Popular Political Economy: Four Lectures Delivered at the London Mechanics' Institution |
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advantages agriculture America arts ascertain bank notes Bank of England bankers bour bread capital capitalist cause circulation classes cloth coin commodities consequences corn corn laws cotton cultivation depends dity division of labour duction Economists effects employment endeavoured England Europe example exchange existence extended give governments gulating improvements increase of knowledge individuals industry inhabitants instruments invention laws which regulate legislators mankind manufactures means of subsistence ment merchant money price natural circumstances natural laws natural price natural principle neral never numberless observation obtain operations opulence paper-money persons political economy population poverty precious metals present procure production of wealth productive power profit progress of society promissory notes quantity of labour quire regulate the progress regulated by natural retail dealers says Smith social regulations soil species stances Storch supply suppose territorial division tion tivated trade tural vast wants Wealth of Nations wheat whole
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Page 13 - work ; yet the produce of the whole labour of the society is so great, that all are often abundantly supplied; and a workman, even of the lowest and poorest order, if he be frugal and industrious, may enjoy a greater share of the necessaries and conveniences of life than it is possible for any savage to acquire."*
Page 93 - venison, till at last he finds it his interest to dedicate himself entirely to this employment, and to become a sort of house carpenter. In the same manner a third becomes a smith or a brazier, a fourth a tanner or dresser of hides or
Page 125 - no such trade as a (retail) butcher, every man would be obliged to purchase a whole ox or a sheep at a time. This would generally be inconvenient to the rich, but more so to the. poor. Nothing can be more convenient to such persons, than to be able to purchase their subsistence H from day
Page 12 - directly destroying, and sometimes abandoning their infants, their old people, and those afflicted with lingering diseases, to perish with hunger, or to be devoured by wild beasts. Among civilised and thriving nations, on the contrary, though a great number of the people do not labour at all, many of whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently of a hundred
Page 93 - the division of labour is established."* " In a tribe of hunters or shepherds," says Dr. Smith, himself recognizing this principle, " a particular person makes bows and arrows, for example, with more readiness and
Page 135 - and we ought so far to esteem it happy that they had previously made advances in arts and ingenuity. But this intercourse is still upheld to our great advantage; notwithstanding the advanced state of our manufacturers, we daily adopt in every art the inventions and improvements of our neighbours. The commodity is first imported from abroad to our
Page 1 - to explain the laws which regulate our condition, and teach us how it may be improved. " Its object," we are told, " is to point out the means by which the industry of man may be rendered most productive of necessaries, comforts, and enjoyments.
Page 193 - sinks very considerably. This diminution of price has, in the course of the present century, been most remarkable in those manufactures of which the materials are the coarser metals. A better movement of a watch than about the middle of the last century could have been bought for
Page 135 - every one must receive an increase from the improvements of the others. Compare the situation of Great Britain at present with what it was two centuries ago. All the arts of agriculture and manufactures were then extremely rude and imperfect. Every improvement we have since made, has arisen from our imitation
Page 35 - fruits, to better their condition, and to acquire, not only the necessaries, but the conveniences and elegances, of life." In other parts of his work he examines the laws of primogeniture and entail, corporations, bounties, colonial regulations, the