1343 lines
58 KiB
Markdown
1343 lines
58 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-3-chapter-04
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title: "HOW THE COMMERCE OF TOWNS CONTRIBUTED TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE COUNTRY."
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book: "3"
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chapter: 4
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artifact_type: content
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---
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CHAPTER IV.
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HOW THE COMMERCE OF TOWNS CONTRIBUTED
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TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE COUNTRY.
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The increase and riches of commercial and manufacturing towns contributed
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to the improvement and cultivation of the countries to which they
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belonged, in three different ways.
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First, by affording a great and ready market for the rude produce of the
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country, they gave encouragement to its cultivation and further
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improvement. This benefit was not even confined to the countries in which
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they were situated, but extended more or less to all those with which they
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had any dealings. To all of them they afforded a market for some part
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either of their rude or manufactured produce, and, consequently, gave some
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encouragement to the industry and improvement of all. Their own country,
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however, on account of its neighbourhood, necessarily derived the greatest
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benefit from this market. Its rude produce being charged with less
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carriage, the traders could pay the growers a better price for it, and yet
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afford it as cheap to the consumers as that of more distant countries.
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Secondly, the wealth acquired by the inhabitants of cities was frequently
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employed in purchasing such lands as were to be sold, of which a great
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part would frequently be uncultivated. Merchants are commonly ambitious of
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becoming country gentlemen, and, when they do, they are generally the best
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of all improvers. A merchant is accustomed to employ his money chiefly in
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profitable projects; whereas a mere country gentleman is accustomed to
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employ it chiefly in expense. The one often sees his money go from him,
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and return to him again with a profit; the other, when once he parts with
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it, very seldom expects to see any more of it. Those different habits
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naturally affect their temper and disposition in every sort of business.
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The merchant is commonly a bold, a country gentleman a timid undertaker.
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The one is not afraid to lay out at once a large capital upon the
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improvement of his land, when he has a probable prospect of raising the
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value of it in proportion to the expense; the other, if he has any
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capital, which is not always the case, seldom ventures to employ it in
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this manner. If he improves at all, it is commonly not with a capital, but
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with what he can save out or his annual revenue. Whoever has had the
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fortune to live in a mercantile town, situated in an unimproved country,
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must have frequently observed how much more spirited the operations of
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merchants were in this way, than those of mere country gentlemen. The
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habits, besides, of order, economy, and attention, to which mercantile
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business naturally forms a merchant, render him much fitter to execute,
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with profit and success, any project of improvement.
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Thirdly, and lastly, commerce and manufactures gradually introduced order
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and good government, and with them the liberty and security of
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individuals, among the inhabitants of the country, who had before lived
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almost in a continual state of war with their neighbours, and of servile
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dependency upon their superiors. This, though it has been the least
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observed, is by far the most important of all their effects. Mr Hume is
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the only writer who, so far as I know, has hitherto taken notice of it.
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In a country which has neither foreign commerce nor any of the finer
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manufactures, a great proprietor, having nothing for which he can exchange
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the greater part of the produce of his lands which is over and above the
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maintenance of the cultivators, consumes the whole in rustic hospitality
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at home. If this surplus produce is sufficient to maintain a hundred or a
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thousand men, he can make use of it in no other way than by maintaining a
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hundred or a thousand men. He is at all times, therefore, surrounded with
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a multitude of retainers and dependants, who, having no equivalent to give
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in return for their maintenance, but being fed entirely by his bounty,
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must obey him, for the same reason that soldiers must obey the prince who
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pays them. Before the extension of commerce and manufactures in Europe,
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the hospitality of the rich and the great, from the sovereign down to the
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smallest baron, exceeded every thing which, in the present times, we can
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easily form a notion of Westminster-hall was the dining-room of William
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Rufus, and might frequently, perhaps, not be too large for his company. It
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was reckoned a piece of magnificence in Thomas Becket, that he strewed the
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floor of his hall with clean hay or rushes in the season, in order that
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the knights and squires, who could not get seats, might not spoil their
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fine clothes when they sat down on the floor to eat their dinner. The
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great Earl of Warwick is said to have entertained every day, at his
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different manors, 30,000 people; and though the number here may have been
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exaggerated, it must, however, have been very great to admit of such
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exaggeration. A hospitality nearly of the same kind was exercised not many
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years ago in many different parts of the Highlands of Scotland. It seems
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to be common in all nations to whom commerce and manufactures are little
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known. I have seen, says Doctor Pocock, an Arabian chief dine in the
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streets of a town where he had come to sell his cattle, and invite all
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passengers, even common beggars, to sit down with him and partake of his
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banquet.
