270 ADAM SMITH. 



followers of Quesnay. It is the opinion of these ingenious 

 metaphysicians that the labour bestowed upon the earth 

 can alone be considered as really productive ; that all other 

 labour only varies the position or the form of capital, 

 but that agriculture increases its net amount. That the 

 merchant who transports goods from the spot of their abun- 

 dance to the quarter where they are wanted adds nothing 

 to the whole stock or to the value of the portions which he 

 circulates, these reasoners deem almost a self-evident propo- 

 sition. That the manufacturer who fashions raw materials 

 into useful commodities increases their value, the Econo- 

 mists indeed admit, but they deny that any further addi- 

 tion is thus made to the value of the materials than the 

 value of the workman's maintenance while employed in the 

 manufacture. 



It seems obvious, at first sight, to remark, that, according 

 to their own principles, these theorists have committed one 

 error. They have ranged all labour, except that of the 

 husbandman, in the same class ; while they have virtually 

 acknowledged that as great a difference subsists between the 

 two members of that division, as between either of them 

 and the other division. For surely, the merchant, who 

 adds, according to them, no value to any material, is as much 

 to be distinguished from the manufacturer who does add the 

 value of his maintenance to the raw produce, as the manu- 

 facturer is to be distinguished from the husbandman, whose 

 labour returns a net profit over and above the price of his 

 maintenance. This criticism is almost decisive, in a dis- 

 cussion which, it must be admitted on all hands, resolves 

 into a question of classification. But the error of the 

 Economists is still more fundamental. 



There is no essential difference between the powers of 

 man over matter, in agriculture, and in other employments, 

 It is a vulgar error to suppose that, in the operations of 

 husbandry, any portion is added to the stock of matter for- 

 merly in existence. The farmer works up the raw material, 

 t. e., the manure, soil, and seed, into grain, by means of 

 heat, moisture, and the vegetative powers of nature, in 

 whatever these may consist. The manufacturer works up 

 his raw material by means of certain other powers of nature. 

 Dr. Smith, however, who states the doctrine of the Econo- 



