国民财富的性质和原因的研究（一）

一国国民每年的劳动，本来就是供给他们每年消费的一切生活必需品和便利品的源泉。构成这种必需品和便利品的，或是本国劳动
 的直接产物，或是用这类产物从外国购进来的物品。
　　这类产物或用这类产物从外国购进来的物品，对消费者人数，或是有着大的比例，或是有着小的比例，所以一国国民所需要的
一切必需品和便利品供给情况的好坏，视这一比例的大小而定。
　　但无论就哪一国国民说，这一比例都要受下述两种情况的支配：第一，一般地说，这一国国民运用劳动，是怎样熟练，怎样
技巧，怎样有判断力；第二，从事有用劳动的人数和不从事有用劳动的人数，究成什么比例。不论一国土壤、气候和面积是怎样，
它的国民每年供给的好坏，必然取决于这两种情况。
　　此外，上述供给的好坏，取决于前一情况的，似乎较多。在未开化的渔猎民族间，一切能够劳作的人都或多或少地从事有用
劳动，尽可能以各种生活必需品和便利品，供给他自己和家内族内因老幼病弱而不能渔猎的人。不过，他们是那么贫乏，以致往
往仅因为贫乏的缘故，迫不得已，或至少觉得迫不得已，要杀害老幼以及长期患病的亲人；或遗弃这些人，听其饿死或被野兽吞
食。反之，在文明繁荣的民族间，虽有许多人全然不从事劳动，而且他们所消费的劳动生产物，往往比大多数劳动者所消费的要
多过十倍乃至百倍。但由于社会全部劳动生产物非常之多，往往一切人都有充足的供给，就连最下等最贫穷的劳动者，只要勤勉
节俭，也比野蛮人享受更多的生活必需品和便利品。
　　劳动生产力的这种改良的原因，究竟在那里，劳动的生产物，按照什么顺序自然而然地分配给社会上各阶级？这就是本书
第一篇的主题。
　　在劳动运用上已有相当程度的熟练、技巧和判断力的不同国民，对于劳动的一般管理或指导，曾采取极不相同的计划。
这些计划，并不同等地有利于一国生产物的增加。有些国家的政策，特别鼓励农村的产业；另一些国家的政策，却特别鼓励
城市的产业。对于各种产业，不偏不倚地使其平均发展的国家，怕还没有。自罗马帝国崩溃以来，欧洲各国的政策，都比较不
利于农村的产业，即农业，而比较有利于城市的产业，即工艺、制造业和商业。本书第三篇将说明，什么情况使人们采用和规定
这种政策。这些计划的实行，最初也许是起因于特殊阶级的利益与偏见，对于这些计划将如何影响社会全体的福利，他们不曾具
有远见，亦不曾加以考虑。可是，这些计划却引起了极不相同的经济学说。有的人认为城市产业重要；有的人又力说农村产业重
要。这些不相同的学说，不仅对学者们的意见产生了相当大的影响，而且君王和国家的政策亦为它们所左右。我将尽我所能，在
本书第四篇详细明确地解释这些不同学说，并说明它们在各时代和各国中所产生的重要影响。
　　要之，本书前四篇的目的，在于说明广大人民的收入是怎样构成的，并说明供应各时代各国民每年消费的资源，究竟有什么
性质。第五篇即最后一篇所讨论的，是君主或国家的收入。在这一篇里，我要努力说明以下各点：第一，什么是君主或国家的必
要费用，其中，哪些部分应该出自由全社会负担的赋税，哪些部分应该出自社会某特殊阶级或成员负担的特殊赋税。第二，来自全
社会所有纳税人的经费是怎样募集的，而各种募集方法大抵有什么利弊。第三，什么使几乎所有近代各国政府都把收入的一部分
，作为担保来举债，而这种债务，对于真实财富，换言之，对于社会的土地和劳动的年产物，有什么影响。

INTRODUCTION AND PLAN OF THE WORK

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 consist 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 the
 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
conveniences 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 beasts. Among civilised 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 in useful labour, and that of those who are
not so employed. The number of useful and productive labourers, it will hereafter appear, is everywhere 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; those plans have not all been equally favourable
to the greatness of its produce. The policy of some nations has given extraordinary encouragement to the industry
of the 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 of 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 of political economy; 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 theories, 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
endeavoured to show, first, what are the necessary expenses of the sovereign, or commonwealth; which of those
expenses 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 may be made to contribute towards defraying the expenses incumbent on the whole society, and what
 are the principal advantages and inconveniences 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 the real wealth, the annual produce of the land
and labour of the society.