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The occupiers of land were in every respect as dependent upon the great
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proprietor as his retainers. Even such of them as were not in a state of
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villanage, were tenants at will, who paid a rent in no respect equivalent
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to the subsistence which the land afforded them. A crown, half a crown, a
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sheep, a lamb, was some years ago, in the Highlands of Scotland, a common
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rent for lands which maintained a family. In some places it is so at this
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day; nor will money at present purchase a greater quantity of commodities
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there than in other places. In a country where the surplus produce of a
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large estate must be consumed upon the estate itself, it will frequently
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be more convenient for the proprietor, that part of it be consumed at a
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distance from his own house, provided they who consume it are as dependent
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upon him as either his retainers or his menial servants. He is thereby
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saved from the embarrassment of either too large a company, or too large a
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family. A tenant at will, who possesses land sufficient to maintain his
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family for little more than a quit-rent, is as dependent upon the
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proprietor as any servant or retainer whatever, and must obey him with as
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little reserve. Such a proprietor, as he feeds his servants and retainers
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at his own house, so he feeds his tenants at their houses. The subsistence
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of both is derived from his bounty, and its continuance depends upon his
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good pleasure.
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Upon the authority which the great proprietors necessarily had, in such a
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state of things, over their tenants and retainers, was founded the power
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of the ancient barons. They necessarily became the judges in peace, and
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the leaders in war, of all who dwelt upon their estates. They could
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maintain order, and execute the law, within their respective demesnes,
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because each of them could there turn the whole force of all the
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inhabitants against the injustice of anyone. No other person had
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sufficient authority to do this. The king, in particular, had not. In
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those ancient times, he was little more than the greatest proprietor in
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his dominions, to whom, for the sake of common defence against their
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common enemies, the other great proprietors paid certain respects. To have
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enforced payment of a small debt within the lands of a great proprietor,
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where all the inhabitants were armed, and accustomed to stand by one
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another, would have cost the king, had he attempted it by his own
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authority, almost the same effort as to extinguish a civil war. He was,
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therefore, obliged to abandon the administration of justice, through the
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greater part of the country, to those who were capable of administering
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it; and, for the same reason, to leave the command of the country militia
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to those whom that militia would obey.
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It is a mistake to imagine that those territorial jurisdictions took their
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origin from the feudal law. Not only the highest jurisdictions, both civil
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and criminal, but the power of levying troops, of coining money, and even
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that of making bye-laws for the government of their own people, were all
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rights possessed allodially by the great proprietors of land, several
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centuries before even the name of the feudal law was known in Europe. The
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authority and jurisdiction of the Saxon lords in England appear to have
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been as great before the Conquest as that of any of the Norman lords after
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it. But the feudal law is not supposed to have become the common law of
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England till after the Conquest. That the most extensive authority and
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jurisdictions were possessed by the great lords in France allodially, long
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before the feudal law was introduced into that country, is a matter of
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fact that admits of no doubt. That authority, and those jurisdictions, all
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necessarily flowed from the state of property and manners just now
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described. Without remounting to the remote antiquities of either the
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French or English monarchies, we may find, in much later times, many
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proofs that such effects must always flow from such causes. It is not
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thirty years ago since Mr Cameron of Lochiel, a gentleman of Lochaber in
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Scotland, without any legal warrant whatever, not being what was then
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called a lord of regality, nor even a tenant in chief, but a vassal of the
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Duke of Argyll, and with out being so much as a justice of peace, used,
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notwithstanding, to exercise the highest criminal jurisdictions over his
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own people. He is said to have done so with great equity, though without
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any of the formalities of justice; and it is not improbable that the state
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of that part of the country at that time made it necessary for him to
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assume this authority, in order to maintain the public peace. That
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gentleman, whose rent never exceeded £500 a-year, carried, in 1745, 800 of
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his own people into the rebellion with him.
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The introduction of the feudal law, so far from extending, may be regarded
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as an attempt to moderate, the authority of the great allodial lords. It
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established a regular subordination, accompanied with a long train of
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services and duties, from the king down to the smallest proprietor. During
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the minority of the proprietor, the rent, together with the management of
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his lands, fell into the hands of his immediate superior; and,
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consequently, those of all great proprietors into the hands of the king,
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who was charged with the maintenance and education of the pupil, and who,
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from his authority as guardian, was supposed to have a right of disposing
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of him in marriage, provided it was in a manner not unsuitable to his
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rank. But though this institution necessarily tended to strengthen the
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authority of the king, and to weaken that of the great proprietors, it
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could not do either sufficiently for establishing order and good
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government among the inhabitants of the country; because it could not
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alter sufficiently that state of property and manners from which the
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disorders arose. The authority of government still continued to be, as
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before, too weak in the head, and too strong in the inferior members; and
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the excessive strength of the inferior members was the cause of the
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weakness of the head. After the institution of feudal subordination, the
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king was as incapable of restraining the violence of the great lords as
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before. They still continued to make war according to their own
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discretion, almost continually upon one another, and very frequently upon
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the king; and the open country still continued to be a scene of violence,
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rapine, and disorder.
