"The Wealth of Nations (Volume 1 and 2) -- A Book that Influenced the Course of World History"

Author: Adam Smith (English), translated by Yang Jingnian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-07-04
Features: The first four chapters of this book aim to explain how the income of the general population is constituted, and what the nature of the resources supplying the annual consumption of each generation of people in different eras is. The fifth and final chapter discusses the income of the sovereign or the state. In this chapter, I will endeavor to explain the following points: First, what constitutes the necessary expenses of the sovereign or the state, and which parts should be borne by the taxes of the whole society, while which parts should be borne by special taxes of a particular class or members of society. Second, how the funds from all taxpayers in the whole society 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 issue debt, and what impact this debt has on real wealth, in other words, on the annual products of the land and labor of society.