“ Even the independent workmen do not always, work for public sale, but are employed by some of their neighbours in manufactures for family use. ”
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776). copy citation
Author | Adam Smith |
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Source | The Wealth of Nations |
Topic | work family |
Date | 1776 |
Language | English |
Reference | An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations |
Note | |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3300/3300-h/3300-h.htm |
Context
“A great part of the extraordinary work, besides, which is probably done in cheap years, never enters the public registers of manufactures. The men-servants, who leave their masters, become independent labourers. The women return to their parents, and commonly spin, in order to make clothes for themselves and their families. Even the independent workmen do not always, work for public sale, but are employed by some of their neighbours in manufactures for family use. The produce of their labour, therefore, frequently makes no figure in those public registers, of which the records are sometimes published with so much parade, and from which our merchants and manufacturers would often vainly pretend to announce the prosperity or declension of the greatest empires.”
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