An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsSmith, Adam
History
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Smith, Adam
Economics
These different sorts of rude produce may be divided into three classes.
The first comprehends those which it is scarce in the power of human
industry to multiply at all. The second, those which it can multiply in
proportion to the demand. The third, those in which the efficacy of
industry is either limited or uncertain. In the progress of wealth and
improvement, the real price of the first may rise to any degree of
extravagance, and seems not to be limited by any certain boundary. That of
the second, though it may rise greatly, has, however, a certain boundary,
beyond which it cannot well pass for any considerable time together. That
of the third, though its natural tendency is to rise in the progress of
improvement, yet in the same degree of improvement it may sometimes happen
even to fall, sometimes to continue the same, and sometimes to rise more
or less, according as different accidents render the efforts of human
industry, in multiplying this sort of rude produce, more or less
successful.
First Sort.—The first sort of rude produce, of which the price rises
in the progress of improvement, is that which it is scarce in the power of
human industry to multiply at all. It consists in those things which
nature produces only in certain quantities, and which being of a very
perishable nature, it is impossible to accumulate together the produce of
many different seasons. Such are the greater part of rare and singular
birds and fishes, many different sorts of game, almost all wild-fowl, all
birds of passage in particular, as well as many other things. When wealth,
and the luxury which accompanies it, increase, the demand for these is
likely to increase with them, and no effort of human industry may be able
to increase the supply much beyond what it was before this increase of the
demand. The quantity of such commodities, therefore, remaining the same,
or nearly the same, while the competition to purchase them is continually
increasing, their price may rise to any degree of extravagance, and seems
not to be limited by any certain boundary. If woodcocks should become so
fashionable as to sell for twenty guineas a-piece, no effort of human
industry could increase the number of those brought to market, much beyond
what it is at present. The high price paid by the Romans, in the time of
their greatest grandeur, for rare birds and fishes, may in this manner
easily be accounted for. These prices were not the effects of the low
value of silver in those times, but of the high value of such rarities and
curiosities as human industry could not multiply at pleasure. The real
value of silver was higher at Rome, for sometime before, and after the
fall of the republic, than it is through the greater part of Europe at
present.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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