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But what all the violence of the feudal institutions could never have
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effected, the silent and insensible operation of foreign commerce and
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manufactures gradually brought about. These gradually furnished the great
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proprietors with something for which they could exchange the whole surplus
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produce of their lands, and which they could consume themselves, without
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sharing it either with tenants or retainers. All for ourselves, and
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nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been
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the vile maxim of the masters of mankind. As soon, therefore, as they
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could find a method of consuming the whole value of their rents
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themselves, they had no disposition to share them with any other persons.
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For a pair of diamond buckles, perhaps, or for something as frivolous and
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useless, they exchanged the maintenance, or, what is the same thing, the
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price of the maintenance of 1000 men for a year, and with it the whole
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weight and authority which it could give them. The buckles, however, were
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to be all their own, and no other human creature was to have any share of
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them; whereas, in the more ancient method of expense, they must have
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shared with at least 1000 people. With the judges that were to determine
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the preference, this difference was perfectly decisive; and thus, for the
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gratification of the most childish, the meanest, and the most sordid of
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all vanities they gradually bartered their whole power and authority.
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In a country where there is no foreign commerce, nor any of the finer
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manufactures, a man of £10,000 a-year cannot well employ his revenue in
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any other way than in maintaining, perhaps, 1000 families, who are all of
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them necessarily at his command. In the present state of Europe, a man of
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£10,000 a-year can spend his whole revenue, and he generally does so,
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without directly maintaining twenty people, or being able to command more
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than ten footmen, not worth the commanding. Indirectly, perhaps, he
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maintains as great, or even a greater number of people, than he could have
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done by the ancient method of expense. For though the quantity of precious
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productions for which he exchanges his whole revenue be very small, the
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number of workmen employed in collecting and preparing it must necessarily
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have been very great. Its great price generally arises from the wages of
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their labour, and the profits of all their immediate employers. By paying
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that price, he indirectly pays all those wages and profits, and thus
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indirectly contributes to the maintenance of all the workmen and their
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employers. He generally contributes, however, but a very small proportion
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to that of each; to a very few, perhaps, not a tenth, to many not a
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hundredth, and to some not a thousandth, or even a ten thousandth part of
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their whole annual maintenance. Though he contributes, therefore, to the
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maintenance of them all, they are all more or less independent of him,
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because generally they can all be maintained without him.
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When the great proprietors of land spend their rents in maintaining their
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tenants and retainers, each of them maintains entirely all his own tenants
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and all his own retainers. But when they spend them in maintaining
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tradesmen and artificers, they may, all of them taken together, perhaps
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maintain as great, or, on account of the waste which attends rustic
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hospitality, a greater number of people than before. Each of them,
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however, taken singly, contributes often but a very small share to the
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maintenance of any individual of this greater number. Each tradesman or
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artificer derives his subsistence from the employment, not of one, but of
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a hundred or a thousand different customers. Though in some measure
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obliged to them all, therefore, he is not absolutely dependent upon any
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one of them.
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The personal expense of the great proprietors having in this manner
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gradually increased, it was impossible that the number of their retainers
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should not as gradually diminish, till they were at last dismissed
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altogether. The same cause gradually led them to dismiss the unnecessary
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part of their tenants. Farms were enlarged, and the occupiers of land,
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notwithstanding the complaints of depopulation, reduced to the number
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necessary for cultivating it, according to the imperfect state of
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cultivation and improvement in those times. By the removal of the
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unnecessary mouths, and by exacting from the farmer the full value of the
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farm, a greater surplus, or, what is the same thing, the price of a
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greater surplus, was obtained for the proprietor, which the merchants and
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manufacturers soon furnished him with a method of spending upon his own
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person, in the same manner as he had done the rest. The cause continuing
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to operate, he was desirous to raise his rents above what his lands, in
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the actual state of their improvement, could afford. His tenants could
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agree to this upon one condition only, that they should be secured in
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their possession for such a term of years as might give them time to
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recover, with profit, whatever they should lay out in the further
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improvement of the land. The expensive vanity of the landlord made him
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willing to accept of this condition; and hence the origin of long leases.
