The Wealth of Nations

The Wealth of Nations

by

Adam Smith

Smith uses the term “farmer” to refer to the people who live on, manage, and live off the revenue from agricultural land (as opposed to the landlords who own it or the laborers who actually work it). Agriculture produces far more value in rude produce than it requires in capital investment, so Smith considers farmers to be the most productive of all workers and argues that whether or not they improve their land is the single most important factor in promoting economic growth.

Farmers Quotes in The Wealth of Nations

The The Wealth of Nations quotes below are all either spoken by Farmers or refer to Farmers. 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:
Labor, Markets, and Growth Theme Icon
).
Book 2, Chapter 5 Quotes

No equal capital puts into motion a greater quantity of productive labour than that of the farmer. Not only his labouring servants, but his labouring cattle, are productive labourers. In agriculture, too, Nature labours along with man; and though her labour costs no expense, its produce has its value, as well as that of the most expensive workmen. [...] The labourers and labouring cattle, therefore, employed in agriculture, not only occasion, like the workmen in manufactures, the reproduction of a value equal to their own consumption, or to the capital which employs them, together with its owner’s profits, but of a much greater value. Over and above the capital of the farmer, and all its profits, they regularly occasion the reproduction of the rent of the landlord. This rent may be considered as the produce of those powers of Nature, the use of which the landlord lends to the farmer.

Related Characters: Farmers, Landlords
Page Number: 462–463
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 1 Quotes

The inhabitants of the town, and those of the country, are mutually the servants of one another. The town is a continual fair or market, to which the inhabitants of the country resort, in order to exchange their rude for manufactured produce. It is this commerce which supplies the inhabitants of the town, both with the materials of their work, and the means of their subsistence. The quantity of the finished work which they sell to the inhabitants of the country, necessarily regulates the quantity of the materials and provisions which they buy. Neither their employment nor subsistence, therefore, can augment, but in proportion to the augmentation of the demand from the country for finished work; and this demand can augment only in proportion to the extension of improvement and cultivation.

Related Characters: Farmers, Manufacturers
Page Number: 484
Explanation and Analysis:
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.

Related Characters: Farmers, Grain Inland Traders, Wholesalers
Page Number: 669
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Wealth of Nations LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Wealth of Nations PDF

Farmers Quotes in The Wealth of Nations

The The Wealth of Nations quotes below are all either spoken by Farmers or refer to Farmers. 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:
Labor, Markets, and Growth Theme Icon
).
Book 2, Chapter 5 Quotes

No equal capital puts into motion a greater quantity of productive labour than that of the farmer. Not only his labouring servants, but his labouring cattle, are productive labourers. In agriculture, too, Nature labours along with man; and though her labour costs no expense, its produce has its value, as well as that of the most expensive workmen. [...] The labourers and labouring cattle, therefore, employed in agriculture, not only occasion, like the workmen in manufactures, the reproduction of a value equal to their own consumption, or to the capital which employs them, together with its owner’s profits, but of a much greater value. Over and above the capital of the farmer, and all its profits, they regularly occasion the reproduction of the rent of the landlord. This rent may be considered as the produce of those powers of Nature, the use of which the landlord lends to the farmer.

Related Characters: Farmers, Landlords
Page Number: 462–463
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 1 Quotes

The inhabitants of the town, and those of the country, are mutually the servants of one another. The town is a continual fair or market, to which the inhabitants of the country resort, in order to exchange their rude for manufactured produce. It is this commerce which supplies the inhabitants of the town, both with the materials of their work, and the means of their subsistence. The quantity of the finished work which they sell to the inhabitants of the country, necessarily regulates the quantity of the materials and provisions which they buy. Neither their employment nor subsistence, therefore, can augment, but in proportion to the augmentation of the demand from the country for finished work; and this demand can augment only in proportion to the extension of improvement and cultivation.

Related Characters: Farmers, Manufacturers
Page Number: 484
Explanation and Analysis:
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.

Related Characters: Farmers, Grain Inland Traders, Wholesalers
Page Number: 669
Explanation and Analysis: