Adam Smith：The Wealth of Nations, Book III, Chapter III, Paragraph 952

At first, the farm of the town was probably let to the burghers, in the same manner as it had been to other farmers, for a term of years only. In process of time, however, it seems to have become the general practice to grant it to them in fee, that is for ever, reserving a rent certain, never afterwards to be augmented. The payment having thus become perpetual, the exemptions, in return, for which it was made, naturally became perpetual too. Those exemptions, therefore, ceased to be personal, and could not afterwards be considered as belonging to individuals, as individuals, but as burghers of a particular burgh, which, upon this account, was called a free burgh, for the same reason that they had been called free burghers or free traders.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3300
Locator：Book III, Chapter III, paragraph 952 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Exact match

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

公版英文原典；批量导入，未附中文解读。

This text is in the public domain. The edition and source link are above. Copyright

← Back to the library