An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith · 1776 (composed/publication period); modern imprint not specified beyond a 1852 reprint primary

passage 48 of 803 · BOOK I. > BOOK I. (8/71)

in brief

He concludes the comparison by claiming that the accommodation of a European prince may not greatly exceed that of a frugal peasant, and that the peasant often surpasses an African king who rules many enslaved people.

industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of many an African king, the absolute masters of the lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages.

CHAP. II.

OF THE PRINCIPLE WHICH GIVES OCCASION TO THE DIVISION OF LABOUR.

This division of labour, 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.

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topics: poverty and wealth · rank, class, and social order · slavery and bondage

An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations · Adam Smith · 1776