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Contents of the following chapters. - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 5 Lectures On Jurisprudence [1762]

Edition used:

Lectures On Jurisprudence, ed. R.. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael and P. G. Stein, vol. V of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982).

Part of: The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 7 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Contents of the following chapters.

Chap. 3d. Of the rule of exchanging, or of the circumstances which regulate the prices of commodities. Treats of

1mo. The price which is requisite to induce the labourer to apply himself to any particular species of industry, which must be sufficient 1st. to maintain him; 2dly. to indemnify him for the expence of his education to that particular business; 3dly. to compensate him for the risk he may run, either of not living long enough to receive this indemnification, or of not succeeding in the trade, let him live ever so long. Price of country labour. Of handicraft work. Of ingenious arts. Of the liberal professions. Profits of silver mines.

2do. The price which is fixed by the market, and which is regulated 1st. by the need or demand for any particular commodity; 2dly. by the | abundance or scarcity of the commodity in proportion to that need or demand; and 3dly. by the riches or poverty of the demandants.

3tio. The connection between those two prices. That the market price can never, for any considerable time, be either above or below that price which is sufficient to encourage the labourer, unless there is some great error in the public police, which prevents the concurrence of labour when the price is too high, or forces a greater concurrence than is natural when the price is too low.

4to. That as national or public opulence consists in the cheapness of commodities in proportion to the wages of labour, whatever tends to raise their price above what is precisely necessary to encourage the labourer tends to diminish national or public opulence. Of excises and other taxes upon industry. Of monopolies.

5to. That there is in every country what may be called a natural balance of industry, or a disposition in the people to apply to each species of work pre<c>isely in proportion to the demand for that work. That whatever tends to break this balance tends to hurt national or public opulence; whether it be by giving extraordinary discouragement to some sorts of industry | or extraordinary encouragement to others. Of the French kings edict against planting new vineyeards, and of some equally absurd laws of other nations. Of bounties either upon the exportation or manufacture of certain goods. That they tend to render, indeed, such goods cheaper, the public paying a part of the price, but all others dearer; and upon the whole to enhance the price of commodities. Of the bounty upon corn. That it has sunk the price of corn, and thereby tends to lower the rents of corn farms. That by diminishing the number,t it tends to raise the rent of grass farms,u to raise the price of butcher meat, the price of hay, the expence of keeping horses, and consequently the price of carriage, which must, so far, embarrass the whole inland commerce of the country.

Chap. 4th. Of money, it’s nature, origin, and history, considered first as the measure of value, and secondly as the instrument of commerce.

Under the first head I have little to say that is very new or particular; except a general history of the coins of France, England, and Scotland; the different changes they have undergone; their causes and effects. And except some observations upon what may be called the money prices of commodities. That human industry being at all times equally employed to multiply both | silver and commodities, and it being more in human power to multiply commodities than to multiply silver, the quantity of the former should naturally be expected to increase in a much greater proportion than that of the latter, and that consequently the money prices of commodities should at all times be continually sinking. That, however, things do not exactly correspond to this expectation. That in times of great barbarism and ignorance the money prices of such commodities as are in those times to be had are always extremely low, and for what reason. That they rise gradually till the society arives at a certain pitch of civility and improvement; and that in its further progress from this improved state to still greater opulence and improvement, those prices sink gradually again. That the money prices of commodities have in general been sinking in England for near a century past, and would have sunk much more had they not been artificially kept up by improper taxes and excises, and by some unjust monopolies. That the cheapness of commodities in China and the Moguls empire is the necessary effect of the immense opulence of those countries, notwithstanding their great abundance of gold and silver.

Under the second head, after explaining the use and necessity of a general instrument | of commerce, or medium of exchange, and the way in which the precious metals come naturally to be made use of as such, I endeavour to show

1mo. That as the sole use of money is to circulate commodities, that is, food, cloaths, and the conveniences of lodging, or domestic accomodation, and that as money itself is neither food, cloaths, nor lodging, the larger the proportion which that part of the stock of any nation which is converted into money bears to the whole, the less food, cloaths, and lodging there must be in that nation; which must, therefore, be so much the worse fed, cloathed, and lodged, and consequently so much the poorer and less powerful. That money, serving only to circulate commodities, is so much dead stock which produces nothing, and which may very properly be compared to a high road, which, while it helps to circulate the produce of all the grass and corn in the country, and thereby indirectly contributes to the raising of both, produces itself neither grass nor corn.