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Even a tenant at will, who pays the full value of the land, is not
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altogether dependent upon the landlord. The pecuniary advantages which
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they receive from one another are mutual and equal, and such a tenant will
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expose neither his life nor his fortune in the service of the proprietor.
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But if he has a lease for a long term of years he is altogether
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independent; and his landlord must not expect from him even the most
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trifling service, beyond what is either expressly stipulated in the lease,
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or imposed upon him by the common and known law of the country.
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The tenants having in this manner become independent, and the retainers
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being dismissed, the great proprietors were no longer capable of
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interrupting the regular execution of justice, or of disturbing the peace
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of the country. Having sold their birth-right, not like Esau, for a mess
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of pottage in time of hunger and necessity, but, in the wantonness of
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plenty, for trinkets and baubles, fitter to be the playthings of children
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than the serious pursuits of men, they became as insignificant as any
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substantial burgher or tradesmen in a city. A regular government was
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established in the country as well as in the city, nobody having
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sufficient power to disturb its operations in the one, any more than in
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the other.
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It does not, perhaps, relate to the present subject, but I cannot help
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remarking it, that very old families, such as have possessed some
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considerable estate from father to son for many successive generations,
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are very rare in commercial countries. In countries which have little
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commerce, on the contrary, such as Wales, or the Highlands of Scotland,
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they are very common. The Arabian histories seem to be all full of
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genealogies; and there is a history written by a Tartar Khan, which has
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been translated into several European languages, and which contains scarce
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any thing else; a proof that ancient families are very common among those
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nations. In countries where a rich man can spend his revenue in no other
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way than by maintaining as many people as it can maintain, he is apt to
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run out, and his benevolence, it seems, is seldom so violent as to attempt
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to maintain more than he can afford. But where he can spend the greatest
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revenue upon his own person, he frequently has no bounds to his expense,
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because he frequently has no bounds to his vanity, or to his affection for
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his own person. In commercial countries, therefore, riches, in spite of
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the most violent regulations of law to prevent their dissipation, very
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seldom remain long in the same family. Among simple nations, on the
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contrary, they frequently do, without any regulations of law; for among
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nations of shepherds, such as the Tartars and Arabs, the consumable nature
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of their property necessarily renders all such regulations impossible.
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A revolution of the greatest importance to the public happiness, was in
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this manner brought about by two different orders of people, who had not
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the least intention to serve the public. To gratify the most childish
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vanity was the sole motive of the great proprietors. The merchants and
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artificers, much less ridiculous, acted merely from a view to their own
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interest, and in pursuit of their own pedlar principle of turning a penny
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wherever a penny was to be got. Neither of them had either knowledge or
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foresight of that great revolution which the folly of the one, and the
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industry of the other, was gradually bringing about.
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It was thus, that, through the greater part of Europe, the commerce and
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manufactures of cities, instead of being the effect, have been the cause
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and occasion of the improvement and cultivation of the country.
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This order, however, being contrary to the natural course of things, is
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necessarily both slow and uncertain. Compare the slow progress of those
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European countries of which the wealth depends very much upon their
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commerce and manufactures, with the rapid advances of our North American
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colonies, of which the wealth is founded altogether in agriculture.
