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Agricultural System
A nation’s annual produce is the total amount of goods and services that all of its inhabitants generate in a year.
Annual Produce Quotes in The Wealth of Nations
The The Wealth of Nations quotes below are all either spoken by Annual Produce or refer to Annual Produce. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 1, Chapter 6 Quotes
As the price or exchangeable value of every particular commodity, taken separately, resolves itself into some one or other, or all of those three parts [wages, profits, and rent]; so that of all the commodities which compose the whole annual produce of the labour of every country, taken complexly, must resolve itself into the same three parts, and be parcelled out among different inhabitants of the country, either as the wages of their labour, the profits of their stock, or the rent of their land. The whole of what is annually either collected or produced by the labour of every society, or, what comes to the same thing, the whole price of it, is in this manner originally distributed among some of its different members. Wages, profit, and rent, are the three original sources of all revenue, as well as of all exchangeable value. All other revenue is ultimately derived from some one or other of these.
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After outlining his fundamental theory of markets in the first half of Book I, Smith spends the second half explaining the three-part schema that he uses to analyze how resources are distributed throughout the economy. Wages, rent, and profit make up the price of any good or service—which is the same as the revenue earned by the person who sells it. For instance, if a bushel of wheat costs $10, this may comprise $2 in wages paid to the farmworkers, $5 in rent for the landowner, and $3 in profit for the person who runs the farm. These proportions will 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 tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In et eveniet
Book 1, Chapter 11 Quotes
In the course of a century or two, it is possible that new mines may be discovered, more fertile than any that have ever yet been known; and it is just equally possible, that the most fertile mine then known may be more barren than any that was wrought before the discovery of the mines of America. Whether the one or the other of those two events may happen to take place, is of very little importance to the real wealth and prosperity of the world, to the real value of the annual produce of the land and labour of mankind. Its nominal value, the quantity of gold and silver by which this annual produce could be expressed or represented, would, no doubt, be very different; but its real value, the real quantity of labour which it could purchase or command, would be precisely the same.
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In Smith’s time, most theorists of political economy were mercantilists, which means that they defined a nation’s wealth in terms of how much gold, silver, and money it accumulated. If The Wealth of Nations is first and foremost a theory of markets, it is secondarily a refutation of the mercantile system, which Smith saw as the origin of pernicious anti-trade policies throughout Europe. Even though he hasn’t yet begun discussing mercantilist policies, Smith spends much of Book I, Chapter 11 debunking the mercantilist understanding of money by tracing the history of global gold and silver markets. He shows that, when 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. Mini
Book 2, Chapter 2 Quotes
It is not by augmenting the capital of the country, but by rendering a greater part of that capital active and productive than would otherwise be so, that the most judicious operations of banking can increase the industry of the country. [...] The gold and silver money which circulates in any country, and by means of which, the produce of its land and labour is annually circulated and distributed to the proper consumers, is, in the same manner as the ready money of the dealer, all dead stock. It is a very valuable part of the capital of the country, which produces nothing to the country. The judicious operations of banking, by substituting paper in the room of a great part of this gold and silver, enable the country to convert a great part of this dead stock into active and productive stock; into stock which produces something to the country.
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This chapter focuses on the way banks manage the money supply, which is one key component of society’s circulating capital. Specifically, Smith focuses on how paper bank money can help society better utilize its money, so that it can increase its rates of investment and economic growth to the highest possible level. It does so by turning “dead stock into active and productive stock,” which means it takes capital that would be sitting around unused and loans it out instead. For instance, if a merchant has £100 worth of gold bars sitting around in their safe, those bars are unproductive 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. Mollit
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Annual Produce Term Timeline in The Wealth of Nations
The timeline below shows where the term Annual Produce appears in The Wealth of Nations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Chapter 11
The value of a country’s annual produce gets divided into rent, wages, and profit, which respectively go to landlords, workers, and employers....
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Book 2, Chapter 3
...a country’s laborers are productive, the more it will produce in the future. Indeed, its annual produce must maintain all its laborers, both productive and unproductive. One part of this produce goes...
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...invest. This enables them to employ more productive labor and increases the value of their annual produce . Rich people may spend some of their revenue on productive labor, but frugal people...
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Increasing a nation’s annual produce requires additional capital stock. Nearly all countries steadily increase their capital stocks and revenues during...
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Book 2, Chapter 5
...can command different quantities of labor and add different amounts of value to a nation’s annual produce . It can be used in four main ways: furnishing society with rude produce, manufacturing...
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...But farmers put even more capital into motion and add even more to the nation’s annual produce than manufacturing does. Farming involves working with nature to create rude produce, and it generally...
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...specific geographical locations. While wholesalers’ capital can go anywhere, it doesn’t much affect a country’s annual produce . Manufacturers’ capital goes into their production facilities, which they can choose where to locate....
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Different kinds of wholesale trade also employ productive labor and add to the annual produce to different extents. Rather than sending their ships or vehicles home empty-handed, wholesalers generally trade...
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Book 4, Chapter 7
...and productivity in order to increase the rents they can charge, their share of the annual produce , and demand for their goods. Yet the companies’ officers are short-sighted merchants, so they...
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Book 5, Chapter 2
...of lower rents. In manufacturing, such taxes deter hiring, harm industry, and reduce the nation’s annual produce . Yet countries like France and Bohemia still assess them. Taxing government workers is a...
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