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Necessities—or as Smith calls them, necessaries—are goods like food, water, shelter, and clothing that people need to achieve a basic standard of living.
Necessities (Necessaries) Quotes in The Wealth of Nations
The The Wealth of Nations quotes below are all either spoken by Necessities (Necessaries) or refer to Necessities (Necessaries). 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:
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Book 1, Chapter 5
Quotes
Every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniencies, and amusements of human life. But after the division of labour has once thoroughly taken place, it is but a very small part of these with which a man’s own labour can supply him. The far greater part of them he must derive from the labour of other people, and he must be rich or poor according to the quantity of that labour which he can command, or which he can afford to purchase. The value of any commodity, therefore, to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labour which it enables him to purchase or command. Labour therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities.
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Necessities (Necessaries) Term Timeline in The Wealth of Nations
The timeline below shows where the term Necessities (Necessaries) appears in The Wealth of Nations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Chapter 5
Real prices—how much labor or a commodity is worth in terms of “the necessaries and conveniences of life”—are different from nominal (money) prices. Long-term transactions like yearslong land rentals...
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...them from China and sell them in England, regardless of how much labor and daily necessities each amount can really buy in each place. For this reason, most philosophers have focused...
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Book 1, Chapter 11
...price of superfluous goods (or luxuries) falls during times of poverty, while the price of necessities rises. And the fall in British silver prices could not have been due to Britain’s...
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Book 2, Introduction
...one or a few things each, then trade those things for their other wants and necessities. This requires a stock of goods: necessities for sustenance and supplies to carry out one’s...
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Book 4, Chapter 2
...import restrictions are justified to preserve fair competition. Some people suggest that domestic taxes on necessities (like salt, leather, and soap) raise all prices, so all imported goods should face taxes,...
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Book 5, Chapter 2
...many governments have chosen to tax their spending instead by taxing commodities. Some commodities are necessities, including food and whatever a society requires people to own in order to be treated...
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Taxes on necessities raise the price of subsistence, so wages must rise to compensate for the difference. Taxes...
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Taxing necessities makes it harder for the poor to raise more children, which reduces the supply of...
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...rents.) But they should only be taxed for their luxury expenses, and never for their necessities.
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Book 5, Chapter 3
...societies without much trade or manufacturing, wealthy people cannot buy luxuries, so they either buy necessities for others or hoard money. So does the sovereign. But in commercial societies, sovereigns and...
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