Previous
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.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
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.
Get the entire The Wealth of Nations LitChart as a printable PDF.
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.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
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.
