tegwick
fecc2fd4fa
Implements markitect/llm/ package with concrete LLMAdapter implementations:
- OpenRouterAdapter: HTTP via urllib with retry/backoff on 429/5xx
- ClaudeCodeAdapter: subprocess-based Claude CLI with stdin piping
- Factory pattern: create_adapter("openrouter") or create_adapter("claude-code")
- API key resolution chain: constructor > env var > project-root key file
- 42 unit tests, 2 integration tests (gated on API key / CLI availability)
Also adds the infospace-with-history example with Wealth of Nations VSM
analysis pipeline, templates, schemas, source chapters, and processed
output for chapters 1-2. process_chapters.py now supports --provider
and --model flags for automatic LLM-driven processing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
190 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
190 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
---
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id: book-3-chapter-01
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title: "OF THE NATURAL PROGRESS OF OPULENCE."
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book: "3"
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chapter: 1
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artifact_type: content
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---
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CHAPTER I.
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OF THE NATURAL PROGRESS OF OPULENCE.
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The great commerce of every civilized society is that carried on between
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the inhabitants of the town and those of the country. It consists in the
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exchange of rude for manufactured produce, either immediately, or by the
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intervention of money, or of some sort of paper which represents money.
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The country supplies the town with the means of subsistence and the
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materials of manufacture. The town repays this supply, by sending back a
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part of the manufactured produce to the inhabitants of the country. The
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town, in which there neither is nor can be any reproduction of substances,
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may very properly be said to gain its whole wealth and subsistence from
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the country. We must not, however, upon this account, imagine that the
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gain of the town is the loss of the country. The gains of both are mutual
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and reciprocal, and the division of labour is in this, as in all other
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cases, advantageous to all the different persons employed in the various
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occupations into which it is subdivided. The inhabitants of the country
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purchase of the town a greater quantity of manufactured goods with the
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produce of a much smaller quantity of their own labour, than they must
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have employed had they attempted to prepare them themselves. The town
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affords a market for the surplus produce of the country, or what is over
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and above the maintenance of the cultivators; and it is there that the
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inhabitants of the country exchange it for something else which is in
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demand among them. The greater the number and revenue of the inhabitants
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of the town, the more extensive is the market which it affords to those of
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the country; and the more extensive that market, it is always the more
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advantageous to a great number. The corn which grows within a mile of the
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town, sells there for the same price with that which comes from twenty
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miles distance. But the price of the latter must, generally, not only pay
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the expense of raising it and bringing it to market, but afford, too, the
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ordinary profits of agriculture to the farmer. The proprietors and
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cultivators of the country, therefore, which lies in the neighbourhood of
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the town, over and above the ordinary profits of agriculture, gain, in the
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price of what they sell, the whole value of the carriage of the like
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produce that is brought from more distant parts; and they save, besides,
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the whole value of this carriage in the price of what they buy. Compare
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the cultivation of the lands in the neighbourhood of any considerable
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town, with that of those which lie at some distance from it, and you will
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easily satisfy yourself how much the country is benefited by the commerce
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of the town. Among all the absurd speculations that have been propagated
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concerning the balance of trade, it has never been pretended that either
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the country loses by its commerce with the town, or the town by that with
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the country which maintains it.
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As subsistence is, in the nature of things, prior to conveniency and
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luxury, so the industry which procures the former, must necessarily be
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prior to that which ministers to the latter. The cultivation and
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improvement of the country, therefore, which affords subsistence, must,
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necessarily, be prior to the increase of the town, which furnishes only
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the means of conveniency and luxury. It is the surplus produce of the
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country only, or what is over and above the maintenance of the
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cultivators, that constitutes the subsistence of the town, which can
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therefore increase only with the increase of the surplus produce. The
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town, indeed, may not always derive its whole subsistence from the country
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in its neighbourhood, or even from the territory to which it belongs, but
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from very distant countries; and this, though it forms no exception from
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the general rule, has occasioned considerable variations in the progress
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of opulence in different ages and nations.
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That order of things which necessity imposes, in general, though not in
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every particular country, is in every particular country promoted by the
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natural inclinations of man. If human institutions had never thwarted
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those natural inclinations, the towns could nowhere have increased beyond
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what the improvement and cultivation of the territory in which they were
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situated could support; till such time, at least, as the whole of that
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territory was completely cultivated and improved. Upon equal, or nearly
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equal profits, most men will choose to employ their capitals, rather in
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the improvement and cultivation of land, than either in manufactures or in
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foreign trade. The man who employs his capital in land, has it more under
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his view and command; and his fortune is much less liable to accidents
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than that of the trader, who is obliged frequently to commit it, not only
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to the winds and the waves, but to the more uncertain elements of human
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folly and injustice, by giving great credits, in distant countries, to men
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with whose character and situation he can seldom be thoroughly acquainted.
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The capital of the landlord, on the contrary, which is fixed in the
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improvement of his land, seems to be as well secured as the nature of
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human affairs can admit of. The beauty of the country, besides, the
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pleasure of a country life, the tranquillity of mind which it promises,
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and, wherever the injustice of human laws does not disturb it, the
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independency which it really affords, have charms that, more or less,
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attract everybody; and as to cultivate the ground was the original
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destination of man, so, in every stage of his existence, he seems to
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retain a predilection for this primitive employment.
