale trade, all buying in order to sell again by wholesale, maybe
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reduced to three different sorts: the home trade, the foreign trade of
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consumption, and the carrying trade. The home trade is employed in
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purchasing in one part of the same country, and selling in another, the
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produce of the industry of that country. It comprehends both the inland
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and the coasting trade. The foreign trade of consumption is employed in
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purchasing foreign goods for home consumption. The carrying trade is
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employed in transacting the commerce of foreign countries, or in carrying
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the surplus produce of one to another.
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The capital which is employed in purchasing in one part of the country, in
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order to sell in another, the produce of the industry of that country,
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generally replaces, by every such operation, two distinct capitals, that
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had both been employed in the agriculture or manufactures of that country,
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and thereby enables them to continue that employment. When it sends out
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from the residence of the merchant a certain value of commodities, it
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generally brings back in return at least an equal value of other
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commodities. When both are the produce of domestic industry, it
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necessarily replaces, by every such operation, two distinct capitals,
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which had both been employed in supporting productive labour, and thereby
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enables them to continue that support. The capital which sends Scotch
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manufactures to London, and brings back English corn and manufactures to
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Edinburgh, necessarily replaces, by every such operation, two British
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capitals, which had both been employed in the agriculture or manufactures
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of Great Britain.
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The capital employed in purchasing foreign goods for home consumption,
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when this purchase is made with the produce of domestic industry,
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replaces, too, by every such operation, two distinct capitals; but one of
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them only is employed in supporting domestic industry. The capital which
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sends British goods to Portugal, and brings back Portuguese goods to Great
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Britain, replaces, by every such operation, only one British capital. The
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other is a Portuguese one. Though the returns, therefore, of the foreign
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trade of consumption, should be as quick as those of the home trade, the
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capital employed in it will give but one half of the encouragement to the
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industry or productive labour of the country.
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But the returns of the foreign trade of consumption are very seldom so
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quick as those of the home trade. The returns of the home trade generally
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come in before the end of the year, and sometimes three or four times in
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the year. The returns of the foreign trade of consumption seldom come in
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before the end of the year, and sometimes not till after two or three
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years. A capital, therefore, employed in the home trade, will sometimes
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make twelve operations, or be sent out and returned twelve times, before a
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capital employed in the foreign trade of consumption has made one. If the
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capitals are equal, therefore, the one will give four-and-twenty times
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more encouragement and support to the industry of the country than the
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other.
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The foreign goods for home consumption may sometimes be purchased, not
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with the produce of domestic industry but with some other foreign goods.
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These last, however, must have been purchased, either immediately with the
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produce of domestic industry, or with something else that had been
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purchased with it; for, the case of war and conquest excepted, foreign
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goods can never be acquired, but in exchange for something that had been
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produced at home, either immediately, or after two or more different
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exchanges. The effects, therefore, of a capital employed in such a
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round-about foreign trade of consumption, are, in every respect, the same
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as those of one employed in the most direct trade of the same kind, except
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that the final returns are likely to be still more distant, as they must
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depend upon the returns of two or three distinct foreign trades. If the
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hemp and flax of Riga are purchased with the tobacco of Virginia, which
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had been purchased with British manufactures, the merchant must wait for
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the returns of two distinct foreign trades, before he can employ the same
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capital in repurchasing a like quantity of British manufactures. If the
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tobacco of Virginia had been purchased, not with British manufactures, but
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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
|
||
|
||
|
||
## Extraction Guidelines
|
||
|
||
---
|
||
id: extraction-rules
|
||
name: extraction_rules
|
||
artifact_type: content
|
||
description: Guidelines for extracting economic entities from source text
|
||
version: 1.0.0
|
||
---
|
||
|
||
# Entity Extraction Rules
|
||
|
||
## What Constitutes an Entity
|
||
|
||
An economic entity is a distinct concept, actor, mechanism, or institution
|
||
that plays a functional role in Adam Smith's economic analysis. Extract
|
||
entities at the level of specificity where they carry independent meaning.
