841 B
841 B
Productive Class
Definition
The class of cultivators, farmers, and country labourers who are distinguished by their ability to reproduce annually a neat produce that remains after paying all necessary expenses, thereby increasing the real revenue and wealth of society through their productive labour.
Source Chapter
Book IV, Chapter 9
Context
Smith explains how agricultural systems classify society into three classes, with cultivators being designated as the "productive class" because their labour not only replaces its own value but generates a surplus that increases national wealth, unlike the barren or unproductive class of artificers and manufacturers.
Economic Domain
Production