　　亚当·斯密（1723—1790），被誉为“现代经济学之父”。1723年出生在苏格兰的柯科迪，青年时就读于牛津大学，1751年至1764年在格斯哥大学担任哲学教授。在此期间，斯密发表了他的*一部著作《道德情操论》，确立了他在知识界的威望。但是，他的不朽名声则得自于1776年出版的伟大著作《国民财富的性质和原因的研究》（简称《国富论》）。这部著作使其在余生中享受着无尽的荣誉和爱戴，并延续至今。

精彩书评

　　　　回到经济学的基本问题，让我们重读亚当·斯密，不要再相信凯恩斯主义的那些政策。　　——张维迎

　　虽然斯密也劝说放任自由，但他的论证却更多地是反对政府干预和反对垄断；虽然他赞扬贪欲的结果，却又几乎总是鄙视商人的行为和策略。他也不认为商业制度本身是完*值得赞美的。　　——谢宗林

　　这本书需要人们聚精会神地去读才能读进去，而目前很少有人能坐下来专心读书，因而本书*初也许不会受到非常热烈的欢迎。　　——大卫·休谟

精彩书摘

　　The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes, and which consists always, either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations.　　According therefore, as this produce, or what is purchased with it, bears a greater or smaller proportion to the number of those who are to consume it, the nation will be better or worse supplied with all the necessaries and conveniences for which it has occasion.　　But this proportion must in every nation be regulated by two different circumstances; first, by the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which its labour is generally applied; and , secondly, by the proportion between the number of those who are employed in useful labour, and that of those who are not so employed. Whatever be soil, climate , or extent of territory of any particular nation, the abundance or scantiness of its annual supply must, in that particular situation, depend upon those two circumstances.　　The abundance or scantiness of this supply too seems to depend more upon the former of those two circumstances than upon the latter. Among the savage nations of hunters and fishers,* every individual who is able to work, is more or less employed in useful labour, and endeavours to provide, as well as he can, the necessaries and conveniencies of life, for himself, or such of his family or tribe as are either too old, or too young, or too infirm to go a hunting and fishing, Such nations, however, are so miserably poor, that, from mere want, they are frequently reduced, or, at least, think themselves reduced, to the necessity sometimes of directly destroying, and sometimes of abandoning their infants, their old people, and those afflicted with lingering diseases, to perish with hunger, or to be devoured by wild beats. Among civilized and thriving nations, on the contrary, though a great number of people do not labour at all, many of whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently of a hundred times more labour than the greater part of those who work; yet the produce of the whole labour of the society is so great, that all are often abundantly supplied, and a workman, even of the lowest and poorest order, if he is frugal and industrious may enjoy a greater share of the necessaries and conveniences of life than it is possible for any savage to acquire.　　The causes of this improvement, in the productive powers of labour, and the order, according to which its produce is naturally distributed among the different ranks and conditions of men in the society, make the subject of the First Book of this Inquiry.　　Whatever be the actual state of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which labour is applied in any nation, the abundance or scantiness of its annual supply must depend, during the continuance of that state, upon the proportion between the number of those who are annually employed. The number of useful and productive labourers, it will hereafter appear, is every where in proportion to the quantity of capital stock which is employed in setting them to work, and to the particular way in which it is so employed. The Second Book, therefore, treats of the nature of capital stock, of the manner in which it is gradually accumulated, and of the different quantities of labour which it puts into motion, according to the different ways in which it is employed.　　Nations tolerably well advanced as to skill, dexterity, and judgment, in the application of labour, have followed very different plans in the general conduct or direction of it; and those plans have not all been equally favourable to the greatness of its produce. The policy of some nations has given extraordinary encouragement to industry of country; that of others to the industry of towns. Scarce any nation has dealt equally and impartially with every sort of industry. Since the downfall of the Roman empire, the policy o Europe has been more favourable to arts, manufactures, and commerce, the industry of towns; than to agriculture, the industry of the country. The circumstances which seem to have introduced and established this policy are explained in the Third Book.　　Though those different plans were, perhaps, first introduced by the private interests and prejudices of particular orders of men, without any regard to, or foresight of, their consequences upon the general welfare of the society; yet they have given occasion to very different theories o political oeconomy;* of which some magnify the importance of that industry which is carried on in towns, others of that which is carried on in the country, Those theories have had a considerable influence, not only upon the opinions of men of learning, but upon the public conduct of princes and sovereign states. I have endeavoured, in the Fourth Book, to explain, as fully and distinctly as I can, those different, and the principal effects which they have produced in different ages and nations.　　To explain in what has consisted the revenue of the great body of the people, or what has been the nature of those funds which, in different ages and nations, have supplied their annual consumption, is the object of these Four first Books. The Fifth and last Book treats of the revenue of the sovereign, or commonwealth. In this Book I have endeavoures to show; first, what are the necessary expences of the sovereign, or commonwealth; which of those expences ought to be defrayed by the general contribution of the whole society; and which of them, by that of some particular part only, or of some particular members of it; secondly, what are the different methods in which the whole society, and what are the principal advantages and inconveniencies of each of those methods: and, thirdly and lastly, what are the reasons and causes which have induced almost all modern governments to mortgage some part of this revenue, or to contract debts, and what have been the effects of those debts upon thereal wealth, the annual produce of the land and labour of the society.　　BOOK I　　Of the Causes of Improvement in the　　productive Powers of Labour, and of the Order　　according to which its Produce is naturally　　distributed among the different Ranks of the　　People　　CHAPTER I　　Pf the Division of Labour　　THE greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.*　　The effects of the division of labour, in the general business of society, will be more easily understood, by considering in what manner it operates in some particular manufactures. It is commonly supposed to be carried furthest in some very trifling ones; not perhaps that it really is carried further in them than in others of more importance: but in those trifling manufactures which are destined to supply the small wants of but a small number of people, the whole number of workmen must necessarily be small; and those employed in every different branch of the work can often be collected into the same workhouse, and placed at once under the view of the spectator. In those great manufactures, on the contrary, which are destined to supply the great wants of the great body of the people, every different branch of the work employs so great a number of workmen, that it is impossible to collect them all into the same workhouse. We can seldom see more, at one time, than those employed in one single brance.　　……

前言/序言

　　Who owns the Wealth of Nations? Since the early nineteenth century Smith has been the patron saint of homo economicus. Victorian liberal economists invoked his work to justify the pursuit of individual self-interest in a free market. The political and economic trends of the more recent past—the drive to privatization, the concentration on the profit motive as the key to market effectiveness and economic co-ordination—in Thatcherite Britain and Reaganite North Americ 牛津英文经典：国富论（英文版） [An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations] 下载 mobi epub pdf txt 电子书格式