|
||
|
||
## Extraction Criteria
|
||
|
||
1. **Concepts**: Abstract economic ideas (e.g., "division of labour",
|
||
"effectual demand", "natural price"). Extract when Smith defines,
|
||
explains, or argues about the concept.
|
||
|
||
2. **Actors**: Economic agents with defined roles (e.g., "the labourer",
|
||
"the merchant", "the sovereign"). Extract when the actor performs
|
||
a distinct economic function.
|
||
|
||
3. **Mechanisms**: Processes or dynamics that produce economic effects
|
||
(e.g., "accumulation of stock", "market price adjustment",
|
||
"foreign trade"). Extract when the mechanism is described as
|
||
producing specific outcomes.
|
||
|
||
4. **Institutions**: Organised structures that shape economic behaviour
|
||
(e.g., "the corporation", "the guild", "the joint-stock company").
|
||
Extract when the institution's economic function is described.
|
||
|
||
## Granularity Rules
|
||
|
||
- Extract at the level of a single coherent concept.
|
||
- Do NOT extract synonyms as separate entities — choose the primary term
|
||
Smith uses and note variations.
|
||
- DO extract distinct aspects of a broad concept as separate entities when
|
||
Smith treats them independently (e.g., "wages of labour" and "profits
|
||
of stock" are separate from "price of commodities" even though they
|
||
compose it).
|
||
- If an entity appears across multiple chapters, extract it on first
|
||
significant appearance and note cross-references in later chapters.
|
||
|
||
## Naming Conventions
|
||
|
||
- Use Smith's own terminology where possible.
|
||
- Normalise to lowercase except for proper nouns.
|
||
- Use the most common form Smith uses (e.g., "division of labour" not
|
||
"divided labour").
|
||
|
||
## Quality Checks
|
||
|
||
- Each entity must have a definition that would be comprehensible without
|
||
reading the source chapter.
|
||
- Each entity must cite the specific book and chapter of first appearance.
|
||
- **Economic Domain** must be EXACTLY ONE of: Production, Distribution,
|
||
Exchange, Consumption, Accumulation, Regulation, or General Theory.
|
||
Do not combine multiple domains. Do not use any other value.
|
||
- **Source Chapter format**: Use `Book [Roman numeral], Chapter [number]`
|
||
— for example `Book I, Chapter 3`. Do not include the chapter title,
|
||
quotation marks, markdown formatting, or asterisks. Use Roman numerals
|
||
for the book (I, II, III, IV, V).
|
||
|
||
|
||
## VSM Framework Context
|
||
|
||
Use the following VSM framework as context to guide your extraction.
|
||
Prioritize entities that are likely to have clear mappings to VSM concepts,
|
||
but do not exclude entities simply because they lack an obvious mapping.
|
||
|
||
---
|
||
id: vsm-framework
|
||
name: vsm_framework
|
||
artifact_type: content
|
||
description: Stafford Beer's Viable System Model reference for economic analysis
|
||
version: 1.0.0
|
||
---
|
||
|
||
# Stafford Beer's Viable System Model (VSM)
|
||
|
||
The Viable System Model (VSM) is a model of the organisational structure of any
|
||
autonomous system capable of producing itself. It was created by management
|
||
cybernetician Stafford Beer in his books *Brain of the Firm* (1972) and
|
||
*The Heart of Enterprise* (1979).
|
||
|
||
## Core Principle: Viability
|
||
|
||
A viable system is any system organised in such a way as to meet the demands
|
||
of surviving in a changing environment. One of the prime features of systems
|
||
that survive is that they are adaptable. The VSM expresses a model for a
|
||
viable system, which is an abstracted cybernetic description applicable to
|
||
any organisation that is a going concern.
|
||
|
||
## The Five Systems
|
||
|
||
### System 1 (S1) — Operations
|
||
|
||
The primary activities that produce the organisation's purpose. These are the
|
||
operational units that directly create value. Each operational element is itself
|
||
a viable system (the principle of recursion).
