Words    Words    Words

From the introduction to Book 2: Page 221: “In that rude state of society in which there is no division of labor, in which exchanges are seldom made, and in which every man provides every thing for himself, it is not necessary that any stock should be accumulated or stores up beforehand, in order to [...]

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Page 216: “Every improvement in the circumstances of society tends either directly or indirectly to raise the real rent of the land, to increase the real wealth of the landlord, his power of purchasing labor, or the produce of the labor of other people.” “All those improvements in the productive powers of labor, which tend [...]

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Page 194: “In call new colones the great quantity of waste land, which can for many years be applied to no other purpose but the feeding of cattle, soon renders them extremely abundant, and in every thing great cheapness is the necessary consequence of great abundance.” Page 197: “In the progress of improvement, the period [...]

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Page 171: “Human food seems to be the only produce of land which always and necessarily affords some rent to the landlord.” Page 172: “Land in its original rude state can afford the materials of cloathing and lodging to a much greater number of people than it can feed.”  I wonder if this is true [...]

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This chapter has been brutal.  When Smith separated profit as a special part of value I could understand him, even if I didn’t agree; but separating rent out confused me; I had to read this chapter several times.  I think I may have finally gotten somewhere; we’ll see if the conclusions I’ve drawn make any [...]

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The chapter I’m working on now is the one about rent.  Smith’s analysis of rent is, in fact, what first led me to read this book and try to understand it, and this stuff is murder.  I’m working on it.  I’ll do a post when I’ve finished this read-through, but as of right now, I [...]

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Um, so it looks like I won’t be getting back to work on Adam Smith right away; I appear to have left the book in Missoula, so I’ll have to wait until either I get the hotel to send it to me, or I buy another copy.  Ooops.

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The discoveries of Newton were significant advances for his time.  Anyone today using Newton’s laws must be careful to consider where they may be applied, and where further developments of science have negated them.  When the science under consideration is political economy, then the state of the society in which the author wrote is a [...]

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In a given neighborhood, labor and stock tend toward equalibrium.  Page 138: “The whole of the advantages and disadvantages of the different employments of labor and stock must, in the same neighborhood, be either perfectly equal or continually tending to equality.” He then discusses what he considers to be the five things that made up [...]

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Page 122: “The increase of stock, which raises wages, tends to lower profit.”  He explains this as due to competition, which makes sense. Page 123: “It may be laid down as a maxim, that wherever a great deal can be made by the use of money, a great deal will commonly be given for the [...]

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