When the division of labour has been once thoroughly established, it is but a very small part of a man’s wants which the produce of his own labour can supply.
There is in every society or neighbourhood an ordinary or average rate, both of wages and profit, in every different employment of labour and stock.
It is a mistake to imagine that those territorial jurisdictions took their origin from the feudal law.
The power of the father doth not reach at all to the property of the child, which is only in his own disposing.
Sect. 1. It having been shewn in the foregoing discourse,
All the other enterprizes of the Spaniards in the New World, subsequent to those of Columbus, seem to have been prompted by the same motive.
As it is the power of exchanging that gives occasion to the division of labour so the extent of this division must always be limited by the extent of that power
The general industry of the society can never exceed what the capital of the society can employ.
Every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniencies, and amusements of human life.
THE legislative power is that which has a right to direct how the force of the commonwealth shall be employed for preserving the community and the members of it
This, so far as it is usurpation, is a change only of persons, but not of the forms and rules of the government
Sect. 132. THE majority having, as has been shewed, upon men’s first uniting into society, the whole power of the community naturally in them
Sect. 16. THE state of war is a state of enmity and destruction: and therefore declaring by word or action, not a passionate and hasty
But when the division of labour has once been thoroughly introduced, the produce of a man’s own labour can supply but a very small part of his occasional wants.
The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life.
Over and above the expenses necessary for enabling the sovereign to perform his several duties, a certain expense is requisite for the support of his dignity.
This division of labour, from which so many advantages are derived, is not originally the effect of any human wisdom.
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THE natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man
Of the Unreasonableness of those Restraints, even upon the Principles of the Commercial System.
It is not easy, it has already been observed, to ascertain what are the average wages of labour, even in a particular place, and at a particular time.
The profits of stock, it may perhaps be thought, are only a different name for the wages of a particular sort of THE COMPONENT PART OF THE PRICE OF COMMODITIES.
Merchants and manufacturers are not contented with the monopoly of the home market, but desire likewise the most extensive foreign sale for their goods.
The great and chief end, therefore, of men’s uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property.
The stock which is lent at interest is always considered as a capital by the lender.
This original engrossing of uncultivated lands, though a great, might have been but a transitory evil.
Others admit, that if a nation could be separated from all the world, it would be of no consequence how much or how little money circulated in it.
The great commerce of every civilized society is that carried on between the inhabitants of the town and those of the country.
AS usurpation is the exercise of power, which another hath a right to; so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which no body can have a right to.
The greatest improvements in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment.
A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another
There is one sort of labour which adds to the value of the subject upon which it is bestowed; there is another which has no such effect.
THOUGH in a constituted commonwealth, standing upon its own basis, and acting according to its own nature, that is, acting for the preservation of the community
WHERE the legislative and executive power are in distinct hands,there the good of the society requires, that several things should be left to the discretion
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It is but a very small part of this importation which, it can be supposed, is employed as an annual addition, either to the plate or to the coin of the kingdom.
Small republics have sometimes derived a considerable revenue from the profit of mercantile projects.
The great and chief end, therefore, of men’s uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property.
MEN being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another
Honour thy father and thy mother, Exod. xx. 12. Whosoever curseth his father or his mother, Lev. xx. 9.
Psal. cxv. 16. has given the earth to the children of men; given it to mankind in common.
Indeed, it often makes way for a new frame of a commonwealth, by destroying the former; but, without the consent of the people, can never erect a new one.
When the stock which a man possesses is no more than sufficient to maintain him for a few days or a few weeks, he seldom thinks of deriving any revenue from it.
The first duty of the sovereign, that of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies
No equal capital puts into motion a greater quantity of productive labour than that of the farmer.
The inhabitants of cities and towns were, after the fall of the Roman empire, not more favoured than those of the country.
Conjugal society is made by a voluntary compact between man and woman; and tho’ it consist chiefly in such a communion and right in one another’s bodies
Men who have no property, can injure one another only in their persons or reputations.
Ought in the first place to distinguish between the dissolution of the society and the dissolution of the government.
Though the encouragement of exportation, and the discouragement of importation.
If the rod be bent too much one way, says the proverb, in order to make it straight, you must bend it as much the other.
The progress of many of the ancient Greek colonies towards wealth and greatness seems accordingly to have been very rapid.
The produce of labour constitutes the natural recompence or wages of labour.
Money, therefore, is the only part of the circulating capital of a society, of which the maintenance can occasion any diminution in their neat revenue.
Every man’s interest would prompt him to seek the advantageous, and to shun the disadvantageous employment.
A part of their wool and raw hides, they had generally an opportunity of selling for money.
Such are the advantages which the colonies of America have derived from the policy of Europe.
Bounties upon exportation are, in Great Britain, frequently petitioned for, and sometimes granted, to the produce of particular branches of domestic industry.
Civil government supposes a certain subordination.
The third and last duty of the sovereign or commonwealth, is that of erecting and maintaining those public institutions and those public works.
The rent of land, it may be thought, is frequently no more than a reasonable profit or interest for the stock laid out by the landlord upon its improvement.
