On the Principles of Political Economy, and Taxation |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abundance Adam Smith additional advantage afford agriculture alteration amount Bank bounty capital employed cause cent circulation cloth coin consequence consumer consumption cost of production creased cultivation currency demand for labour diminished diminution dities duce duction effect employment England equal exchangeable value expense exportation fall farmer fertile fixed capital funds gold greater quantity high price importation improvement income increased labour necessary landlord less lower machinery Malthus manufacturer market price millions modities money price natural price obtain paid population portion Portugal precious metals price of commodities price of corn price of labour price of raw profits of stock proportion purchase quan quantity of labour quarters raise the price rate of profits raw produce regulated relative value revenue rich rise of wages says seignorage sell shew silver sumer supply suppose taxation things tion tity tivation value of money variation wages of labour wealth whilst whole wine
Popular passages
Page 346 - What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. If a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it of them with some part of the produce of our own industry, employed in a way in which we have some advantage.
Page 55 - Rent is that portion of the produce of the earth which is paid to the landlord for the use of the original and indestructible powers of the soil.
Page 97 - The friends of humanity cannot but wish that in all countries the labouring classes should have a taste for comforts and enjoyments, and that they should be stimulated by all legal means in their exertions to procure them. There cannot be a better security against a superabundant population.
Page 202 - The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor, and to every other person.
Page 59 - It is only, then, because land is not unlimited in quantity and uniform in quality, and because, in the progress of population, land of an inferior quality, or less advantageously situated, is called into cultivation, that rent is ever paid for the use of it.
Page 143 - Gold and silver having been chosen for the general medium of circulation, they are, by the competition of commerce, distributed in such proportions amongst the different countries of the world, as to accommodate themselves to the natural traffic which would take place if no such metals existed, and the trade between countries were purely a trade of barter.
Page 460 - The chapter opens by reaffirming that it is the cost of production which must ultimately regulate the price of commodities, and not, as has been often said, the proportion between the supply and demand: the proportion between supply and demand may, indeed, for a time, affect the market value of a commodity, until it is supplied in greater or less abundance, according as the demand may have increased or diminished, but this effect will be only of temporary duration.
Page 3 - The things which have the greatest value in use have frequently little or no value in exchange; and, on the contrary, those which have the greatest value in exchange have frequently little or no value in use.
Page 327 - Capital is that part of the wealth of a country which is employed in production, and consists of food, clothing, tools, raw materials, machinery, etc., necessary to give effect to labour.
Page 5 - The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.