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Through the greater part of Europe, the number of inhabitants is not
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supposed to double in less than five hundred years. In several of our
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North American colonies, it is found to double in twenty or
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five-and-twenty years. In Europe, the law of primogeniture, and
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perpetuities of different kinds, prevent the division of great estates,
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and thereby hinder the multiplication of small proprietors. A small
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proprietor, however, who knows every part of his little territory, views
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it with all the affection which property, especially small property,
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naturally inspires, and who upon that account takes pleasure, not only in
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cultivating, but in adorning it, is generally of all improvers the most
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industrious, the most intelligent, and the most successful. The same
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regulations, besides, keep so much land out of the market, that there are
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always more capitals to buy than there is land to sell, so that what is
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sold always sells at a monopoly price. The rent never pays the interest of
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the purchase-money, and is, besides, burdened with repairs and other
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occasional charges, to which the interest of money is not liable. To
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purchase land, is, everywhere in Europe, a most unprofitable employment of
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a small capital. For the sake of the superior security, indeed, a man of
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moderate circumstances, when he retires from business, will sometimes
|
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choose to lay out his little capital in land. A man of profession, too
|
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whose revenue is derived from another source often loves to secure his
|
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savings in the same way. But a young man, who, instead of applying to
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trade or to some profession, should employ a capital of two or three
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thousand pounds in the purchase and cultivation of a small piece of land,
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might indeed expect to live very happily and very independently, but must
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bid adieu for ever to all hope of either great fortune or great
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illustration, which, by a different employment of his stock, he might have
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had the same chance of acquiring with other people. Such a person, too,
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though he cannot aspire at being a proprietor, will often disdain to be a
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farmer. The small quantity of land, therefore, which is brought to market,
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and the high price of what is brought thither, prevents a great number of
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capitals from being employed in its cultivation and improvement, which
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||
would otherwise have taken that direction. In North America, on the
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contrary, fifty or sixty pounds is often found a sufficient stock to begin
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a plantation with. The purchase and improvement of uncultivated land is
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there the most profitable employment of the smallest as well as of the
|
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greatest capitals, and the most direct road to all the fortune and
|
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illustration which can be required in that country. Such land, indeed, is
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in North America to be had almost for nothing, or at a price much below
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the value of the natural produce; a thing impossible in Europe, or indeed
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in any country where all lands have long been private property. If landed
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estates, however, were divided equally among all the children, upon the
|
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death of any proprietor who left a numerous family, the estate would
|
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generally be sold. So much land would come to market, that it could no
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longer sell at a monopoly price. The free rent of the land would go no
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nearer to pay the interest of the purchase-money, and a small capital
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might be employed in purchasing land as profitable as in any other way.
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|
||
England, on account of the natural fertility of the soil, of the great
|
||
extent of the sea-coast in proportion to that of the whole country, and of
|
||
the many navigable rivers which run through it, and afford the conveniency
|
||
of water carriage to some of the most inland parts of it, is perhaps as
|
||
well fitted by nature as any large country in Europe to be the seat of
|
||
foreign commerce, of manufactures for distant sale, and of all the
|
||
improvements which these can occasion. From the beginning of the reign of
|
||
Elizabeth, too, the English legislature has been peculiarly attentive to
|
||
the interest of commerce and manufactures, and in reality there is no
|
||
country in Europe, Holland itself not excepted, of which the law is, upon
|
||
the whole, more favourable to this sort of industry. Commerce and
|
||
manufactures have accordingly been continually advancing during all this
|
||
period. The cultivation and improvement of the country has, no doubt, been
|
||
gradually advancing too; but it seems to have followed slowly, and at a
|
||
distance, the more rapid progress of commerce and manufactures. The
|
||
greater part of the country must probably have been cultivated before the
|
||
reign of Elizabeth; and a very great part of it still remains
|
||
uncultivated, and the cultivation of the far greater part much inferior to
|
||
what it might be, The law of England, however, favours agriculture, not
|
||
only indirectly, by the protection of commerce, but by several direct
|
||
encouragements. Except in times of scarcity, the exportation of corn is
|
||
not only free, but encouraged by a bounty. In times of moderate plenty,
|
||
the importation of foreign corn is loaded with duties that amount to a
|
||
prohibition. The importation of live cattle, except from Ireland, is
|
||
prohibited at all times; and it is but of late that it was permitted from
|
||
thence. Those who cultivate the land, therefore, have a monopoly against
|
||
their countrymen for the two greatest and most important articles of land
|
||
produce, bread and butcher’s meat. These encouragements, although at
|
||
bottom, perhaps, as I shall endeavour to show hereafter, altogether
|
||
illusory, sufficiently demonstrate at least the good intention of the
|
||
legislature to favour agriculture. But what is of much more importance
|
||
than all of them, the yeomanry of England are rendered as secure, as
|
||
independent, and as respectable, as law can make them. No country,
|
||
therefore, which the right of primogeniture takes place, which pays
|
||
tithes, and where perpetuities, though contrary to the spirit of the law,
|
||
are admitted in some cases, can give more encouragement to agriculture
|
||
than England. Such, however, notwithstanding, is the state of its
|
||
cultivation. What would it have been, had the law given no direct
|
||
encouragement to agriculture besides what arises indirectly from the
|
||
progress of commerce, and had left the yeomanry in the same condition as
|
||
in most other countries of Europe? It is now more than two hundred years
|
||
since the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, a period as long as the
|
||
course of human prosperity usually endures.
|
||
|
||
France seems to have had a considerable share of foreign commerce, near a
|
||
century before England was distinguished as a commercial country. The
|
||
marine of France was considerable, according to the notions of the times,
|
||
before the expedition of Charles VIII. to Naples. The cultivation and
|
||
improvement of France, however, is, upon the whole, inferior to that of
|
||
England. The law of the country has never given the same direct
|
||
encouragement to agriculture.
