An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith
Book V, Chapter I
Of the Expences of the Sovereign or Commonwealth
PART I
Of the Expence of Defence
V.1.0
The first duty of the sovereign, that of protecting the society from the violence and invasion
of other independent societies, can be performed only by means of a military force. But the expence
both of preparing this military force in time of peace, and of employing it in time of war, is very
different in the different states of society, in the different periods of improvement.
V.1.1
Among nations of hunters, the lowest and rudest state of society, such as we find it among
the native tribes of North America, every man is a warrior as well as a hunter. When he goes to war,
either to defend his society or to revenge the injuries which have been done to it by other societies,
he maintains himself by his own labour in the same manner as when he lives at home. His society,
for in this state of things there is properly neither sovereign nor commonwealth, is at no sort of
expence, either to prepare him for the field, or to maintain him while he is in it.
V.1.2
Among nations of shepherds, a more advanced state of society, such as we find it among the
Tartars and Arabs, every man is, in the same manner, a warrior. Such nations have commonly no
fixed habitation, but live either in tents or in a sort of covered waggons which are easily transported
from place to place. The whole tribe or nation changes its situation according to the different
seasons of the year, as well as according to other accidents. When its herds and flocks have
consumed the forage of one part of the country, it removes to another, and from that to a third. In
the dry season it comes down to the banks of the rivers; in the wet season it retires to the upper
country. When such a nation goes to war, the warriors will not trust their herds and flocks to the
feeble defence of their old men, their women and children; and their old men, their women and
children, will not be left behind without defence and without subsistence. The whole nation, besides,
being accustomed to a wandering life, even in time of peace, easily takes the field in time of war.…
V.1.7
In a more advanced state of society, two different causes contribute to render it altogether
impossible that they who take the field should maintain themselves at their own expence. Those two
causes are, the progress of manufactures, and the improvement in the art of war....
V.1.41
The first duty of the sovereign, therefore, that of defending the society from the violence and
injustice of other independent societies, grows gradually more and more expensive as the society
advances in civilization. The military force of the society, which originally cost the sovereign no
expence either in time of peace or in time of war, must, in the progress of improvement, first be
maintained by him in time of war, and afterwards even in time of peace.…
PART II
Of the Expence of Justice
V.1.44
V.1.45
The second duty of the sovereign, that of protecting, as far as possible, every member of the
society from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it, or the duty of establishing an
exact administration of justice, requires, too, very different degrees of expence in the different
periods of society.
Among nations of hunters, as there is scarce any property, or at least none that exceeds the
value of two or three days labour, so there is seldom any established magistrate or any regular
administration of justice. Men who have no property can injure one another only in their persons or
reputations. But when one man kills, wounds, beats, or defames another, though he to whom the
injury is done suffers, he who does it receives no benefit. It is otherwise with the injuries to property.
The benefit of the person who does the injury is often equal to the loss of him who suffers it. Envy,
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malice, or resentment are the only passions which can prompt one man to injure another in his
person or reputation. But the greater part of men are not very frequently under the influence of
those passions, and the very worst of men are so only occasionally. As their gratification too, how
agreeable soever it may be to certain characters, is not attended with any real or permanent
advantage, it is in the greater part of men commonly restrained by prudential considerations. Men
may live together in society with some tolerable degree of security, though there is no civil magistrate
to protect them from the injustice of those passions. But avarice and ambition in the rich, in the
poor the hatred of labour and the love of present ease and enjoyment, are the passions which
prompt to invade property, passions much more steady in their operation, and much more universal
in their influence. Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man
there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the
many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by
want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions. It is only under the shelter of the civil
magistrate that the owner of that valuable property, which is acquired by the labour of many years, or
perhaps of many successive generations, can sleep a single night in security. He is at all times
surrounded by unknown enemies, whom, though he never provoked, he can never appease, and
from whose injustice he can be protected only by the powerful arm of the civil magistrate continually
held up to chastise it. The acquisition of valuable and extensive property, therefore, necessarily
requires the establishment of civil government. Where there is no property, or at least none that
exceeds the value of two or three days labour, civil government is not so necessary.
