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THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

sometimes of abandoning tlicir infants, their old people, andthose afflicted with lingering diseases, to perish with hunger,or to be devoured by wild beasts. Among civilized and thriv-ing nations, on the contrary, though a great number of peo-ple do not labour at all, many of whom consume the produceof ten times, frequently of a hundred times more labour thanthe greater part of those who work; yet the produce of thewhole labour of the society is so great, that all arc often abun-dantly supplied, and a workman even of the lowest andpoorest order, if he is frugal and industrious, may enjoy agreater share of the necessaries and conveniencies of life thanit is possible for any savage to acquire.

The causes of this improvement in the productive powersof labour, and the order, according to which its produce is na-turally distributed among the different ranks and conditions ofmen in the society, make the subject of the First Book of thisInquiry.

Whatever be the actual state of the skill, dexterity, andjudgment with which labour is applied in any nation, theabundance or scantiness of its annual supply must depend,during the continuance of that state, upon the proportion be-tween the number of those who are annually employed in usefullabour, and that of those who are not so employed. The num-ber of useful and productive labourers, it will hereafter ap-pear, is everywhere in proportion to the quantity of capitalstock which is employed in setting them to work, and to theparticular way in which it is so employed. The Second Book,therefore, treats of the nature of capital stock, of the mannerin which it is gradually accumulated, and of the differentquantities of labour which it puts into motion, according tothe different ways in which it is employed.

Nations tolerably well advanced as to skill, dexterity, andjudgment, in the application of labour, have followed verydifferent plans in the general conduct or direction of it; and.those plans have not all been equally favourable to the great-ness of its produce. The policy of some nations has givenextraordinary encouragement to the industry of the country;that of others to the industry of towns. Scarce any nationhas dealt equally and impartially with every sort of industry.Since the downfal of the Roman empire, the policy of Europe has been more favourable to arts, manufactures, and com-merce, the industry of towns; than to agriculture, the in-dustry of the country. The circumstances which seem to