2do. That whatever contrivance can enable any nation to circulate the produce of its industry with a smaller quantity of money than would otherwise be necessary, must be extremely advantagious; because the quantity of money saved may be exchanged abroad for commodities, by means | of which a greater number of people can be fed, cloathed, lodged, maintained, and employed, the profit upon whose industry will still further increase the public opulence. That banks and bank notes are contrivances of this sort. They enable us, as it were, to plough up our high roads, by affording us a sort of communication through the air by which we do our business equally well. That, therefore, to confine them by monopolies, or any other restraints, except such as are necessary to prevent frauds and abuses, must obstruct the progress of public opulence. History of banking, ancient and modern.

3tio. That national opulence, or the effect of national opulence, either at home or abroad, neither consists in nor depends upon the quantity of money, or even of gold and silver, that is in the country; and that no sort of preference is due to this species of goods above any other. The bad effects of the contrary opinion both in speculation and practice.

In speculation it has given occasion to the systems of Mun and Gee, of Mandeville who built upon them, and of Mr. Hume who endeavoured to refute them.

In practice it has given occasion

1mo. To the prohibition which takes place in some countries of exporting either coin or | bullion. A prohibition which, very happily, is always in a great measure ineffectual; and which, so far as it is effectual, necessarily tends to impoverish the country. First, because whatever gold and silver there is in any country, over and above what is sufficient to circulate the produce of its industry, is so much dead stock, which is of no use at all: whereas, if allowed to go abroad, it would naturally be exchanged for what would feed, cloath, maintain, and employ a greater number of people, whose industry would increase real national opulence by multiplying the conveniences and necessaries of life. Secondly, because this unnecessary accumulation of gold and silver renders those metals cheap in proportion to other commodities, and consequently raises the money price of every thing. This stops all industry, the peasants, manufacturers, and traders of such a country being necessarily undersold, both at home and abroad, by the traders of other countries in which the money prices of things are lower. The misery of Spain and Portugal, owing, in part, for many other causes concur, to this prohibition.

2do. To the unreasonable restraints imposed upon certain branches of commerce, and to the unreasonable encouragement given to others; | upon pretence that the one drains us of our money, we sending abroad money and getting home only goods which we consume; and that the other enriches us, we sending abroad only goods and getting home hard cash. The meanness, vulgarity, and folly of both these conceptions. First, that every branch of commerce which one nation can regularly carry on with another is, and necessarily must be, advantagious to both, each exchanging that which it has less need of for that which it has more need of, each giving what is of less value in its own country for what is of more value in the same country; each therefore increasing its own real opulence, and consequently its own power of feeding, cloathing, maintaining, and employing people. Secondly, that whatever tends to restrain the liberty of exchanging one thing for another tends to discourage industry, and to obstruct the division of labour which is the foundation of the opulence of society. It is allowed that all prohibitions of exportation discourage industry; but a prohibition of importation must have the same effect, since it is the same thing whether you forbid me to exchange my wares at the place where I can exchange them to most advantage, or for the goods for which I can exchange them to most advantage. If you prohibit the importation of French | claret, for example, you discourage all that industry of which the produce would have been exchanged for French claret. Whether that industry would have been exercised in making a piece of broad cloth, or in bringing gold from the Brazils, is of no consequence to national opulence. If that cloth isv more than the home consumption requires, it must go abroad; and if that gold is more than the channel of home circulation requires, or can receive, for these are the same, it must go abroad in the same manner, and be exchanged for something to be consumed at home, and why not for good claret? Thirdly, that the produce of every species of industry which is not either destroyed by some misfortune, or taken from us by an enemy, is, must, and ought to be consumed at home, either in substance or in what it is exchanged for, after one, two, three, or three hundred exchanges: and that this is so far from either taking away or diminishing the national profit upon industry, that it is the very circumstance which renders all industry profitable to the nation; since it is only by means of this home consumption that more people can be maintained and employed, or those maintained and employed before be maintained and employed more agreably, or that the nation can in any respect better its circumstances. Fourthly, that no | nation ever was ruined by what is called the ballance of trade being against them, but by the excess of their annual consumption above the annual produce of their industry, which would necessarily ruin them tho’ they had no foreign trade at all. Fifthly, that no nation whose industry and opulence are entire can be long in want of money; goods commanding money even more necessarily than money commands goods. Sixthly, that all extraordinary encouragement given to any one branch of commerce breaks the natural balance of industry in commerce as well as in manufactures, and, so far, obstructs the progress of opulence. Of the British trade to France and Portugal. That a free trade to France would tend infinitely more to enrich Great Britain than a free trade to Portugal, because France, on account of its superior opulence having more to give, would take more from us, and exchanging to a much greater value and in a much greater variety of ways, would encourage more industry in Great Britain and give occasion to more subdivisions of labour; and that it is only passion and national prejudice which ever made any body think otherwise. The British merchant.

