The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other EssaysVeblen, Thorstein
Philosophy
The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other Essays
Veblen, Thorstein
Economics; Science
[7] _E.g._, Book I, chap. vii: "When the price of any commodity is
neither more nor less than what is sufficient to pay the rent of the
land, the wages of the labor, and the profits of the stock employed in
raising, preparing, and bringing it to market, according to their
_natural_ rates, the commodity is then sold for what may be called its
_natural_ price." "The actual price at which any commodity is commonly
sold is called its market price. It may be either above, or below or
exactly the same with its natural price."
[8] _Lectures of Adam Smith_ (Ed. Cannan, 1896), p. 169.
[9] "This division of labor, from which so many advantages are derived,
is not originally the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees and
intends that general opulence to which it gives occasion. It is the
necessary though very slow and gradual consequence of a certain
propensity in human nature which has in view no such extensive
utility,--the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for
another. Whether this propensity be one of those original principles in
human nature of which no further account can be given, or whether, as
seems more probable, it be the necessary consequence of the faculties of
reason and speech, it belongs not to our present subject to inquire."
_Wealth of Nations_, Book I, chap. ii.
[10] _Wealth of Nations_, Book I, chaps, v.-vii.
[11] _Wealth of Nations_, Book I, chap. v.
[12] As, _e.g._, the entire discussion of the determination of Wages,
Profits and Rent, in Book I, chaps, viii.-xi.
[13] "There is in every society or neighborhood an ordinary or average
rate both of wages and profit in every different employment of labor and
stock. This rate is naturally regulated, ... partly by the general
circumstances of the society.... There is, likewise, in every society or
neighborhood an ordinary or average rate of rent, which is regulated,
too.... These ordinary or average rates may be called the natural rates
of wages, profit, and rent, at the time and place in which they commonly
prevail. When the price of any commodity is neither more nor less than
what is sufficient to pay the rent of the land, the wages of the labor,
and the profits of the stock employed in raising, preparing, and
bringing it to market, according to their natural rates, the commodity
is then sold for what may be called its natural price." _Wealth of
Nations_, Book I, chap. vii.
[14] "Such commodities may continue for whole centuries together to be
sold at this high price; and that part of it which resolves itself into
the rent of land is, in this case, the part which is generally paid
above its natural rate." Book I, chap. vii.
[15] _Wealth of Nations_, Book I, chap, vi; also chap. viii.
[16] For an instance of how these early phases of industrial development
appear, when not seen in the light of Adam Smith's preconception, see,
among others, Buecher, _Entstchung der Volkswirtschaft_.
[17] Book I, chap. iv.
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