Introduction (Book II)

BOOK II.

OF THE NATURE, ACCUMULATION, AND EMPLOYMENT OF STOCK.

INTRODUCTION.

In that rude state of society, in which there is no division of labour, in
which exchanges are seldom made, and in which every man provides every thing
for himself, it is not necessary that any stock should be accumulated, or
stored up before-hand, in order to carry on the business of the society.
Every man endeavours to supply, by his own industry, his own occasional
wants, as they occur. When he is hungry, he goes to the forest to hunt ;
when his coat is worn out, he clothes himself with the skin of the first
large animal he kills : and when his hut begins to go to ruin, he repairs
it, as well as he can, with the trees and the turf that are nearest it.

But when the division of labour has once been thoroughly introduced, the
produce of a man's own labour can supply but a very small part of his
occasional wants. The far greater part of them are supplied by the produce
of other men's labour, which he purchases with the produce, or, what is the
same thing, with the price of the produce, of his own. But this purchase
cannot be made till such time as the produce of his own labour has not only
been completed, but sold. A stock of goods of different kinds, therefore,
must be stored up somewhere, sufficient to maintain him, and to supply him
with the materials and tools of his work, till such time at least as both
these events can be brought about. A weaver cannot apply himself entirely to
his peculiar business, unless there is before-hand stored up somewhere,
either in his own possession, or in that of some other person, a stock
sufficient te maintain him, and to supply him with the materials and tools
of his work, till he has not only completed, but sold his web. This
accumulation must evidently be previous to his applying his industry for so
long a time to such a peculiar business.

As the accumulation of stock must, in the nature of things, be previous to
the division of labour, so labour can be more and more subdivided in
proportion only as stock is previously more and more accumulated. The
quantity of materials which the same number of people can work up, increases
in a great proportion as labour comes to be more and more subdivided; and as
the operations of each workman are gradually reduced to a greater degree of
simplicity, a variety of new machines come to be invented for facilitating
and abridging those operations. As the division of labour advances,
therefore, in order to give constant employment to an equal number of
workmen, an equal stock of provisions, and a greater stock of materials and
tools than what would have been necessary in a ruder state of things, must
be accumulated before-hand. But the number of