|
||
|
||
**In economic terms:** Productive enterprises, factories, farms, workshops,
|
||
individual labourers performing specialised tasks, merchant operations.
|
||
|
||
**Key properties:** Autonomy within constraints, self-organisation,
|
||
direct engagement with the environment.
|
||
|
||
### System 2 (S2) — Coordination
|
||
|
||
The information channels and bodies that allow the primary activities in
|
||
System 1 to communicate with each other and that allow System 3 to monitor
|
||
and coordinate activities. System 2 dampens oscillations and resolves
|
||
conflicts between operational units.
|
||
|
||
**In economic terms:** Market price mechanisms, trade customs, standard
|
||
weights and measures, commercial law, banking clearinghouses, trade guilds.
|
||
|
||
**Key properties:** Anti-oscillatory, dampening, scheduling, conflict
|
||
resolution, standardisation.
|
||
|
||
### System 3 (S3) — Control / Operational Management
|
||
|
||
The structures and controls that establish the rules, resources, rights,
|
||
and responsibilities of System 1 and provide an interface between Systems 1
|
||
and Systems 4/5. System 3 represents the day-to-day control of the
|
||
organisation. It optimises the internal environment.
|
||
|
||
**In economic terms:** Government regulation of trade, taxation policy, labour
|
||
laws, enforcement of contracts, the "invisible hand" as emergent internal
|
||
regulation, guilds and corporations governing members.
|
||
|
||
**Key properties:** Internal regulation, resource allocation, accountability,
|
||
synergy extraction, performance management.
|
||
|
||
### System 3* (S3*) — Audit / Monitoring
|
||
|
||
The audit and monitoring channel that allows System 3 to verify information
|
||
coming from System 1 through channels other than those provided by System 2.
|
||
System 3* provides sporadic, direct access to operational reality.
|
||
|
||
**In economic terms:** Market inspections, quality checks, auditing of accounts,
|
||
surprise investigations into trade practices, verification of weights and measures.
|
||
|
||
**Key properties:** Sporadic direct investigation, reality checking, bypassing
|
||
normal reporting channels.
|
||
|
||
### System 4 (S4) — Intelligence / Adaptation
|
||
|
||
The bodies and processes that look outward to the environment to monitor
|
||
how the organisation needs to adapt to remain viable. System 4 captures
|
||
all relevant information about the outside-and-then environment. It is
|
||
responsible for strategic responses.
|
||
|
||
**In economic terms:** Foreign intelligence about trade opportunities,
|
||
market research, new technology adoption, colonial exploration and trade
|
||
route development, understanding of foreign economic systems.
|
||
|
||
**Key properties:** Environmental scanning, future orientation, strategic
|
||
planning, modelling, research and development.
|
||
|
||
### System 5 (S5) — Policy / Identity
|
||
|
||
The policy-making body that balances demands from Systems 3 and 4 and defines
|
||
the identity, values, and purpose of the organisation. System 5 provides
|
||
closure to the whole system and represents its supreme authority.
|
||
|
||
**In economic terms:** Sovereign authority, constitutional principles governing
|
||
economic policy, national economic identity, the philosophical foundations
|
||
of economic systems (mercantilism vs. free trade), the overarching purpose
|
||
of the commonwealth.
|
||
|
||
**Key properties:** Identity, ethos, supreme command, policy closure,
|
||
balancing internal and external perspectives.
|
||
|
||
## Key Concepts
|
||
|
||
### Recursion
|
||
|
||
Every viable system contains and is contained in a viable system. The same
|
||
five-system structure recurs at every level of organisation. A workshop is
|
||
a viable system within a factory, which is a viable system within an
|
||
industry, which is a viable system within a national economy.
|
||
|
||
### Variety
|
||
|
||
A measure of the number of possible states of a system. The Law of Requisite
|
||
Variety (Ashby's Law) states that only variety can absorb variety. A
|
||
controller must have at least as much variety as the system it controls.
