The Wealth of Nations

Author: (British) Adam Smith / Tang Rishong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: This translation is based on the version published by Methuen Co., Ltd. in 1930, which was the last edition of The Wealth of Nations published during Adam Smith's lifetime. The Wealth of Nations studies the economic world, believing that the starting point of the economy is self-interest. In economic life, everyone pursues their own interests, which is one aspect of human nature and also a natural phenomenon. The Wealth of Nations is divided into five parts. This is a landmark work, its publication marking the birth of economics as an independent discipline. Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations laid the foundation for economics. The annual labor of a nation's people is originally the source of all the necessities and conveniences they consume each year. The composition of these necessities and conveniences is either the direct product of the nation's labor or goods imported from abroad using such products. The proportion of these products or goods imported from abroad to the number of consumers determines whether the supply of all necessities and conveniences for the nation is good or bad. However, for any nation, this proportion is governed by the following two circumstances: first, in general, how skilled, skilled, and judgmental the nation is in applying labor; second, what proportion of people engaged in useful labor to those not engaged in useful labor. Regardless of how the soil, climate, and area of a country are, the quality of its annual supply must depend on these two circumstances. Moreover, the quality of the above supply depends more on the first circumstance. Among primitive hunting and gathering peoples, all those who can work are more or less engaged in useful labor, providing as many necessities and conveniences as possible for themselves and the elderly, the sick, and the weak within their families and clans. However, they are so poor that they are often forced, or at least feel compelled, to kill the elderly and the sick, or to abandon these people, leaving them to starve or be devoured by beasts. On the other hand, among civilized and prosperous peoples, although many people do not engage in labor at all, and the labor products they consume are often more than ten or even a hundred times more than those consumed by most laborers. However, because the total labor productivity of society is very high, everyone often has sufficient supply, and even the lowest poor laborers, as long as they are diligent and frugal, enjoy more necessities and conveniences than barbarians. The reasons for this improvement in labor productivity, and in what order the products of labor are naturally distributed to the various classes in society, are the themes of this book. . Different nations with varying degrees of skill, skill, and judgment in applying labor have adopted very different plans for the general management or guidance of labor. These plans do not equally benefit the increase of a country's products. Some countries' policies particularly encourage rural industries, while others' policies particularly encourage urban industries, such as crafts, manufacturing, and commerce. It is unlikely that any country has treated all industries with impartiality, allowing them to develop on average. Since the fall of the Roman Empire, the policies of European countries have generally been less favorable to rural industries, i.e., agriculture, and more favorable to urban industries, i.e., crafts, manufacturing, and commerce. This book's third part will explain what circumstances led people to adopt and regulate such policies. The implementation of these plans was initially perhaps due to the interests and prejudices of a special class, for whom they had no foresight or consideration for how these plans would affect the overall welfare of society. However, these plans gave rise to very different economic theories. Some believed that urban industries were important, while others argued strongly that rural industries were important. These different theories not only had a considerable influence on the opinions of scholars but also influenced the policies of kings and states. I will do my best to explain these different theories in detail and clearly in this book's fourth part, and to explain their important impacts in different eras and countries. In short, the purpose of the first four parts of this book is to explain how the income of the broad masses is constituted, and what the nature of the resources that supply the annual consumption of people in different eras and countries is. The fifth part, i.e., the last part, discusses the income of the monarch or the state. In this part, I will try to explain the following points: first, what the necessary expenses of the monarch or the state are, and which parts should be borne by taxes paid by the whole society, and which parts should be borne by special taxes paid by a particular class or members of society. Second, how funds raised from all taxpayers are raised, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of various methods of raising funds. Third, what makes almost all modern governments allocate a portion of their income as a guarantee to borrow, and what impact this debt has on real wealth, in other words, on the annual product of the land and labor of society. Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, whose full title is An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, was first published in 1776, the same year as the U.S. Declaration of Independence. It played a significant role in the development of capitalist society. The editor of The Wealth of Nations, Max Lerner, commented: "This is a book that strangely mixes economics, philosophy, history, political theory, and practical plans, written by a person with profound knowledge and sharp insight. This person has a powerful analytical ability, capable of filtering all the materials in his notebook; and a powerful synthetic ability, capable of reorganizing them in new and striking ways. Smith was extremely sensitive to the various ideas in his academic field at the time. Like Marx later, he was not an isolated scholar locked in his house; he seemed to be equipped with an antenna, capable of receiving and absorbing all the information he could access. He wrote at the end of feudal Europe and the beginning of the modern world, where feudalism still persisted with the stubbornness of vested interests. He wrote precisely to oppose such vested interests. As a result, his book was not just written for library shelves; it had a profound impact on economic thought and state policy, shaping the entire environment in which we live today." The last question Adam Smith sought to answer in The Wealth of Nations was how the internal struggle between emotions and the "impartial spectator" played out on the grand stage of history in the long-term evolution of society. The answer to this question is found in the fifth part, where he lists the four main stages of social development, which would continue unless hindered by resource scarcity, war, or bad government policy. These four stages are: the initial "barbaric" stage of hunters, the second stage of primitive agriculture, the third stage of feudal or manorial "cultivation," and the fourth stage of commercially interdependent. Each stage is accompanied by institutions adapted to its needs. For example, in the hunter stage, "there is no property, and therefore no established executive or regular judicial administration." With the appearance of herds of cattle and sheep, more complex social organizations emerged, not only including "terrible" armies but also indispensable legal and order strongholds. The core of Smith's thought is that this system is a tool for protecting privileges and cannot be justified by natural law. He said, "Civil government was established for the safety of property, in reality to protect the rich against the poor, i.e., to protect those who have property against those who have none." Finally, Smith described the evolution as moving from feudalism to a stage that required new institutions, institutions determined by the market rather than guilds, free rather than government-controlled. This later became known as laissez-faire capitalism, which Smith called a completely free system. This continuous change in the material production base would inevitably bring about changes in the superstructure, which shows a clear similarity to Marx's historical view. However, there is also a major difference: the driving force in the Marxist system is class struggle, while in Smith's philosophical history, the main driving mechanism is "human nature," driven by the desire for self-improvement and guided by reason. The Wealth of Nations is far from being the academic treatise usually thought of. Although Smith also advocated laissez-faire, his arguments were more against government intervention and monopolies; although he praised the results of greed, he almost always despised the behavior and strategies of merchants. He also did not think the commercial system itself was entirely commendable.