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“Rude produce” is Smith’s term for raw materials that humans get directly from nature (such as the food we farm, animal furs, lumber, minerals, and so on).
Rude Produce Quotes in The Wealth of Nations
The The Wealth of Nations quotes below are all either spoken by Rude Produce or refer to Rude Produce. 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 11
Quotes
Upon all these accounts, therefore, we may rest assured, that equal quantities of corn will, in every state of society, in every stage of improvement, more nearly represent, or be equivalent to, equal quantities of labour, than equal quantities of any other part of the rude produce of land. Corn, accordingly, it has already been observed, is, in all the different stages of wealth and improvement, a more accurate measure of value than any other commodity or set of commodities. In all those different stages, therefore, we can judge better of the real value of silver, by comparing it with corn, than by comparing it with any other commodity or set of commodities.
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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.
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Rude Produce Term Timeline in The Wealth of Nations
The timeline below shows where the term Rude Produce appears in The Wealth of Nations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Chapter 11
...that gold and silver are decreasing in value as their quantity rises. All kinds of rude produce except grain and vegetables grow more expensive as society advances. This is not because silver...
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“Different Effects of the Progress of Improvement upon three different Sorts of rude Produce .” Rude produce can be divided into three types: things whose supply humankind can’t increase,...
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...Due to uncertainty and/or natural limits, human activity can only sometimes improve some kinds of rude produce , whose prices generally rise in line with the improvement (but not always linearly). For...
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Book 2, Chapter 5
...a nation’s annual produce. It can be used in four main ways: furnishing society with rude produce , manufacturing goods out of that rude produce, transporting produce and goods to wherever they...
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...to the nation’s annual produce than manufacturing does. Farming involves working with nature to create rude produce , and it generally yields far more value than the labor put into it. Thus,...
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Book 3, Chapter 1
The most important commerce in society is the mutually-beneficial trade between the countryside, which provides rude produce , and the town, which manufactures goods out of that rude produce and sends some...
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Book 3, Chapter 3
At first, such cities traded the rude produce from their surrounding countryside for fine manufactured goods from the rest of the world. Then,...
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Book 4, Chapter 1
...even truly require gold and silver, as countries can provision their armies directly, or export rude produce or manufactures instead of gold and silver.
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...fine manufactures, which are more valuable by weight, and which often flourish during wartime. Exporting rude produce would never be profitable enough to fund a foreign war, which is why such wars...
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Book 4, Chapter 2
...to transport, import restrictions mainly enrich manufacturers and merchants. The effect is much smaller for rude produce . For instance, massive cattle, salt, and grain imports would not bankrupt British farmers. The...
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Book 4, Chapter 5
...subsistence, nominal grain prices also regulate the nominal price of almost everything else, including labor, rude produce , and most manufactured goods. Thus, the grain bounty just makes everything more expensive. It...
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...to specialize, invest all their capital in efficient production, and sell off their goods and rude produce immediately rather than waiting for customers or even retailers. This helps explain why Britain gradually...
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Book 4, Chapter 7
...it would be far better in a “natural and free state.” The colonies primarily send rude produce to Europe and serve as a market for European manufactured goods. In Spain and Portugal,...
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Book 4, Chapter 9
...the agricultural system of political economy, which equates a country’s revenue and wealth to the rude produce generated by its land. But French philosophers have advocated the system because Louis XIV’s government...
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...overall impact on society’s annual revenue. They generate some revenue by manufacturing goods and exporting rude produce , but they withdraw the exact same amount back from the economy in the form...
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...offer better and better goods for lower and lower prices. This grows the surplus of rude produce , manufactured goods, and capital, which eventually enables nations to start exporting goods and competing...
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...raising the price of foreign goods, they correspondingly raise the real price of their land’s rude produce . Second, they give a monopoly to domestic manufacturers and merchants, whose profit rates rise....
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The exchange of rude produce from the countryside for manufactured goods from towns is still the foundation of economic growth....
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Book 5, Chapter 2
...try to specify how their land should be cultivated, or make tenants pay rent in rude produce . Tax breaks should encourage landlords to cultivate their own land, like in Venice. With...
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...proportioned, not to the Rent, but to the Produce of Land.” Proportional taxes payable in rude produce , like the church’s tithe, may look like income taxes on farmers, but they’re really...
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...have this benefit, as the church’s lands are small and dispersed. Collecting these taxes in rude produce is inconvenient and leads to fraud, so it’s better to collect them in money, depending...
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Book 5, Chapter 3
...America can afford to pay taxes in gold and silver, Britain could collect them in rude produce instead.
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