![]() The rich only select from the heap what is most precious and agreeable. ![]() The produce of the soil maintains at all times nearly that number of inhabitants which it is capable of maintaining. įrom The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. ![]() Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. First published 1776.īut the annual revenue of every society is always precisely equal to the exchangeable value of the whole annual produce of its industry, or rather is precisely the same thing with that exchangeable value. Have you ever wondered what an invisible hand looks like?įrom An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chap. As told by the pencil itself.ĪdamSmithWorks Comics: The Invisible Hand, at the Speaking of Smith blog, May 2, 2023. Charming illustration of the workings of the invisible hand to guide the market and coordinate the division of labor in producing even the simplest of objects-a pencil.
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