Civil government supposes a certain subordination. But as the necessity of civil government
gradually grows up with the acquisition of valuable property, so the principal causes which naturally
introduce subordination gradually grow up with the growth of that valuable property.… The rich, in
particular, are necessarily interested to support that order of things which can alone secure them in
the possession of their own advantages. Men of inferior wealth combine to defend those of superior
wealth in the possession of their property, in order that men of superior wealth may combine to
defend them in the possession of theirs.… Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security
of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have
some property against those who have none at all.…
V.1.46, 55
PART III
Of the Expence of public Works and public Institutions
V.1.69
The third and last duty of the sovereign or commonwealth is that of erecting and maintaining
those public institutions and those public works, which, though they may be in the highest degree
advantageous to a great society, are, however, of such a nature that the profit could never repay the
expence to any individual or small number of individuals, and which it therefore cannot be expected
that any individual or small number of individuals should erect or maintain. The performance of this
duty requires, too, very different degrees of expence in the different periods of society....
V.1.178
In the progress of the division of labour, the employment of the far greater part of those who
live by labour, that is, of the great body of the people, comes to be confined to a few very simple
operations, frequently to one or two. But the understandings of the greater part of men are
necessarily formed by their ordinary employments. The man whose whole life is spent in performing
a few simple operations, of which the effects are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same,
has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for
removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and
generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. The
torpor of his mind renders him not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part in any rational
conversation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender sentiment, and consequently of
forming any just judgment concerning many even of the ordinary duties of private life. Of the great
and extensive interests of his country he is altogether incapable of judging, and unless very particular
pains have been taken to render him otherwise, he is equally incapable of defending his country in
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war. The uniformity of his stationary life naturally corrupts the courage of his mind, and makes him
regard with abhorrence the irregular, uncertain, and adventurous life of a soldier. It corrupts even the
activity of his body, and renders him incapable of exerting his strength with vigour and perseverance
in any other employment than that to which he has been bred. His dexterity at his own particular
trade seems, in this manner, to be acquired at the expence of his intellectual, social, and martial
virtues. But in every improved and civilized society this is the state into which the labouring poor,
that is, the great body of the people, must necessarily fall, unless government takes some pains to
prevent it.
V.1.179
It is otherwise in the barbarous societies, as they are commonly called, of hunters, of
shepherds, and even of husbandmen in that rude state of husbandry which precedes the
improvement of manufactures and the extension of foreign commerce. In such societies the varied
occupations of every man oblige every man to exert his capacity and to invent expedients for
removing difficulties which are continually occurring. Invention is kept alive, and the mind is not
suffered to fall into that drowsy stupidity which, in a civilized society, seems to benumb the
understanding of almost all the inferior ranks of people. In those barbarous societies, as they are
called, every man, it has already been observed, is a warrior. Every man, too, is in some measure a
statesman, and can form a tolerable judgment concerning the interest of the society and the conduct
of those who govern it.... In a civilized state, on the contrary, though there is little variety in the
occupations of the greater part of individuals, there is an almost infinite variety in those of the whole
society. These varied occupations present an almost infinite variety of objects to the contemplation
of those few, who, being attached to no particular occupation themselves, have leisure and
inclination to examine the occupations of other people. The contemplation of so great a variety of
objects necessarily exercises their minds in endless comparisons and combinations, and renders their
understandings, in an extraordinary degree, both acute and comprehensive. Unless those few,
however, happen to be placed in some very particular situations, their great abilities, though
honourable to themselves, may contribute very little to the good government or happiness of their
society. Notwithstanding the great abilities of those few, all the nobler parts of the human character
may be, in a great measure, obliterated and extinguished in the great body of the people.
V.1.180
The education of the common people requires, perhaps, in a civilized and commercial society
the attention of the public more than that of people of some rank and fortune. People of some rank
and fortune are generally eighteen or nineteen years of age before they enter upon that particular
business, profession, or trade, by which they propose to distinguish themselves in the world. They
have before that full time to acquire, or at least to fit themselves for afterwards acquiring, every
accomplishment which can recommend them to the public esteem, or render them worthy of it....
V.1.181
It is otherwise with the common people. They have little time to spare for education. Their
parents can scarce afford to maintain them even in infancy. As soon as they are able to work they
must apply to some trade by which they can earn their subsistence. That trade, too, is generally so
simple and uniform as to give little exercise to the understanding, while, at the same time, their
labour is both so constant and so severe, that it leaves them little leisure and less inclination to apply
to, or even to think of, anything else.
V.1.182
But though the common people cannot, in any civilized society, be so well instructed as
people of some rank and fortune, the most essential parts of education, however, to read, write, and
account, can be acquired at so early a period of life that the greater part even of those who are to be
bred to the lowest occupations have time to acquire them before they can be employed in those
occupations. For a very small expence the public can facilitate, can encourage, and can even impose
upon almost the whole body of the people the necessity of acquiring those most essential parts of
education.
Source: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) (Edwin Cannan, ed., 5th edition,
1904). Library of Economics and Liberty. (http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN.html)