Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations, Bk. 2, Ch.III,Of
Accumulation of Capital, or of productive and unproductive labour

von: Nataliya Gudz

Adam Smith was a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment and tied to the French and American Enlightenments which were crucial chapters in the story of modernity. Smith′s standing and influence were established early on. The publication of "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" in 1759 quickly made him famous. Smith′s only other published book, "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (published in 1776), was similarly received and won the careful scrutiny of Bentham, Hegel, and Marx, among the others. "The Wealth of Nations" clearly influenced thinkers in the American Founding and has served as a touchstone in scholarly discussions about the workings and protection of liberal economic arrangements.

"The Wealth of Nations" has among its chief aims the just and effective pursuit of wealth. Smith′s book is undoubtedly the most famous and enduring Enlightenment contribution on this subject. The Enlightenment is closely tied to the liberation of the desire for wealth, and so to commerce and the free market which are, according to Smith, the most effective means to the satisfaction of that desire.

This desire to live better can be found earlier in Hobbes′ works. Charles L.Griswold, Jr.1 in his book "Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment" gives some quotations from Hobbes′ Leviathan and emphasises that a person is nothing without what Hobbes calls "perpetual tranquillity of mind". In other words, life is ceaselessly driven by desire, anxiety, and fear; it is eternally filled with disturbance and disquiet. Without any disturbances and misfortunes we could not possess real "felicity of mind". Reformulating Hobbes′s point about our eagerness for "continual prospering", Smith sees people as naturally inclined to "better our condition" by accumulating the goods of fortune, or external goods, as well as wealth, reputation, and power. The "desire of bettering our condition … comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us till we go into the grave". Between birth and death man is never "so perfectly and completely satisfied with his condition, as to be without any wish of alteration or improvement", and "augmentation of fortune is the means by which the great part of men propose and wish to better their condition".

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1 Charles L.Griswold, JR., Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment, Cambridge University Press,
1999, p. 219