Comments on: TWoN Chapter 10 Part 1

By: Laramie Sasseville

Laramie Sasseville — Thu, 28 May 2009 19:02:37 +0000

“Whether the stock is or is not constantly employed depends, not upon the trade, but upon the trader.”

I, too, took ‘trader’ to be the one practicing the trade, with the idea that some individuals are better at moving their merchandise than are others. Or have more effective sales strategies, despite the stock being essentially similar.

By: skzb

skzb — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:47:09 +0000

Seth: That’s how I read it, too.

By: Seth

Seth — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:29:00 +0000

The machine isn’t creating value; building the machine and using it is just an easier way to produce the end product, and therefore the correct way to do that.

By: skzb

skzb — Mon, 18 May 2009 08:30:51 +0000

“Doesn’t that line “at least the ordinary profits” go against the claim that “a machine… can transfer value but not create it”? Am I missing something?”

You may be right; I had taken his use of ordinary profits there to mean, “factoring in the usual return on investment.” Remember that, for Smith, profit is a separate entity–a “component” of value.

By: JohnSherck

JohnSherck — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:31:24 +0000

“When any expensive machine is erected, the extraordinary work to be performed by it before it is worn out, it must be expected, will replace the capital laid out upon it, with at least the ordinary profits.” This is an important observation because implicit in it is the observation that just as a machine can transfer energy, or work, but not create it; so it can transfer value, but not create it.

Doesn’t that line “at least the ordinary profits” go against the claim that “a machine… can transfer value but not create it”? Am I missing something?

Page 145: “The constancy or inconstancy of employment cannt affect the ordinary profits of stock in any particular trade. Whether the stock is or is not constantly employed depends, not upon the trade, but upon the trader.” I’m not sure what he means here, but I thinkby the trader he may mean the consumer. If not, I’m lost.

I may be lost too, but I took him by “the trader” to mean the one engaged in a particular trade, discussing, then, trades that are for one reason or another not constant endeavors. But then, I’m not entirely clear about the rest of it. “Stock” in which sense? The investment made in the particular work? That which is created by the particular profession? Got me.