tegwick
2d1282a61e
Restructure entity storage from per-chapter subdirectories to a flat
canonical set in output/entities/. Each entity exists as a single file;
duplicates across chapters are detected by slug collision and skipped
(first occurrence wins). Chapter views use {{ include }} transclusion
to reference shared entity files.
Add @{existing_entities} macro to extract-entities template so the LLM
knows which entities already exist and focuses on genuinely new ones.
Refactor _call_llm() from _execute_llm() for callers that handle their
own file I/O. 41 unique entities from 4 chapters (2 duplicates removed).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
1.3 KiB
Power of Exchanging
Definition
The capacity of economic agents to trade the surplus produce of their own labour for the produce of others. This power is the precondition for the division of labour: without the ability to exchange, there is no incentive to specialise, since a worker cannot consume the entirety of a single specialised output. The power of exchanging is shaped by transportation infrastructure, population density, and the absence of political barriers to trade.
Source Chapter
Book 1, Chapter 3: "That the Division of Labour is Limited by the Extent of the Market"
Context
Smith introduces this concept in the chapter's opening sentence as the causal mechanism linking market size to specialisation. It serves as the bridge between the division of labour (Chapter 1-2) and the geographic and infrastructural arguments that follow.
Economic Domain
Exchange
Smith's Original Wording
"As it is the power of exchanging that gives occasion to the division of labour, so the extent of this division must always be limited by the extent of that power."
Modern Interpretation
This corresponds to the modern concept of market access or trade connectivity — the practical ability of producers to reach buyers, encompassing transaction costs, transportation costs, and institutional barriers to exchange.