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
Though, in the progress of improvement and population, the price of the
whole beast necessarily rises, yet the price of the carcase is likely to
be much more affected by this rise than that of the wool and the hide. The
market for the carcase being in the rude state of society confined always
to the country which produces it, must necessarily be extended in
proportion to the improvement and population of that country. But the
market for the wool and the hides, even of a barbarous country, often
extending to the whole commercial world, it can very seldom be enlarged in
the same proportion. The state of the whole commercial world can seldom be
much affected by the improvement of any particular country; and the market
for such commodities may remain the same, or very nearly the same, after
such improvements, as before. It should, however, in the natural course of
things, rather, upon the whole, be somewhat extended in consequence of
them. If the manufactures, especially, of which those commodities are the
materials, should ever come to flourish in the country, the market, though
it might not be much enlarged, would at least be brought much nearer to
the place of growth than before; and the price of those materials might at
least be increased by what had usually been the expense of transporting
them to distant countries. Though it might not rise, therefore, in the
same proportion as that of butcher’s meat, it ought naturally to rise
somewhat, and it ought certainly not to fall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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