|
||
|
||
### Requisite Variety
|
||
|
||
The principle that for effective regulation, the variety of the regulator
|
||
must match the variety of the system being regulated. This is achieved
|
||
through variety attenuation (reducing the variety coming up from operations)
|
||
and variety amplification (increasing the variety of management's responses).
|
||
|
||
### Attenuation and Amplification
|
||
|
||
Variety engineering mechanisms. Attenuation reduces variety (e.g., reporting
|
||
summaries, statistical aggregation, standardisation). Amplification increases
|
||
variety (e.g., delegation, empowerment, decentralisation).
|
||
|
||
### Algedonic Signals
|
||
|
||
Emergency signals that bypass the normal management hierarchy to alert
|
||
higher systems of critical situations requiring immediate attention. Named
|
||
from the Greek words for pain (algos) and pleasure (hedone).
|
||
|
||
**In economic terms:** Market panics, famine signals, sudden price collapses,
|
||
trade embargoes, economic crises that demand immediate sovereign intervention.
|
||
|
||
### Autonomy
|
||
|
||
The degree of freedom granted to operational units (System 1) to self-organise
|
||
within constraints set by System 3. Beer argued that maximum autonomy
|
||
consistent with systemic cohesion yields maximum viability.
|
||
|
||
### Viability
|
||
|
||
The capacity of a system to maintain a separate existence and survive in a
|
||
changing environment. A viable system continuously adapts while maintaining
|
||
its identity.
|
||
|
||
|
||
## Existing Entities
|
||
|
||
The following entities have already been extracted from previous chapters
|
||
of this work. Do NOT re-extract any of these. If one of these entities
|
||
appears in the current chapter, you may omit it entirely — the infospace
|
||
already contains it. Only extract entities that are genuinely new.
|
||
|
||
- accumulation-of-stock
|
||
- active-and-productive-stock
|
||
- adulteration-of-metals
|
||
- adulterine-guilds
|
||
- advanced-state-of-society
|
||
- advancing-state-of-manufacture
|
||
- agricultural-comparative-advantage
|
||
- agricultural-cultivation
|
||
- agricultural-demand
|
||
- agricultural-efficiency
|
||
- agricultural-improvement
|
||
- agricultural-labour
|
||
- agricultural-market-integration
|
||
- agricultural-price-ceilings
|
||
- agricultural-price-discovery
|
||
- agricultural-price-discrimination
|
||
- agricultural-price-elasticity
|
||
- agricultural-price-floors
|
||
- agricultural-price-mechanism
|
||
- agricultural-price-regulation
|
||
- agricultural-price-stability
|
||
- agricultural-price-transmission
|
||
- agricultural-price-volatility
|
||
- agricultural-productivity
|
||
- agricultural-specialization
|
||
- agricultural-stock
|
||
- agricultural-supply
|
||
- agricultural-surplus
|
||
- agricultural-technology
|
||
- agricultural-trade
|
||
- annual-consumption-of-metals
|
||
- annual-industry-employed-in-production
|
||
- annual-produce-of-land-and-labour
|
||
- apprenticeships
|
||
- artificial-grasses
|
||
- artificial-market-creation
|
||
- artisan-specialisation
|
||
- assaying
|
||
- assize-of-bread
|
||
- assize-of-bread-and-ale
|
||
- aulnagers
|
||
- average-price-of-corn
|
||
- bank-capital-adequacy
|
||
- bank-capital-structure
|
||
- bank-circulation-limits
|
||
- bank-competition-effects
|
||
- bank-credit-allocation
|
||
- bank-credit-cycles
|
