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
That part of the capital of the farmer which is employed in the
instruments of agriculture is a fixed, that which is employed in the wages
and maintenance of his labouring servants is a circulating capital. He
makes a profit of the one by keeping it in his own possession, and of the
other by parting with it. The price or value of his labouring cattle is a
fixed capital, in the same manner as that of the instruments of husbandry;
their maintenance is a circulating capital, in the same manner as that of
the labouring servants. The farmer makes his profit by keeping the
labouring cattle, and by parting with their maintenance. Both the price
and the maintenance of the cattle which are bought in and fattened, not
for labour, but for sale, are a circulating capital. The farmer makes his
profit by parting with them. A flock of sheep or a herd of cattle, that,
in a breeding country, is brought in neither for labour nor for sale, but
in order to make a profit by their wool, by their milk, and by their
increase, is a fixed capital. The profit is made by keeping them. Their
maintenance is a circulating capital. The profit is made by parting with
it; and it comes back with both its own profit and the profit upon the
whole price of the cattle, in the price of the wool, the milk, and the
increase. The whole value of the seed, too, is properly a fixed capital.
Though it goes backwards and forwards between the ground and the granary,
it never changes masters, and therefore does not properly circulate. The
farmer makes his profit, not by its sale, but by its increase.
The general stock of any country or society is the same with that of all
its inhabitants or members; and, therefore, naturally divides itself into
the same three portions, each of which has a distinct function or office.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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