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>
118 lines
7.0 KiB
Markdown
118 lines
7.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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id: introduction
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title: "INTRODUCTION AND PLAN OF THE WORK."
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book: "Introduction"
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chapter: 0
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artifact_type: content
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---
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INTRODUCTION AND PLAN OF THE WORK.
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The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it
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with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life which it annually
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consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that
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labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations.
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According, therefore, as this produce, or what is purchased with it, bears
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a greater or smaller proportion to the number of those who are to consume
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it, the nation will be better or worse supplied with all the necessaries
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and conveniencies for which it has occasion.
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But this proportion must in every nation be regulated by two different
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circumstances: first, by the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which its
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labour is generally applied; and, secondly, by the proportion between the
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number of those who are employed in useful labour, and that of those who
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are not so employed. Whatever be the soil, climate, or extent of territory
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of any particular nation, the abundance or scantiness of its annual supply
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must, in that particular situation, depend upon those two circumstances.
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The abundance or scantiness of this supply, too, seems to depend more upon
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the former of those two circumstances than upon the latter. Among the
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savage nations of hunters and fishers, every individual who is able to
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work is more or less employed in useful labour, and endeavours to provide,
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as well as he can, the necessaries and conveniencies of life, for himself,
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and such of his family or tribe as are either too old, or too young, or
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too infirm, to go a-hunting and fishing. Such nations, however, are so
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miserably poor, that, from mere want, they are frequently reduced, or at
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least think themselves reduced, to the necessity sometimes of directly
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destroying, and sometimes of abandoning their infants, their old people,
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and those afflicted with lingering diseases, to perish with hunger, or to
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be devoured by wild beasts. Among civilized and thriving nations, on the
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contrary, though a great number of people do not labour at all, many of
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whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently of a hundred times, more
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labour than the greater part of those who work; yet the produce of the
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whole labour of the society is so great, that all are often abundantly
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supplied; and a workman, even of the lowest and poorest order, if he is
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frugal and industrious, may enjoy a greater share of the necessaries and
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conveniencies of life than it is possible for any savage to acquire.
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The causes of this improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the
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order according to which its produce is naturally distributed among the
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different ranks and conditions of men in the society, make the subject of
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the first book of this Inquiry.
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Whatever be the actual state of the skill, dexterity, and judgment, with
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which labour is applied in any nation, the abundance or scantiness of its
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annual supply must depend, during the continuance of that state, upon the
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proportion between the number of those who are annually employed in useful
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labour, and that of those who are not so employed. The number of useful
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and productive labourers, it will hereafter appear, is everywhere in
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proportion to the quantity of capital stock which is employed in setting
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them to work, and to the particular way in which it is so employed. The
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second book, therefore, treats of the nature of capital stock, of the
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manner in which it is gradually accumulated, and of the different
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quantities of labour which it puts into motion, according to the different
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ways in which it is employed.
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Nations tolerably well advanced as to skill, dexterity, and judgment, in
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the application of labour, have followed very different plans in the
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general conduct or direction of it; and those plans have not all been
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equally favourable to the greatness of its produce. The policy of some
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nations has given extraordinary encouragement to the industry of the
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country; that of others to the industry of towns. Scarce any nation has
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dealt equally and impartially with every sort of industry. Since the
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down-fall of the Roman empire, the policy of Europe has been more
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favourable to arts, manufactures, and commerce, the industry of towns,
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than to agriculture, the Industry of the country. The circumstances which
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seem to have introduced and established this policy are explained in the
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third book.
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Though those different plans were, perhaps, first introduced by the
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private interests and prejudices of particular orders of men, without any
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regard to, or foresight of, their consequences upon the general welfare of
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the society; yet they have given occasion to very different theories of
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political economy; of which some magnify the importance of that industry
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which is carried on in towns, others of that which is carried on in the
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country. Those theories have had a considerable influence, not only upon
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the opinions of men of learning, but upon the public conduct of princes
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and sovereign states. I have endeavoured, in the fourth book, to explain
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as fully and distinctly as I can those different theories, and the
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principal effects which they have produced in different ages and nations.
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To explain in what has consisted the revenue of the great body of the
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people, or what has been the nature of those funds, which, in different
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ages and nations, have supplied their annual consumption, is the object of
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these four first books. The fifth and last book treats of the revenue of
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the sovereign, or commonwealth. In this book I have endeavoured to shew,
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first, what are the necessary expenses of the sovereign, or commonwealth;
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which of those expenses ought to be defrayed by the general contribution
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of the whole society, and which of them, by that of some particular part
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only, or of some particular members of it: secondly, what are the
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different methods in which the whole society may be made to contribute
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towards defraying the expenses incumbent on the whole society, and what
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are the principal advantages and inconveniencies of each of those methods;
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and, thirdly and lastly, what are the reasons and causes which have
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induced almost all modern governments to mortgage some part of this
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revenue, or to contract debts; and what have been the effects of those
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debts upon the real wealth, the annual produce of the land and labour of
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the society.
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BOOK I.
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OF THE CAUSES OF IMPROVEMENT IN THE
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PRODUCTIVE POWERS OF LABOUR, AND OF THE ORDER ACCORDING TO WHICH ITS PRODUCE IS
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NATURALLY DISTRIBUTED AMONG THE DIFFERENT RANKS OF THE PEOPLE.
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