||
- bank-credit-extension
|
||
- bank-credit-quality
|
||
- bank-economic-contribution
|
||
- bank-economic-contribution-metrics
|
||
- bank-economic-cycles
|
||
- bank-economic-development
|
||
- bank-economic-development-metrics
|
||
- bank-economic-efficiency
|
||
- bank-economic-efficiency-factors
|
||
- bank-economic-efficiency-metrics
|
||
- bank-economic-growth
|
||
- bank-economic-resilience
|
||
- bank-economic-resilience-factors
|
||
- bank-economic-resilience-metrics
|
||
- bank-economic-stability
|
||
- bank-failure-mechanisms
|
||
- bank-financial-development
|
||
- bank-financial-innovation
|
||
- bank-financial-innovation-adoption
|
||
- bank-financial-innovation-diffusion
|
||
- bank-financial-innovation-factors
|
||
- bank-financial-innovation-impact
|
||
- bank-financial-innovation-metrics
|
||
- bank-financial-intermediation
|
||
- bank-financial-intermediation-efficiency
|
||
- bank-financial-stability
|
||
- bank-financial-stability-factors
|
||
- bank-financial-stability-metrics
|
||
- bank-financial-system-integration
|
||
- bank-financial-system-stability
|
||
- bank-information-asymmetry
|
||
- bank-interest-rate-determination
|
||
- bank-liquidity-management
|
||
- bank-market-discipline
|
||
- bank-market-structure
|
||
- bank-monetary-policy
|
||
- bank-monetary-stability
|
||
- bank-notes
|
||
- bank-operational-efficiency
|
||
- bank-operational-risk
|
||
- bank-public-utility
|
||
- bank-regulatory-compliance
|
||
- bank-regulatory-effectiveness
|
||
- bank-regulatory-evolution
|
||
- bank-regulatory-framework
|
||
- bank-regulatory-framework-evolution
|
||
- bank-reserves
|
||
- bank-risk-management
|
||
- bank-systemic-risk
|
||
- bank-systemic-risk-management
|
||
- bank-systemic-stability
|
||
- bank-transaction-costs
|
||
- barbarous-nations-barrier
|
||
- barter-and-exchange
|
||
- benevolence
|
||
- bills-of-exchange
|
||
- bleacher
|
||
- butcher-trade
|
||
- canal-communication
|
||
- capital
|
||
- capital-accumulation
|
||
- capital-employed
|
||
- capital-replacement
|
||
- cash-accounts
|
||
- certificates
|
||
- cheap-years
|
||
- circulating-capital
|
||
- circulating-capital-components
|
||
- circulation-of-money
|
||
- coal-heaver
|
||
- coal-price
|
||
- coarser-and-finer-materials
|
||
- coined-money
|
||
- collier
|
||
- colony-prosperity
|
||
- combination-of-masters
|
||
- combination-of-workmen
|
||
- command-over-labour
|
||
- commercial-interactions
|
||
- commercial-society
|
||
- commercial-transactions
|
||
- common-annual-profits-of-manufacturing-stock
|
||
- common-labour-wages
|
||
- common-returns-of-stock
|
||
- competition-among-buyers
|
||
- competition-among-dealers
|
||
- competition-among-sellers
|
||
- complete-manufacture
|
||
- component-parts-of-price
|
||
- contract
|
||
- conversion-price
|
||
- copper-money
|
||
- corn-land
|
||
- corn-rent
|
||
- corporation-laws
|
||
- corporation-privileges-and-market-prices
|
||
- country-gentlemen
|
||
- dead-stock
|
||
- dear-years
|
||
- debasement-of-currency
|
||
- declining-manufacture
|
||
- degradation-of-coin
|
||
- demand-for-labour
|
||
- discount-of-bills
|
||
- division-of-labour
|
||
- double-coincidence-of-wants
|
||
- drawing-and-redrawing
|
||
- dwelling-house-distinction
|
||
- early-and-rude-state-of-society
|
||
- early-navigation-advantages
|
||
- economic-accessibility-determinants
|
||
- economic-accessibility-gradient