|
||
|
||
The foreign commerce of Spain and Portugal to the other parts of Europe,
|
||
though chiefly carried on in foreign ships, is very considerable. That to
|
||
their colonies is carried on in their own, and is much greater, on account
|
||
of the great riches and extent of those colonies. But it has never
|
||
introduced any considerable manufactures for distant sale into either of
|
||
those countries, and the greater part of both still remains uncultivated.
|
||
The foreign commerce of Portugal is of older standing than that of any
|
||
great country in Europe, except Italy.
|
||
|
||
Italy is the only great country of Europe which seems to have been
|
||
cultivated and improved in every part, by means of foreign commerce and
|
||
manufactures for distant sale. Before the invasion of Charles VIII.,
|
||
Italy, according to Guicciardini, was cultivated not less in the most
|
||
mountainous and barren parts of the country, than in the plainest and most
|
||
fertile. The advantageous situation of the country, and the great number
|
||
of independent states which at that time subsisted in it, probably
|
||
contributed not a little to this general cultivation. It is not
|
||
impossible, too, notwithstanding this general expression of one of the
|
||
most judicious and reserved of modern historians, that Italy was not at
|
||
that time better cultivated than England is at present.
|
||
|
||
The capital, however, that is acquired to any country by commerce and
|
||
manufactures, is always a very precarious and uncertain possession, till
|
||
some part of it has been secured and realized in the cultivation and
|
||
improvement of its lands. A merchant, it has been said very properly, is
|
||
not necessarily the citizen of any particular country. It is in a great
|
||
measure indifferent to him from what place he carries on his trade; and a
|
||
very trifling disgust will make him remove his capital, and, together with
|
||
it, all the industry which it supports, from one country to another. No
|
||
part of it can be said to belong to any particular country, till it has
|
||
been spread, as it were, over the face of that country, either in
|
||
buildings, or in the lasting improvement of lands. No vestige now remains
|
||
of the great wealth said to have been possessed by the greater part of the
|
||
Hanse Towns, except in the obscure histories of the thirteenth and
|
||
fourteenth centuries. It is even uncertain where some of them were
|
||
situated, or to what towns in Europe the Latin names given to some of them
|
||
belong. But though the misfortunes of Italy, in the end of the fifteenth
|
||
and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, greatly diminished the commerce
|
||
and manufactures of the cities of Lombardy and Tuscany, those countries
|
||
still continue to be among the most populous and best cultivated in
|
||
Europe. The civil wars of Flanders, and the Spanish government which
|
||
succeeded them, chased away the great commerce of Antwerp, Ghent, and
|
||
Bruges. But Flanders still continues to be one of the richest, best
|
||
cultivated, and most populous provinces of Europe. The ordinary
|
||
revolutions of war and government easily dry up the sources of that wealth
|
||
which arises from commerce only. That which arises from the more solid
|
||
improvements of agriculture is much more durable, and cannot be destroyed
|
||
but by those more violent convulsions occasioned by the depredations of
|
||
hostile and barbarous nations continued for a century or two together;
|
||
such as those that happened for some time before and after the fall of the
|
||
Roman empire in the western provinces of Europe.
