Adam Smith：The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter VII, Paragraph 1468

It is thus that the private interests and passions of individuals naturally dispose them to turn their stock towards the employments which in ordinary cases, are most advantageous to the society. But if from this natural preference they should turn too much of it towards those employments, the fall of profit in them, and the rise of it in all others, immediately dispose them to alter this faulty distribution. Without any intervention of law, therefore, the private interests and passions of men naturally lead them to divide and distribute the stock of every society among all the different employments carried on in it; as nearly as possible in the proportion which is most agreeable to the interest of the whole society.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3300
Locator：Book IV, Chapter VII, paragraph 1468 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Exact match

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