|
||
- economic-backwardness
|
||
- economic-connectivity-importance
|
||
- economic-development-constraints
|
||
- economic-development-geography
|
||
- economic-development-geography-theory
|
||
- economic-development-sequence
|
||
- economic-development-spatial-patterns
|
||
- economic-geography
|
||
- economic-geography-determinism
|
||
- economic-geography-impact
|
||
- economic-isolation-effects
|
||
- economic-opportunity-cost
|
||
- economic-opportunity-geography
|
||
- economic-prosperity-symptoms
|
||
- economic-spatial-inequality
|
||
- economic-spatial-organisation
|
||
- economic-stagnation-symptoms
|
||
- effectual-demand
|
||
- encroachment-upon-capital
|
||
- exchange
|
||
- exchangeable-value
|
||
- exchequer
|
||
- exclusive-corporation
|
||
- exportation-bounty
|
||
- exportation-of-gold-and-silver-as-effect-of-declension
|
||
- extraordinary-profits
|
||
- farmer
|
||
- farmers-capital
|
||
- farmers-profit
|
||
- favour
|
||
- feudal-government-effects
|
||
- fixed-capital
|
||
- flax-grower
|
||
- fluctuations-in-value-of-gold-and-silver
|
||
- foreign-trade
|
||
- frozen-ocean-barrier
|
||
- frugal-and-industrious-borrowers
|
||
- frugality-versus-prodigality
|
||
- fruit-garden
|
||
- fruit-wall
|
||
- funds-for-maintaining-labour
|
||
- funds-for-maintaining-productive-labour
|
||
- funds-for-maintaining-unproductive-hands
|
||
- gold-money
|
||
- gold-price-variation
|
||
- gross-revenue
|
||
- higgling-and-bargaining-of-the-market
|
||
- hop-garden
|
||
- human-nature
|
||
- idle-consumers
|
||
- immediate-consumption
|
||
- improved-farm-advantages
|
||
- improved-land
|
||
- inclosure
|
||
- increase-of-money-as-effect-of-prosperity
|
||
- inland-market-limitation
|
||
- inland-navigation-extent
|
||
- inland-parts-of-the-country
|
||
- inland-trade
|
||
- inn-or-tavern-keeper
|
||
- instruments-of-husbandry
|
||
- interest
|
||
- interest-of-money
|
||
- interest-or-use-of-money
|
||
- journeymen
|
||
- judgment-in-labour-application
|
||
- kelp
|
||
- kitchen-garden
|
||
- labour-of-inspection-and-direction
|
||
- labouring-cattle
|
||
- labouring-poor
|
||
- land-carriage
|
||
- land-mines-and-fisheries
|
||
- landlord
|
||
- landlords-share
|
||
- legal-rate-of-interest
|
||
- legal-tender
|
||
- licence-to-gather-natural-produce
|
||
- lowest-rate-of-wages
|
||
- machinery-invention
|
||
- manufacturer
|
||
- maritime-commerce-development
|
||
- maritime-employment
|
||
- market-access-cost-structure
|
||
- market-access-development-sequence
|
||
- market-access-economic-potential
|
||
- market-access-gradient
|
||
- market-access-inequality
|
||
- market-access-opportunity-cost
|
||
- market-based-economic-geography
|
||
- market-based-economic-identity
|
||
- market-based-economic-structure
|
||
- market-based-productivity-limits
|
||
- market-based-specialisation
|
||
- market-communication-channels
|
||
- market-development-prerequisites
|
||
- market-driven-division
|
||
- market-extent
|
||
- market-extent-economic-impact
|
||
- market-extent-measurement
|
||
- market-integration-barriers
|
||
- market-integration-potential
|
||
- market-integration-timeline
|
||
- market-obstruction
|
||
- market-price-adjustment
|
||
- market-price-of-bullion
|
||
- market-price-of-commodities
|
||
- market-price-of-things
|
||
- market-rate-of-interest
|
||
- market-regulation-of-prices
|
||