|
||
|
||
|
||
## 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-capital
|
||
- agricultural-capital-structure
|
||
- agricultural-comparative-advantage
|
||
- agricultural-cultivation
|
||
- agricultural-cultivation-at-farmer-expense
|
||
- agricultural-cultivation-at-proprietor-expense
|
||
- agricultural-demand
|
||
- agricultural-development-constraints
|
||
- agricultural-development-sequence
|
||
- agricultural-economic-potential
|
||
- agricultural-efficiency
|
||
- agricultural-improvement
|
||
- agricultural-improvement-discouragement
|
||
- agricultural-improvement-foundation
|
||
- agricultural-labour
|
||
- agricultural-market-access-cost-structure
|
||
- agricultural-market-access-development-prerequisites
|
||
- agricultural-market-access-development-sequence
|
||
- agricultural-market-access-gradient
|
||
- agricultural-market-access-inequality
|
||
- agricultural-market-access-opportunity-cost
|
||
- agricultural-market-communication-channels
|
||
- agricultural-market-integration
|
||
- agricultural-market-size-threshold
|
||
- agricultural-opportunity-cost
|
||
- agricultural-price-ceilings
|
||
- agricultural-price-differential
|
||
- agricultural-price-discovery
|
||
- agricultural-price-discrimination
|
||
- agricultural-price-elasticity
|
||
- agricultural-price-equalization
|
||
- agricultural-price-floors
|
||
- agricultural-price-mechanism
|
||
- agricultural-price-regulation
|
||
- agricultural-price-stability
|
||
- agricultural-price-transmission
|
||
- agricultural-price-volatility
|
||
- agricultural-productivity
|
||
- agricultural-productivity-limits
|
||
- agricultural-security-gradient
|
||
- agricultural-spatial-inequality
|
||
- agricultural-specialization
|
||
- agricultural-stock
|
||
- agricultural-supply
|
||
- agricultural-surplus
|
||
- agricultural-surplus-determination
|
||
- agricultural-technology
|
||
- agricultural-technology-adoption
|
||
- agricultural-trade
|
||
- annual-consumption-of-metals
|
||
- annual-industry-employed-in-production
|
||
- annual-produce-of-land-and-labour
|
||
- apprenticeships
|
||
- artificer-neighbourhood-settlement
|
||
- artificer-planter-independence
|
||
- artificer-planter-transition
|
||
- artificer-servant-status
|
||
- artificers-and-retailers
|
||
- 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
|
||
- bye-laws
|
||
- canal-communication
|
||
- capital
|
||
- capital-accumulation
|
||
- capital-employed
|
||
- capital-employment-advantages
|
||
- capital-employment-effects
|
||
- capital-employment-security-gradient
|
||
- capital-replacement
|
||
- capital-security-preference
|
||
- capital-security-visibility
|
||
- carriage-value-savings
|
||
- carrying-trade
|
||
- 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
|
||
- commerce-between-town-and-country
|
||
- commercial-interactions
|
||
- commercial-society
|
||
- commercial-society-emergence
|
||
- commercial-transactions
|
||
- common-annual-profits-of-manufacturing-stock
|
||
- common-labour-wages
|
||
- common-returns-of-stock
|
||
- commonalty
|
||
- competition-among-buyers
|
||
- competition-among-dealers
|
||
- competition-among-sellers
|
||
- complete-manufacture
|
||
- component-parts-of-price
|
||
- contract
|
||
- conversion-price
|
||
- copper-money
|
||
- corn-exportation-prohibition
|
||
- corn-land
|
||
- corn-rent
|
||
- corporation-laws
|
||
- corporation-privileges-and-market-prices
|
||
- country-gentlemen
|
||
- country-life-charms
|
||
- cultivation-improvement-priority
|
||
- dead-stock
|
||
- dear-years
|
||
- debasement-of-currency
|
||
- declining-manufacture
|
||
- degradation-of-coin
|
||
- demand-for-labour
|
||
- demesne
|
||
- discount-of-bills
|
||
- distant-country-subsistence
|
||
- distant-market-manufacturing
|
||
- distant-sale-manufacturing
|
||
- division-of-labour
|
||
- division-of-labour-advantage
|
||
- 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-autonomy-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
|
||
- ejectment-action
|
||
- encroachment-upon-capital
|
||
- engrossers-and-forestallers
|
||
- entail
|
||
- equal-profit-employment-choice
|
||
- exchange
|
||
- exchangeable-value
|
||
- exchequer
|
||
- exclusive-corporation
|
||
- exportation-bounty
|
||
- exportation-of-gold-and-silver-as-effect-of-declension
|
||
- extraordinary-profits
|
||
- fairs-and-markets
|
||
- farm-rent
|
||
- farmer
|
||
- farmers-capital
|
||
- farmers-profit
|
||
- favour
|
||
- feudal-anarchy
|
||
- feudal-government-effects
|
||
- fixed-capital
|
||
- flax-grower
|
||
- fluctuations-in-value-of-gold-and-silver
|
||
- foreign-capital-exportation
|
||
- foreign-commerce-manufactures-birth
|
||
- foreign-trade
|
||
- foreign-trade-of-consumption
|
||
- four-methods-of-employing-capital
|
||
- free-burgh
|
||
- freeholder-yeomanry
|
||
- 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