3tio. The notion that national opulence consists in money has given occasion to the | current and pernicious opinion that we can never hurt ourselves by any expence incurred at home; because the money, being all spent among ourselves, does not go out of the country; and that what one loses another gets. That the difference with regard to the diminution of public opulence, when a stock of the conveniences and necessaries of life is wasted uselessly at home, and when either these or the money which purchases these is sent abroad to be wasted in the same manner, is extremely inconsiderable. Useless sea wars very near as destructive to public opulence as useless land wars.

4to. The notion that national opulence consisted in or depended upon money, joined to another false notion that the value put upon the precious metals was a matter of institution and agreement, gave occasion to the famous system of Mr. Law. That gentleman imagined that by proper measures the inhabitants of a particular country might gradually be induced to affix the idea of a certain value to a certain paper currency, in the same manner as they affix it at present to a certain sum of money, and even to prefer the paper to the money; and that if this was once fairly brought about, the government, which had the issuing of this paper, might excite what industry, raise and pay what | armies, and fit out what fleets they thought proper, without being at any other expence but that of building a paper mill. The vanity of both these imaginations, together with the history and analysis of the principal operations of this system. South Sea scheme.

Chap. 5th. Concerning the causes of the slow progress of opulence.

Those causes of two kinds. First, natural impediments; and, secondly, oppressive or injudicious government.

The original poverty and ignorance of mankind the natural impediments to the progress of opulence. That it is easier for a nation, in the same manner as for an individual, to raise itself from a moderate degree of wealth to the highest opulence, than to acquire this moderate degree of wealth; money, according to the proverb, begetting money, among nations as among individuals. The extreme difficulty of beginning accumulation and the many accidents to which it is exposed. The slowness and difficulty with which those things, which now appear the most simple inventions, were originally found out. That a nation is not always in a condition to imitate and copy the inventions and improvements of its more wealthy neighbours; the application of these frequently requiring a stock with which it is not furnished.

The oppressive and injudicious governments to which mankind are almost always subject, but more especially in the rude beginnings of | society, greatly increase those natural impediments, which of themselves are not easily surmounted. The oppression and errors of government affect either 1mo. agriculture; or 2do. arts and commerce.

1mo. The great importance of agriculture and how much the value of its annual produce exceeds that of any other art. That the cultivation of land depends upon the proportion which the stock of those who cultivate itw bears to the quantity of land to be cultivated. That consequently whatever tends to prevent the accumulation of stock in the hands of the cultivators, or to discourage them from continuing this species of industry after they have accumulated some stock in this manner, must tend to retard the progress of agriculture.

That the chiefs of an independent nation which settles in any country, either by conquest or otherwise, as soon as the idea of private property in land is introduced never leave any part of the land vacant, but constantly, from that greediness which is natural to man, seize much greater tracts of it to themselves than they have either strength or stock to cultivate. From the same greediness and rapacity, beingx unwilling to divide the profites of this land with any freeman, what they cannot or will not cultivate by their own strength they endeavour to cultivate by the strength of slaves, whom they either conquer in war or purchase in some other way, and in whose hands no stock ever can accumulate.

[t]‘of grass farms’ deleted

[u]The last five words replace ‘the rent of such farms’

[v]Replaces ‘was’

[w]‘for their own benefite’ deleted

[x]‘the’ deleted