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

These rules determine what may be called the relative or exchangeable value of goods. The word VALUE, it is to be observed, has two different meanings, and sometimes expresses the utility of some particular object, and sometimes the power of purchasing other goods which the possession of that object conveys. The one may be called 'value in use;'
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The demand for those who live by wages, therefore, necessarily increases with the increase of the revenue and stock of every country, and cannot possibly increase without it. The increase of revenue and stock is the increase of national wealth. The demand for those who live by wages, therefore, naturally increases with the increase of national
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The demand for labourers, the funds destined for maintaining them increase, it seems, still faster than they can find labourers to employ.
Adam Smith • An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Whenever the law has attempted to regulate the wages of workmen, it has always been rather to lower them than to raise them.
Adam Smith • An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Men are much more likely to discover easier and readier methods of attaining any object, when the whole attention of their minds is directed towards that single object, than when it is dissipated among a great variety of things.
Adam Smith • An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
According, therefore, as this produce, or what is purchased with it, bears a greater or smaller proportion to the number of those who are to consume it, the nation will be better or worse supplied with all the necessaries and conveniencies for which it has occasion. But this proportion must in every nation be regulated by two different
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But when the division of labour first began to take place, this power of exchanging must frequently have been very much clogged and embarrassed in its operations. One man, we shall suppose, has more of a certain commodity than he himself has occasion for, while another has less. The former, consequently, would be glad to dispose of; and the latter
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