Investing · Western classics

Adam Smith:The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter VIII, Paragraph 1520

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

The prohibition, notwithstanding all the penalties which guard it, does not prevent the exportation of wool. It is exported, it is well known, in great quantities. The great difference between the price in the home and that in the foreign market, presents such a temptation to smuggling, that all the rigour of the law cannot prevent it. This illegal exportation is advantageous to nobody but the smuggler. A legal exportation, subject to a tax, by affording a revenue to the sovereign, and thereby saving the imposition of some other, perhaps more burdensome and inconvenient taxes, might prove advantageous to all the different subjects of the state.

Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3300
Locator:Book IV, Chapter VIII, paragraph 1520 · Verified:2026-10-19 · Verification:Exact match

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

Today's question

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

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