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Without the assistance of some artificers, indeed, the cultivation of land
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cannot be carried on, but with great inconveniency and continual
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interruption. Smiths, carpenters, wheelwrights and ploughwrights, masons
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and bricklayers, tanners, shoemakers, and tailors, are people whose
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service the farmer has frequent occasion for. Such artificers, too, stand
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occasionally in need of the assistance of one another; and as their
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residence is not, like that of the farmer, necessarily tied down to a
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precise spot, they naturally settle in the neighbourhood of one another,
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and thus form a small town or village. The butcher, the brewer, and the
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baker, soon join them, together with many other artificers and retailers,
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necessary or useful for supplying their occasional wants, and who
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contribute still further to augment the town. The inhabitants of the town,
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and those of the country, are mutually the servants of one another. The
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town is a continual fair or market, to which the inhabitants of the
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country resort, in order to exchange their rude for manufactured produce.
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It is this commerce which supplies the inhabitants of the town, both with
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the materials of their work, and the means of their subsistence. The
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quantity of the finished work which they sell to the inhabitants of the
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country, necessarily regulates the quantity of the materials and
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provisions which they buy. Neither their employment nor subsistence,
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therefore, can augment, but in proportion to the augmentation of the
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demand from the country for finished work; and this demand can augment
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only in proportion to the extension of improvement and cultivation. Had
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human institutions, therefore, never disturbed the natural course of
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things, the progressive wealth and increase of the towns would, in every
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political society, be consequential, and in proportion to the improvement
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and cultivation of the territory of country.
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In our North American colonies, where uncultivated land is still to be had
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upon easy terms, no manufactures for distant sale have ever yet been
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established in any of their towns. When an artificer has acquired a little
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more stock than is necessary for carrying on his own business in supplying
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the neighbouring country, he does not, in North America, attempt to
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establish with it a manufacture for more distant sale, but employs it in
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the purchase and improvement of uncultivated land. From artificer he
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becomes planter; and neither the large wages nor the easy subsistence
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which that country affords to artificers, can bribe him rather to work for
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other people than for himself. He feels that an artificer is the servant
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of his customers, from whom he derives his subsistence; but that a planter
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who cultivates his own land, and derives his necessary subsistence from
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the labour of his own family, is really a master, and independent of all
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the world.
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In countries, on the contrary, where there is either no uncultivated land,
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or none that can be had upon easy terms, every artificer who has acquired
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more stock than he can employ in the occasional jobs of the neighbourhood,
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endeavours to prepare work for more distant sale. The smith erects some
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sort of iron, the weaver some sort of linen or woollen manufactory. Those
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different manufactures come, in process of time, to be gradually
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subdivided, and thereby improved and refined in a great variety of ways,
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which may easily be conceived, and which it is therefore unnecessary to
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explain any farther.
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In seeking for employment to a capital, manufactures are, upon equal or
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nearly equal profits, naturally preferred to foreign commerce, for the
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same reason that agriculture is naturally preferred to manufactures. As
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the capital of the landlord or farmer is more secure than that of the
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manufacturer, so the capital of the manufacturer, being at all times more
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within his view and command, is more secure than that of the foreign
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merchant. In every period, indeed, of every society, the surplus part both
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of the rude and manufactured produce, or that for which there is no demand
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at home, must be sent abroad, in order to be exchanged for something for
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which there is some demand at home. But whether the capital which carries
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this surplus produce abroad be a foreign or a domestic one, is of very
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little importance. If the society has not acquired sufficient capital,
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both to cultivate all its lands, and to manufacture in the completest
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manner the whole of its rude produce, there is even a considerable
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advantage that the rude produce should be exported by a foreign capital,
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in order that the whole stock of the society may be employed in more
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useful purposes. The wealth of ancient Egypt, that of China and Indostan,
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sufficiently demonstrate that a nation may attain a very high degree of
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opulence, though the greater part of its exportation trade be carried on
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by foreigners. The progress of our North American and West Indian
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colonies, would have been much less rapid, had no capital but what
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belonged to themselves been employed in exporting their surplus produce.
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According to the natural course of things, therefore, the greater part of
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the capital of every growing society is, first, directed to agriculture,
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afterwards to manufactures, and, last of all, to foreign commerce. This
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order of things is so very natural, that in every society that had any
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territory, it has always, I believe, been in some degree observed. Some of
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their lands must have been cultivated before any considerable towns could
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be established, and some sort of coarse industry of the manufacturing kind
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must have been carried on in those towns, before they could well think of
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employing themselves in foreign commerce.
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But though this natural order of things must have taken place in some
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degree in every such society, it has, in all the modern states of Europe,
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been in many respects entirely inverted. The foreign commerce of some of
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their cities has introduced all their finer manufactures, or such as were
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fit for distant sale; and manufactures and foreign commerce together have
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given birth to the principal improvements of agriculture. The manners and
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customs which the nature of their original government introduced, and
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which remained after that government was greatly altered, necessarily
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forced them into this unnatural and retrograde order.
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