The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith (best novels to read for beginners txt) 📖

kingdom and vent of its commodities thither do much depend; And in regard it is found by experience that the tobaccos planted in these parts are not so good and wholesome for the takers thereof, and that by the planting thereof Your Majesty is deprived of a considerable part of your revenue.” The prohibition was extended to Scotland by 22 Geo III, c. 73. ↩

William Douglass, M.D., A Summary, Historical and Political, of the First Planting, Progressive Improvements and Present State of the British Settlements in North America, 1760, vol. ii, pp. 359, 360 and 373. ↩

A Summary, Historical and Political, of the First Planting, Progressive Improvements and Present State of the British Settlements in North America, p. 374, but the phrase is “an industrious man” not “such a negro.” ↩

Douglas’s Summary, vol. ii. p. 372, 373. —⁠Smith

This note appears first in ed. 2. In the text of ed. 1 the name is spelt “Douglass.” —⁠Cannan ↩

This saying about the Dutch and spices is repeated below, vol. ii, p. 26, and again p. 135. Douglass, vol. ii, p. 372, in a note to the statement that Virginia and Maryland occasionally produce more than they can sell to advantage, which immediately precedes his account of the occasional burning of tobacco, says: “This is sometimes the case with the Dutch East India spices and the West India sugars.” ↩

The inferiority of oatmeal has already been asserted above, here. ↩

This “always” is qualified almost to the extent of contradiction here, below. ↩

Ed. 1 reads “thither.” ↩

Above, here, and below, here. ↩

This and the two preceding paragraphs appear to be based on the dissertation on the natural wants of mankind in Lectures, pp. 157⁠–⁠161; cp. Moral Sentiments, 1759, p. 349. ↩

Misprinted “labourer” in ed. 5. ↩

Ed. 1 reads “if it can conveniently get coals for fewel.” ↩

The North Bridge was only made passable in 1772: in 1778 the buildings along Princes Street had run to a considerable length, and St. Andrew’s Square and the streets connected with it were almost complete. A plan of that date shows the whole block between Queen Street and Princes Street (Arnot, History of Edinburgh, 1779, pp. 233, 315, 318, 319). ↩

Buchanan (ed. of Wealth of Nations, vol. i, p. 279), commenting on this passage, remarks judiciously: “It is not by the produce of one coal mine, however fertile, but by the joint produce of all the coal mines that can be worked, that the price of coals is fixed. A certain quantity of coals only can be consumed at a certain price. If the mines that can be worked produce more than this quantity the price will fall; if they produce less it will rise.” ↩

Ed. 1 reads “depends frequently.” ↩

Ed. 1 reads “article in the commerce of Europe.” ↩

Natural History of Cornwall, by William Borlase, 1758, p. 175, but nothing is there said as to the landlord sometimes receiving more than one-sixth. ↩

“Those who are willing to labour themselves easily obtain of the miner a vein to work on; what they get out of it is their own, paying him the King’s duty and the hire of the mill, which is so considerable that some are satisfied with the profit it yields without employing any to work for them in the mines.” —⁠Frezier, Voyage to the South Sea and Along the Coasts of Chile and Peru in the Years 1712, 1713 and 1714, with a Postscript By Dr. Edmund Halley, 1717, p. 109. For Ulloa see this note. ↩

In place of these two sentences ed. 1 reads, “The tax of the King of Spain, indeed, amounts to one-fifth of the standard silver, which may be considered as the real rent of the greater part of the silver mines of Peru, the richest which are known in the world. If there was no tax, this fifth would naturally belong to the landlord, and many mines might be wrought which cannot be wrought at present, because they cannot afford this tax.” ↩

The sum of more than £10,000 paid on £190,954 worth of produce is mentioned by Borlase. The duty was 4s. per cwt. —⁠Natural History of Cornwall, p. 183 ↩

Ed. 1 reads “is.” ↩

The reduction is mentioned again below, here and here. Ed. 1 does not contain this sentence, and begins the next with “The high tax upon silver, too, gives much greater temptation to smuggling than the low tax upon tin.” ↩

“Quand un homme témoigne avoir dessein de fouiller dans quelque mine, les autres le regardent comme un extravagant qui court à sa perte, et qui risque une ruine certaine pour des espérances éloignées et très-douteuses. Ils tâchent de le détourner de son dessein, et s’ils n’y peuvent réussir, ils le fuyent en l’évitant, comme s’ils craignaient qu’il ne leur communiquât son mal.” —⁠Voyage historique de l’Amérique méridionale par don George Juan et par don Antoine de Ulloa, 1752, tom. i, p. 379. The statement relates to the province of Quito, and the condition of things is contrasted with that prevailing in Peru proper. For Frezier see this note. ↩

Frezier, Voyage, p. 109. ↩

Borlase, Natural History of Cornwall, pp. 167, 175. If the land was “bounded” (bounding could only take place on “wastrel or common”) the lord of the soil