- market-separation
|
||
- market-size-economies
|
||
- market-size-specialisation-threshold
|
||
- market-size-threshold
|
||
- market-town-economy
|
||
- masquerade-dress-trade
|
||
- master-artificer
|
||
- master-manufacturer
|
||
- materials-and-subsistence
|
||
- measure-of-exchangeable-value
|
||
- mediterranean-civilisation-pattern
|
||
- menial-servants
|
||
- merchant
|
||
- metal-currency
|
||
- military-employment
|
||
- mine-fertility
|
||
- mine-situation
|
||
- mint
|
||
- mint-price
|
||
- modes-of-expense-affecting-public-opulence
|
||
- money
|
||
- money-rent
|
||
- moneys-worth
|
||
- monied-interest
|
||
- monopoly-effects-on-market-price
|
||
- monopoly-price-of-land
|
||
- mutual-good-offices
|
||
- natural-complement-of-riches
|
||
- natural-liberty-in-banking
|
||
- natural-market-advantages
|
||
- natural-price-as-central-price
|
||
- natural-price-of-commodities
|
||
- natural-produce-of-land
|
||
- natural-progress-of-improvement
|
||
- natural-rates-of-wages-profit-and-rent
|
||
- natural-rent-of-land
|
||
- natural-state-of-employments
|
||
- navigable-rivers
|
||
- neat-revenue
|
||
- necessity
|
||
- nominal-measure-of-value
|
||
- nominal-price-of-commodities
|
||
- non-standard-metal
|
||
- occasional-and-temporary-market-fluctuations
|
||
- ordinary-market-price-of-land
|
||
- ordinary-rates-of-wages-profit-and-rent
|
||
- ordinary-state-of-employments
|
||
- overstocked-market-conditions
|
||
- paper-money
|
||
- pasture-land
|
||
- payment-in-kind
|
||
- perfect-liberty-in-trade
|
||
- permanent-market-price-enhancements
|
||
- perpetual-fund-for-maintenance-of-labour
|
||
- piece-work-wages
|
||
- pin-maker-trade
|
||
- poacher
|
||
- potato-cultivation
|
||
- precious-metals-consumption
|
||
- price-in-labour
|
||
- price-in-money
|
||
- price-of-commodities
|
||
- prime-cost-of-commodities
|
||
- principal-clerk
|
||
- principal-employments
|
||
- private-misconduct-versus-public-prodigality
|
||
- prodigals
|
||
- prodigals-and-projectors
|
||
- productive-abilities
|
||
- productive-and-unproductive-labour
|
||
- productive-labourers
|
||
- productive-powers-of-labour
|
||
- profits-of-stock
|
||
- progressive-state-of-society
|
||
- promissory-notes
|
||
- proportion-between-metals
|
||
- proportion-between-productive-and-unproductive-hands
|
||
- public-education-of-professionals
|
||
- public-executioner
|
||
- public-fiars
|
||
- public-law-on-coinage
|
||
- public-lottery
|
||
- public-mourning-effects
|
||
- public-registers-of-manufactures
|
||
- quantity-of-labour
|
||
- rate-of-interest
|
||
- rate-of-profit
|
||
- real-measure-of-value
|
||
- real-price-of-commodities
|
||
- real-value-of-corn-rent
|
||
- regulated-proportion
|
||
- religious-occupational-restrictions
|
||
- rent-of-land
|
||
- requisite-variety-in-banking
|
||
- retail-trade
|
||
- revenue
|
||
- revenue-constituting-profit-and-rent
|
||
- revenue-destined-for-capital-replacement
|
||
- rice-countries
|
||
- river-navigation-infrastructure
|
||
- scarcity-of-hands
|
||
- sea-coast-development
|
||
- seed-as-fixed-capital
|
||
- seignorage
|
||
- self-love
|
||
- settlement-laws
|
||
- silver-money
|
||
- silver-price-variation
|
||
- skill-and-dexterity
|
||
- smuggling-trade
|
||
- sober-people
|
||
- societys-general-stock
|
||
- spare-revenue
|
||
- species-of-industry-with-consistent-output
|
||
- species-of-industry-with-variable-output
