Adam Smith：The Wealth of Nations, Book II, Chapter III, Paragraph 829

The proportion between capital and revenue, therefore, seems everywhere to regulate the proportion between industry and idleness. Wherever capital predominates, industry prevails; wherever revenue, idleness. Every increase or diminution of capital, therefore, naturally tends to increase or diminish the real quantity of industry, the number of productive hands, and consequently the exchangeable value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the country, the real wealth and revenue of all its inhabitants.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3300
Locator：Book II, Chapter III, paragraph 829 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Exact match

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