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Royal African Company
Wholesalers are the merchants who buy goods and rude produce from farmers and manufacturers in bulk, then sell to retailers (who in turn sell to consumers). They are the fourth kind of productive laborers, besides these other groups. Since their business centers on transporting large quantities of goods over significant distances, from producers to markets, wholesalers frequently employ their capital and earn their profits outside their home countries.
Wholesalers Quotes in The Wealth of Nations
The The Wealth of Nations quotes below are all either spoken by Wholesalers or refer to Wholesalers. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 4, Chapter 3 Quotes
Commerce, which ought naturally to be, among nations as among individuals, a bond of union and friendship, has become the most fertile source of discord and animosity. The capricious ambition of kings and ministers has not, during the present and the preceding century, been more fatal to the repose of Europe, than the impertinent jealousy of merchants and manufacturers. The violence and injustice of the rulers of mankind is an ancient evil, for which, I am afraid, the nature of human affairs can scarce admit of a remedy: but the mean rapacity, the monopolizing spirit, of merchants and manufacturers, who neither are, nor ought to be, the rulers of mankind, though it cannot, perhaps, be corrected, may very easily be prevented from disturbing the tranquillity of anybody but themselves.
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One of the mercantile system’s central flaws is that it views trade through the lens of competition rather than cooperation. Throughout The Wealth of Nations, Smith consistently argues that trade creates “a bond of union and friendship” because it’s mutually beneficial to all parties. Trade’s benefits have absolutely nothing to do with the balance of trade, or whether one country is importing or exporting more to another. But the mercantilists obsess over the balance of trade because they view exporting gold and silver as tantamount to giving away the nation’s wealth. For instance, Smith argues that it’s simply no issue Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic
Book 4, Chapter 5 Quotes
The man who employs either his labour or his stock in a greater variety of ways than his situation renders necessary, can never hurt his neighbour by underselling him. He may hurt himself, and he generally does so. Jack-of-all-trades will never be rich, says the proverb. But the law ought always to trust people with the care of their own interest, as in their local situations they must generally be able to judge better of it than the legislature can do.
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In this passage, Smith is criticizing Europe’s historical ban against the wholesale grain trade. This ban forced farmers to sell their own grain to consumers, which may seem like a way to make the market more efficient by eliminating middlemen, but actually has just the opposite effect. Namely, it forces farmers to act like a “jack-of-all-trades,” performing multiple occupations when they would have done better by focusing on one. This is because the separation between farmers and traders is an important element of the division of labor. It makes the market more efficient by letting farmers just sell their harvest Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae ea
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Wholesalers Character Timeline in The Wealth of Nations
The timeline below shows where the character Wholesalers appears in The Wealth of Nations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 2, Chapter 2
...more devastating. Sometimes, as in London, paper money is only used in high denominations among wholesale dealers . But elsewhere, like in Scotland and North America, it’s also available in small denominations...
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Book 2, Chapter 5
...portions for distribution to customers. People who work in these four kinds of activity—farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers—are productive laborers.
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...groups use their capital stock in different ways. Retailers spend their capital buying goods from wholesalers, which replaces the wholesalers’ original capital investment. The amount retailers add to the nation is...
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...fixed quantity of capital adds more to the economy in manufacturers’ hands than retailers’ or wholesalers’. But farmers put even more capital into motion and add even more to the nation’s...
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...trade must stay within a country, as they are tied to specific geographical locations. While wholesalers’ capital can go anywhere, it doesn’t much affect a country’s annual produce. Manufacturers’ capital goes...
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...the annual produce to different extents. Rather than sending their ships or vehicles home empty-handed, wholesalers generally trade in both directions, buying one commodity and selling another. For domestic wholesale trade,...
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Book 3, Chapter 2
...taxes to the government. These policies make farming an undesirable profession and dissuade manufacturers and wholesalers from shifting their capital into agriculture. So do rules against grain exportation and limits on...
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Book 4, Chapter 5
Another way that manufacturers and wholesale merchants request support from the government is by requesting subsidies, or bounties, for exports. Bounties are...
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In reality, wholesale merchants support farmers and manufacturers by permitting them to specialize, invest all their capital in efficient...
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Book 4, Chapter 6
Commercial treaties that privilege imports from a specific country benefit that country’s wholesalers and manufacturers, but harm those of the importing country by exposing them to greater competition...
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