|
||
- speculative-trade
|
||
- stamp-masters
|
||
- standard-metal
|
||
- standard-weight-of-coin
|
||
- stationary-country
|
||
- statute-of-labourers
|
||
- statutes-of-apprenticeship-effects
|
||
- sterling-mark
|
||
- stock
|
||
- stock-lent-at-interest
|
||
- stock-of-the-country
|
||
- stock-of-the-farmer
|
||
- subsistence
|
||
- subsistence-agriculture
|
||
- subsistence-of-the-dealer
|
||
- sugar-colonies
|
||
- superfluity
|
||
- superior-hardship-and-superior-skill
|
||
- tale
|
||
- temporary-price-of-corn
|
||
- three-original-sources-of-revenue
|
||
- three-way-employment-of-stock
|
||
- thriving-country
|
||
- tobacco-colonies
|
||
- toil-and-trouble-of-acquiring
|
||
- trade-encouragement
|
||
- trade-route-dependency
|
||
- transportation-cost-differential
|
||
- transportation-infrastructure-importance
|
||
- transportation-mode-economic-effects
|
||
- treasure-trove
|
||
- treaty
|
||
- truck
|
||
- two-branches-of-circulation
|
||
- unimproved-land
|
||
- university-of-trades
|
||
- unstamped-bars
|
||
- usury
|
||
- value-in-exchange
|
||
- value-in-use
|
||
- value-of-gold
|
||
- value-of-silver
|
||
- variety-of-talents
|
||
- venison
|
||
- victuals
|
||
- vineyard
|
||
- wages-of-a-journeyman
|
||
- wages-of-labour
|
||
- waggon-way-through-the-air-metaphor
|
||
- water-carriage
|
||
- water-pond-metaphor
|
||
- weighing
|
||
- whole-produce-of-labour
|
||
- wholesale-trade
|
||
- wood-price
|
||
- wool-grower
|
||
|
||
## Instructions
|
||
|
||
1. Read the source chapter carefully.
|
||
2. Review the list of existing entities above and do not duplicate them.
|
||
3. Identify all distinct economic concepts, actors, mechanisms, and institutions
|
||
that are NOT already in the existing entities list.
|
||
4. For each new entity, produce a separate markdown document following the
|
||
Economic Entity Schema v1.0.
|
||
5. Each entity document must include:
|
||
- An H1 heading with the entity name
|
||
- A Definition section (20-150 words)
|
||
- A Source Chapter section citing the specific chapter
|
||
- A Context section describing where in the argument the entity appears
|
||
- An Economic Domain section classifying the entity
|
||
6. Optionally include Smith's Original Wording (direct quote) and
|
||
Modern Interpretation sections.
|
||
7. Use neutral, analytical language throughout.
|
||
8. Ensure each entity is distinct and self-contained.
|
||
|
||
## Output Format
|
||
|
||
Output each entity as a separate markdown document, delimited by
|
||
`--- ENTITY: <entity-name> ---` markers.
|
||
|
||
Use **H2 headings** (`##`) for each section inside the entity document.
|
||
Do NOT use inline `Section:` format or H3 headings.
|
||
|
||
Example of a correctly formatted entity:
|
||
|
||
```
|
||
--- ENTITY: division of labour ---
|
||
|
||
# Division of Labour
|
||
|
||
## Definition
|
||
|
||
The separation of a work process into distinct tasks performed by specialised
|
||
workers, increasing productivity through greater dexterity, saved time, and
|
||
the invention of labour-saving machinery.
|
||
|
||
## Source Chapter
|
||
|
||
Book I, Chapter 1
|
||
|
||
## Context
|
||
|
||
The opening chapter's central argument, illustrated by Smith's pin factory
|
||
example showing how dividing 18 operations dramatically increases output.
|
||
|
||
## Economic Domain
|
||
|
||
Production
|
||
|
||
---
|
||
```
|