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
First, it may be employed in raising, manufacturing, or purchasing goods,
and selling them again with a profit. The capital employed in this manner
yields no revenue or profit to its employer, while it either remains in
his possession, or continues in the same shape. The goods of the merchant
yield him no revenue or profit till he sells them for money, and the money
yields him as little till it is again exchanged for goods. His capital is
continually going from him in one shape, and returning to him in another;
and it is only by means of such circulation, or successive changes, that
it can yield him any profit. Such capitals, therefore, may very properly
be called circulating capitals.
Secondly, it may be employed in the improvement of land, in the purchase
of useful machines and instruments of trade, or in such like things as
yield a revenue or profit without changing masters, or circulating any
further. Such capitals, therefore, may very properly be called fixed
capitals.
Different occupations require very different proportions between the fixed
and circulating capitals employed in them.
The capital of a merchant, for example, is altogether a circulating
capital. He has occasion for no machines or instruments of trade, unless
his shop or warehouse be considered as such.
Some part of the capital of every master artificer or manufacturer must be
fixed in the instruments of his trade. This part, however, is very small
in some, and very great in others, A master tailor requires no other
instruments of trade but a parcel of needles. Those of the master
shoemaker are a little, though but a very little, more expensive. Those of
the weaver rise a good deal above those of the shoemaker. The far greater
part of the capital of all such master artificers, however, is circulated
either in the wages of their workmen, or in the price of their materials,
and repaid, with a profit, by the price of the work.
In other works a much greater fixed capital is required. In a great
iron-work, for example, the furnace for melting the ore, the forge, the
slit-mill, are instruments of trade which cannot be erected without a very
great expense. In coal works, and mines of every kind, the machinery
necessary, both for drawing out the water, and for other purposes, is
frequently still more expensive.
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