Lectures on political economy ... To which is prefixed part third of the Outlines of moral philosophy. 1855-56T. & T. Clark, 1877 |
Common terms and phrases
according acres advantages afford agriculture ancient appears Arthur Young arts attention births Cecrops chap circumstances commerce common concerning connexion consequence consideration considered corn course cultivation degree division of labour Economists effects employed enclosures England equal Essay evils exchange exchangeable value fact farmer farms favour France Government greater happiness human idea important improvement increase industry inquiry instances kingdom labour land laws Lectures legislator mankind manner manufactures marriage means of subsistence ment Modern Europe Montesquieu moral National Wealth nature necessarily necessary number of inhabitants object observations occasion opinion particular passage Pays de Caux Political Economy Polygamy population present principles progress proportion quantity question reason regulate remarks respect revenue Scotland Sir James Steuart Sir William Petty Smith society species speculations Stewart supposed tenth edition tion trade truth unproductive Wealth of Nations writers Young
Popular passages
Page 328 - The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure: and he that hath little business shall become wise.' - 'How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plough, and that glorieth in the goad; that driveth oxen; and is occupied in their labours; and whose talk is of bullocks?
Page 350 - The value of any commodity, therefore, to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labour which it enables him to purchase or command. Labour, therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities.
Page 391 - The natural price, therefore, is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of all commodities are continually gravitating. Different accidents may sometimes keep them suspended a good deal above it, and sometimes force them down even somewhat below it. But whatever may be the obstacles which hinder them from settling in this center of repose and continuance, they are constantly tending towards it.
Page 407 - When the stocks of many rich merchants are turned into the same trade, their mutual competition naturally tends to lower its profit; and when there is a like increase of stock in all the different trades carried on in the same society, the same competition must produce the same effect in them all.
Page 324 - ... in order to complete even this homely production. How many merchants and carriers, besides, must have been employed in transporting the materials from some of those workmen to others who often live in a very distant part of the country! How much commerce and navigation in particular, how many ship-builders, sailors, sail-makers, rope-makers, must have been employed in order to bring together the different drugs made use of by the dyer, which often come from the remotest corners of the world!
Page 64 - In two centuries the population would be to the means of subsistence as 256 to 9; in three centuries as 4096 to 13, and in two thousand years the difference would be almost incalculable.
Page 180 - Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man, or order of men.
Page 17 - What the State ought to take upon itself to direct by the public wisdom, and what it ought to leave, with as little interference as possible, to individual discretion.
Page 353 - Labour was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased; and its value, to those who possess it, and who want to exchange it for some new productions, is precisely equal to the quantity of labour which it can enable them to purchase or command.
Page 353 - The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it. What everything is really worth to the man who has acquired it, and who wants to dispose of it or exchange it for something else, is the toil and trouble which it can save to himself, and which it can impose upon other people.