WEALTH OF NATIONS. 149 



considered the labourer employed upoii land as alone pro- 

 ductive, because he alone replaces the capital and labour 

 with their ordinary profit, and adds also a net profit; he 

 alone replaces the cost of his subsistence, of the seed 

 sown by him, of the tools used by him, and of the far- 

 mer's stock or capital with a profit, and also adds a net 

 produce, the rent of the land, thus augmenting the whole 

 capital of the community ; while the retail dealer, the 

 manufacturer, and the merchant only receive from the 

 produce of the soil purchased with their goods, their 

 subsistence and the profits of their capital, but make no 

 addition to the capital of the community. Still more, 

 they reckon unproductive the labour of professional men 

 and others who do not fix and realize their skill or their 

 work in any exchangeable commodity at all. Dr. Smith 

 shows with irresistible force of reasoning and great 

 felicity of illustration, the great errors of this theory; 

 and he reckons manufacturers and traders productive 

 labourers; but then he excludes from this class all the 

 labour of professional men. Dr. Smith's arguments on 

 this subject are partly contained in this, the third chapter 

 of the second book, and partly, indeed chiefly in the 

 ninth chapter of the third book, under the head of 

 Agricultural Systems of Political Economy. I believe 

 it may now be safely affirmed, that his reasoning is 

 generally admitted to be erroneous; and that as the 

 Economists were wrong in drawing the line between 

 productive and unproductive labour, so as to exclude 

 that of traders and manufacturers, he is equally wrong 

 in so drawing it as to exclude that of professional men. 

 It is now generally admitted that the defence, the police, 



