The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (the best motivational books .TXT) π
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The Wealth of Nations is economist Adam Smithβs magnum opus and the foundational text of what today we call classical economics. Its publication ushered in a new era of thinking and discussion about how economies function, a sea change away from the older, increasingly-irrelevant mercantilist and physiocratic views of economics towards a new practical application of economics for the birth of the industrial era. Its scope is vast, touching on concepts like free markets, supply and demand, division of labor, war, and public debt. Its fundamental message is that the wealth of a nation is measured not by the gold in the monarchβs treasury, but by its national income, which in turn is produced by labor, land, and capital.
Some ten years in the writing, The Wealth of Nations is the product of almost two decades of notes, study, and discussion. It was released to glowing praise, selling out its first print run in just six months and going through five subsequent editions and countless reprintings in Smithβs lifetime. It began inspiring legislators almost immediately and continued to do so well into the 1800s, and influenced thinkers ranging from Alexander Hamilton to Karl Marx.
Today, it is the second-most-cited book in the social sciences that was published before 1950, and its legacy as a foundational text places it in the stratosphere of civilization-changing books like Principia Mathematica and The Origin of Species.
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- Author: Adam Smith
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Oats to 16s. pay 5s. 11Β·2d. and then pay 9Β·6d.
Peas to 40s. pay 16s. 7Β·2d. and then pay 9Β·6d.
Rye to 36s. pays 20s. and after till 40s. pays 16s. 9d. then 1s.
Wheat to 44s. pays 22s. and after till 53s. 4d. pays 17s. then 9s. till 80s., and after that 1s. 4d.
Saxbyβs figures are slightly less, as they take into account a 5 percent discount obtainable on all the subsidies except one. The note appears first in ed. 2. ββ Cannan β©
Eds. 1 and 2 do not contain βsubsequent laws still further increased those duties,β and read βthe distress which in years of scarcity the strict execution of this statute might have brought.β β©
These do not seem to have been numerous. There were cases in 1757 and 1766. See the table in Charles Smith, Three Tracts Upon the Corn Trade and Corn Laws, 2nd ed., pp. 44, 45. β©
Eds. 1 and 2 read βextend its cultivation.β β©
Earlier statutes are 15 Hen. VI, c. 2; 20 Hen. VI, c. 6; 23 Hen. VI, c. 6; 1 and 2 P. and M., c. 5; 5 Eliz., c. 5. Β§ 26; 13 Eliz., c. 13; and 1 Jac., c. 25, §§ 26, 27. The preamble of the first of these says βby the law it was ordained that no man might carry nor bring corn out of the realm of England without the Kingβs licence, for cause whereof farmers and other men which use manurement of their land may not sell their corn but of a bare price to the great damage of all the realm.β Exportation was therefore legalised without licence when grain was above certain prices. β©
C. 7. β©
C. 13. β©
The βBook of Ratesβ (see this note) rated wheat for export at 20s., oats at 6s. 8d., and other grain at 10s. the quarter, and the duty was a shilling in the pound on these values. β©
1 W. and M., c. 12. The bounty was to be given βwithout taking or requiring anything for custom.β β©
Because as to inland sale 15 Car. II, c. 7 (above, here), remained in force. β©
The Acts prohibiting exportation were much more numerous than the others. See above, this note, and the table in Charles Smith there referred to. β©
Ed. 1 does not contain βof the greater part of which there was no drawback.β β©
According to the argument above, here. β©
See above, here. β©
Above, here through here. β©
Ed. 1 reads βin one respect.β β©
Ed. 1 reads only βBy this statute the high duties upon importation for home consumption are taken off as soon as the price of wheat is so high as forty-eight shillings the quarter, and instead.β β©
In place of this sentence ed. 1 reads βThe home market is in this manner not so totally excluded from foreign supplies as it was before.β β©
Ed. 1 reads (from the beginning of the paragraph) βBy the same statute the old bounty of five shillings upon the quarter of wheat ceases when the price rises so high as forty-four shillings, and upon that of other grain in proportion. The bounties too upon the coarser sorts of grain are reduced somewhat lower than they were before, even at the prices at which they take place.β β©
Ed. 1 reads βThe same statute permits at all prices the importation of corn in order to be exported again, duty free; provided it is in the meantime lodged in the kingβs warehouse.β β©
Ed. 1 contains an additional sentence, βSome provision is thus made for the establishment of the carrying trade.β β©
This paragraph is not in ed. 1. β©
Ed. 1 reads (from the beginning of the paragraph) βBut by the same law exportation is prohibited as soon as the price of wheat rises to forty-four shillings the quarter, and that of other grain in proportion. The price seems to be a good deal too low, and there seems to be an impropriety besides in stopping exportation altogether at the very same price at which that bounty which was given in order to force it is withdrawn.β β©
These two sentences are not in ed. 1. β©
E.g., in the British Merchant, 1721, Dedication to vol. iii. β©
With three small exceptions, βBritishβ for βBritonsβ and βlawβ for βlawsβ in art. 1, and βforβ instead of βfromβ before βthe like quantity or measure of French wine,β the translation is identical with that given in A Collection of All the Treaties of Peace, Alliance and Commerce Between Great Britain and Other Powers from the Revolution in 1688 to the Present Time, 1772, vol. i, pp. 61, 62. β©
Joseph Baretti, Journey from London to Genoa, Through England, Portugal, Spain and France, 3rd ed., 1770, vol. i, pp. 95, 96, but the amount stated is not so large as in the text above: it is βoftenβ from βthirty to fifty and even sixty thousand pounds,β and not βone week with anotherβ but βalmost every week.β The gold all came in the packet boat because it, as a war vessel, was exempt from search. ββ Raynal, Histoire philosophique, Amsterdam ed. 1773, tom. iii, pp. 413, 414 β©
Above, here through here. β©
Above, here. β©
Ed. 1 does not contain
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