Investing · Western classics

Adam Smith:The Wealth of Nations, Book II, Chapter II, Paragraph 717

Adam Smith《The Wealth of Nations》· Book II, Chapter II · Investing

But though the whole expense of maintaining the fixed capital is thus necessarily excluded from the neat revenue of the society, it is not the same case with that of maintaining the circulating capital. Of the four parts of which this latter capital is composed, money, provisions, materials, and finished work, the three last, it has already been observed, are regularly withdrawn from it, and placed either in the fixed capital of the society, or in their stock reserved for immediate consumption. Whatever portion of those consumable goods is not employed in maintaining the former, goes all to the latter, and makes a part of the neat revenue of the society. The maintenance of those three parts of the circulating capital, therefore, withdraws no portion of the annual produce from the neat revenue of the society, besides what is necessary for maintaining the fixed capital.

Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3300
Locator:Book II, Chapter II, paragraph 717 · Verified:2026-10-19 · Verification:Exact match

This is a direct reading: the original and source are kept; commentary will be added later.

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Does this passage change one judgment about money or risk today?

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