Adam Smith

According to this liberal and generous system, therefore, the most advantageous method in which a landed nation can raise up artificers,…

Though, by this oppressive policy, a landed nation should be able to raise up artificers, manufacturers, and merchants of its own, somewhat sooner…

As the political economy of the nations of modern Europe has been more favourable to manufactures and foreign trade, the industry of the towns,…

The sovereigns of China, of ancient Egypt, and of the different kingdoms into which Indostan has, at different times, been divided, have always…

Those systems, therefore, which preferring agriculture to all other employments, in order to promote it, impose restraints upon manufactures and…

It is thus that every system which endeavours, either, by extraordinary encouragements to draw towards a particular species of industry a greater…

The third and last duty of the sovereign or commonwealth, is that of erecting and maintaining those public institutions and those public works, which…

When those companies do not trade upon a joint stock, but are obliged to admit any person, properly qualified, upon paying a certain fine, and…

First, In a private copartnery, no partner without the consent of the company, can transfer his share to another person, or introduce a new member…

An eminent French author, of great knowledge in matters of political economy, the Abbe Morellet, gives a list of fifty-five joint-stock companies for…

The only trades which it seems possible for a joint-stock company to carry on successfully, without an exclusive privilege, are those, of which all…

The value of the risk, either from fire, or from loss by sea, or by capture, though it cannot, perhaps, be calculated very exactly, admits, however,…

The great and general utility of the banking trade, when prudently managed, has been fully explained in the second book of this Inquiry. But a public…

The trade of insurance gives great security to the fortunes of private people, and, by dividing among a great many that loss which would ruin an…

Even where the reward of the master does not arise altogether from this natural revenue, it still is not necessary that it should be derived from…

In the early ages, both of the Greek and Roman republics, the other parts of education seem to have consisted in learning to read, write, and account…

It is otherwise with the common people. They have little time to spare for education. Their parents can scarce afford to maintain them, even in…

The post-office is properly a mercantile project. The government advances the expense of establishing the different offices, and of buying or…

No two characters seem more inconsistent than those of trader and sovereign. If the trading spirit of the English East India company renders them…

A state may sometimes derive some part of its public revenue from the interest of money, as well as from the profits of stock. If it has amassed a…

The canton of Berne derives a considerable revenue by lending a part of its treasure to foreign states, that is, by placing it in the public funds of…

A tax upon the rent of land may either be imposed according to a certain canon, every district being valued at a curtain rent, which valuation is not…

In the Venetian territory, all the arable lands which are given in lease to farmers are taxed at a tenth of the rent. {Memoires concernant les Droits…

Some leases prescribe to the tenant a certain mode of cultivation, and a certain succession of crops, during the whole continuance of the lease. This…

Some landlords, instead of a rent in money, require a rent in kind, in corn, cattle, poultry, wine, oil, etc.; others, again, require a rent in…

In the dominions of the king of Prussia, the revenue of the church is taxed much higher than that of lay proprietors. The revenue of the church is,…

Taxes upon the produce of land are, in reality, taxes upon the rent; and though they may be originally advanced by the farmer, are finally paid by…

A tax upon house-rent, payable by the tenant, and proportioned to the whole rent of each house, could not, for any considerable time at least, affect…

In the province of Holland, {Memoires concernant les Droits, etc. p. 223.} every house is taxed at two and a-half per cent. of its value, without any…

The revenue or profit arising from stock naturally divides itself into two parts; that which pays the interest, and which belongs to the owner of the…

First, the quantity and value of the land which any man possesses, can never be a secret, and can always be ascertained with great exactness. But the…

The tax upon stock, imposed by the land tax bill in England, though it is proportioned to the capital, is not intended to diminish or, take away…

Of the former kind, are in England, the tax upon hawkers and pedlars, that upon hackney-coaches and chairs, and that which the keepers of…

A tax, however, upon the profits of stock employed in any particular branch of trade, can never fall finally upon the dealers (who must in all…

What are called poll-taxes in the southern provinces of North America, and the West India islands, annual taxes of so much a-head upon every negro,…

While property remains in the possession of the same person, whatever permanent taxes may have been imposed upon it, they have never been intended to…

The heir of every immediate vassal of the crown paid a certain duty, generally a year’s rent, upon receiving the investiture of the estate. If the…

In Great Britain, the stamp duties are higher or lower, not so much according to the value of the property transferred (an eighteen-penny or…

All taxes upon the transference of property of every kind, so far as they diminish the capital value of that property, tend to diminish the funds…

Such stamp duties as those in England upon cards and dice, upon newspapers and periodical pamphlets, etc. are properly taxes upon consumption; the…

If direct taxes upon the wages of labour have not always occasioned a proportionable rise in those wages, it is because they have generally…

The taxes which it is intended should fall indifferently upon every different species of revenue, are capitation taxes, and taxes upon consumable…

As the wages of labour are everywhere regulated, partly by the demand for it, and partly by the average price of the necessary articles of…

It is thus that a tax upon the necessaries of life operates exactly in the same manner as a direct tax upon the wages of labour. The labourer, though…

It is otherwise with taxes upon what I call luxuries, even upon those of the poor. The rise in the price of the taxed commodities, will not…

The different taxes which, in Great Britain, have, in the course of the present century, been imposed upon spiritous liquors, are not supposed to…

Any rise in the average price of necessaries, unless it be compensated by a proportionable rise in the wages of labour, must necessarily diminish,…

Heavy duties being imposed upon almost all goods imported, our merchant importers smuggle as much, and make entry of as little as they can. Our…

The objections of Dr Davenant to this alteration in the present system of excise duties, seem to be without foundation. Those objections are, that…

No tax can ever reduce, for any considerable time, the rate of profit in any particular trade, which must always keep its level with other trades…

Over and above the general restraints arising from this complicated system of revenue laws, the commerce of wine (after corn, perhaps, the most…

In Holland, the heavy taxes upon the necessaries of life have ruined, it is said, their principal manufacturers, and are likely to discourage,…

In a rude state of society, there are no great mercantile or manufacturing capitals. The individuals, who hoard whatever money they can save, and who…

In 1711, the same duties (which at this time were thus subject to four different anticipations), together with several others, were continued for…

In consequence of those different acts, the greater part of the taxes, which before had been anticipated only for a short term of years were rendered…

Land and capital stock are the two original sources of all revenue, both private and public. Capital stock pays the wages of productive labour,…

The proprietor of land is interested, for the sake of his own revenue, to keep his estate in as good condition as he can, by building and repairing…

When, by different taxes upon the necessaries and conveniencies of life, the owners and employers of capital stock find, that whatever revenue they…

The present scarcity of gold and silver money in America, is not the effect of the poverty of that country, or of the inability of the people there…

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