|
||
- hanseatic-league
|
||
- higgling-and-bargaining-of-the-market
|
||
- home-trade
|
||
- hop-garden
|
||
- human-folly-injustice-exposure
|
||
- 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
|
||
- law-of-primogeniture
|
||
- legal-rate-of-interest
|
||
- legal-tender
|
||
- licence-to-gather-natural-produce
|
||
- lowest-rate-of-wages
|
||
- machinery-invention
|
||
- manufactured-produce
|
||
- manufacturer
|
||
- manufacturing-capital
|
||
- manufacturing-process-subdivision
|
||
- manufacturing-subdivision
|
||
- 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-demand-regulation
|
||
- market-development-prerequisites
|
||
- market-driven-division
|
||
- market-extent
|
||
- market-extent-advantageousness
|
||
- market-extent-economic-impact
|
||
- market-extent-measurement
|
||
- market-for-surplus-produce
|
||
- 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-price-regulation-mechanism
|
||
- market-proximity-advantage
|
||
- market-rate-of-interest
|
||
- market-regulation-of-prices
|
||
- market-separation
|
||
- market-size-economies
|
||
- market-size-specialisation-threshold
|
||
- market-size-specialization
|
||
- market-size-threshold
|
||
- market-town-economy
|
||
- market-town-formation
|
||
- masquerade-dress-trade
|
||
- master-artificer
|
||
- master-manufacturer
|
||
- materials-and-subsistence
|
||
- measure-of-exchangeable-value
|
||
- mediterranean-civilisation-pattern
|
||
- menial-servants
|
||
- merchant
|
||
- metal-currency
|
||
- metayer
|
||
- military-assistance
|
||
- military-discipline
|
||
- military-employment
|
||
- mine-fertility
|
||
- mine-situation
|
||
- mint
|
||
- mint-price
|
||
- modern-states-inversion
|
||
- modes-of-expense-affecting-public-opulence
|
||
- money
|
||
- money-rent
|
||
- moneys-worth
|
||
- monied-interest
|
||
- monopoly-effects-on-market-price
|
||
- monopoly-price-of-land
|
||
- mutual-gain-reciprocity
|
||
- mutual-good-offices
|
||
- mutual-servitude
|
||
- natural-complement-of-riches
|
||
- natural-course-of-things
|
||
- natural-development-sequence
|
||
- natural-inclinations-thwarting
|
||
- natural-liberty-in-banking
|
||
- natural-market-advantages
|
||
- natural-order-inversion
|
||
- natural-order-of-economic-development
|
||
- natural-preference-cultivation
|
||
- 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
|
||
- original-destination-of-man
|
||
- original-government-manners
|
||
- 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
|
||
- planter-independence
|
||
- poacher
|
||
- poll-tax
|
||
- poll-tax-compensation
|
||
- 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
|
||
- progressive-wealth-consequentiality
|
||
- 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
|
||
- purveyance
|
||
- 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
|
||
- retailers
|
||
- revenue
|
||
- revenue-constituting-profit-and-rent
|
||
- revenue-destined-for-capital-replacement
|
||
- rice-countries
|
||
- river-navigation-infrastructure
|
||
- rude-produce
|
||
- rural-urban-reciprocity
|
||
- scarcity-of-hands
|
||
- sea-coast-development
|
||
- security-preference-capital
|
||
- seed-as-fixed-capital
|
||
- seignorage
|
||
- self-love
|
||
- servile-condition
|
||
- 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-industry-priority
|
||
- subsistence-necessity-priority
|
||
- subsistence-of-the-dealer
|
||
- subsistence-prioritization
|
||
- sugar-colonies
|
||
- superfluity
|
||
- superior-hardship-and-superior-skill
|
||
- surplus-produce
|
||
- taille
|
||
- tale
|
||
- temporary-price-of-corn
|
||
- territorial-cultivation-completeness
|
||
- territorial-cultivation-limit
|
||
- territorial-improvement-support
|
||
- territorial-support-limitation
|
||
- three-original-sources-of-revenue
|
||
- three-way-employment-of-stock
|
||
- thriving-country
|
||
- tobacco-colonies
|
||
- toil-and-trouble-of-acquiring
|
||
- town-country-dependency
|
||
- town-market-function
|
||
- town-reproduction-impossibility
|
||
- trade-capital
|
||
- trade-encouragement
|
||
- trade-route-dependency
|
||
- transportation-cost-differential
|
||
- transportation-infrastructure-importance
|
||
- transportation-mode-economic-effects
|
||
- treasure-trove
|
||
- treaty
|
||
- truck
|
||
- two-branches-of-circulation
|
||
- uncultivated-land-availability
|
||
- unimproved-land
|
||
- university-of-trades
|
||
- unproductive-labourers
|
||
- unstamped-bars
|
||
- urban-autonomy
|
||
- urban-rural-reciprocity
|
||
- usury
|
||
- value-in-exchange
|
||
- value-in-use
|
||
- value-of-gold
|
||
- value-of-silver
|
||
- variety-of-talents
|
||
- venison
|
||
- victuals
|
||
- villeinage
|
||
- 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-merchants
|
||
- 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
|
||
|
||
---
|
||
```
|