Bounties Analysis in The Wealth of Nations

Bounties (or subsidies) are payments that the government makes to producers or merchants in order to promote their business, usually because it is deemed to benefit the national interest.

Bounties Quotes in The Wealth of Nations

The The Wealth of Nations quotes below are all either spoken by Bounties or refer to Bounties. 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:

The nature of things has stamped upon corn a real value, which cannot be altered by merely altering its money price. No bounty upon exportation, no monopoly of the home market, can raise that value. The freest competition cannot lower it, Through the world in general, that value is equal to the quantity of labour which it can maintain, and in every particular place it is equal to the quantity of labour which it can maintain in the way, whether liberal, moderate, or scanty, in which labour is commonly maintained in that place. Woollen or linen cloth are not the regulating commodities by which the real value of all other commodities must be finally measured and determined; corn is. The real value of every other commodity is finally measured and determined by the proportion which its average money price bears to the average money price of corn.

Page Number and Citation: 649–650

Explanation and Analysis:

Bounties Term Timeline in The Wealth of Nations

The timeline below shows where the term Bounties appears in The Wealth of Nations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...excellent. But they would have been even lower if the government hadn’t kept paying a bounty for exporting it. Meanwhile, during the 1700s, the money price of labor has risen in... (full context)

Institutions and Good Governance Theme Icon

...has an unfavorable balance of trade. The pro-export policies are drawbacks (tax rebates) for exporters, bounties (incentives) for key industries, trade treaties with other countries, and colonization (which generally includes a... (full context)

Capital Accumulation and Investment Theme Icon

...produce. For instance, massive cattle, salt, and grain imports would not bankrupt British farmers. The bounty on grain exportation might increase exports in most years, but to compensate, it also increases... (full context)

...that manufacturers and wholesale merchants request support from the government is by requesting subsidies, or bounties, for exports. Bounties are only necessary for unprofitable kinds of trade that couldn’t survive otherwise,... (full context)

British grain prices did fall after the bounty, but so did French grain prices, even though France banned grain exports. The rising price... (full context)

As this bounty doesn’t help farmers maintain more workers with the same amount of grain, it only increases... (full context)

Britain’s grain bounty functions just like these policies in Spain and Portugal: it raises nominal prices at home... (full context)

A better solution is to place bounties on commodity production, rather than exportation. This would reduce real prices for domestic consumers. But... (full context)

One exception is the bounty for Scotland’s herring fisheries, which helps support British sailing and shipping, but is still a... (full context)

Production bounties are justified for goods necessary to national defense, as producing them domestically is far safer... (full context)

...the Corn Trade and Corn Laws.” This long digression will explain why the grain exportation bounty and the laws governing the grain trade don’t deserve the praise they receive. There are... (full context)

...suspends them in times of scarcity. These duties were only necessary to compensate for Britain’s bounty for grain exports. Otherwise, merchants would have just imported and re-exported grain to claim the... (full context)

...to Britain’s grain laws are beneficial because they greatly reduce the duties on imports and bounties for exports, as well as eliminating duties on imports for the carrying trade. However, they... (full context)

...market for some goods that are only or mainly produced in America. It offers a bounty for American timber in order to boost its navy, and it imports American iron tax-free,... (full context)

Britain uses bounties and drawbacks to encourage imports from its American colonies, while permitting drawbacks for goods originating... (full context)

...textile manufacturers have pressured Britain into suspending duties on foreign wool and yarn, while offering bounties for exporting cloth. Britain also offers bounties for importing naval goods, indigo, wood, silk, and... (full context)

...and commerce.” All of Britain’s mercantilist policies, from blocking imports of competitive goods and putting bounties on exportation to the treaty with Portugal and the exclusive trade policies with the colonies,... (full context)

...source of substantial government revenue. (Instead of repealing them, Britain should focus on repealing the bounty on corn export first.) Other countries heavily tax bread and meat, but meat isn’t truly... (full context)

Then, Britain adopted the mercantile system. It replaced export duties with bounties and drawbacks, while creating different import duties for different commodities. There are no duties for... (full context)

...above. By administering import taxes this way, maximizing revenues instead of protecting monopolies, and abandoning bounties and drawbacks, Britain could create a far simpler customs system without losing any revenue. Indeed,... (full context)

The Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith

Bounties Term Analysis

Bounties Quotes in The Wealth of Nations

Bounties Term Timeline in The Wealth of Nations