Of the extraordinary Restraints upon the Im- portation of Goods of almost all Kinds, from thofe Countries with which the Ba- lance is fuppofed to be difadvantageous PART I. Of the Unreasonableness of thofe Restraints even upon the Principles of the Commercial Syftem Digreffion concerning Banks of Depofit, parti- cularly concerning that of Amfterdam PART II. Of the Unreasonableness of those ibid. AN IN Q ΙΝΤΟ THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. BOOK II. CHA P. III. Of the Accumulation of Capital, or of productive and THE unproductive Labour. HERE is one fort of labour which BOOK adds to the value of the fubject upon c HAP. which it is bestowed: there is another which has no fuch effect. The former, as it produces a value, may be called productive; the latter, unproductive * labour. Thus the labour of a manufacturer adds, generally, to the value of the materials which he works upon, that of his own * Some French authors of great learning and ingenuity have used thofe words in a different fenfe. In the last chapter of the fourth book, I fhall endeavour to show that their fenfe is an improper one. VOL. II. II. 11. II. BOOK maintenance, and of his mafter's profit. The labour of a menial fervant, on the contrary, adds to the value of nothing. Though the manufacturer has his wages advanced to him by his master, he, in reality, cofts him no expence, the value of those wages being generally restored, together with a profit, in the improved value of the subject upon which his labour is beftowed. But the maintenance of a menial fervant never is restored. A man grows rich by employing a multitude of manufacturers: he grows poor, by maintaining a multitude of menial fervants. The labour of the latter, however, has its value, and deferves its reward as well as that of the former. But the labour of the manufacturer fixes and realizes itself in fome particular fubject or vendible commodity, which lafts for fome time at least after that labour is paft. It is, as it were, a certain quantity of labour stocked and stored up to be employed, if neceffary, upon fome other occafion. That subject, or what is the same thing, the price of that fubject, can afterwards, if neceffary, put into motion a quantity of labour equal to that which had originally produced it. The labour of the menial fervant, on the contrary, does not fix or realize itself in any particular fubject or vendible commodity. His fervices generally perish in the very instant of their performance, and seldom leave any trace or value behind them, for which an equal quantity of fervice could afterwards be procured. THE labour of fome of the most respectable orders in the fociety is, like that of menial fer |