BOOK II.

OF THE NATURE, ACCUMULATION, AND EMPLOYMENT OF STOCK.

INTRODUCTION.

IN that rude state of fociety in which there is no divifion of labour, in which exchanges are feldom made, and in which every man provides every thing for himfelf, it is not necessary that any ftock mould be accumulated or stored up beforehand, in order to carry on the bufinefs of the fociety. Every man endeavours to fupply by his own industry his own occafional wants as they occur. When he is hungry, he goes to the forest to hunt; when his coat is worn out, he clothes himfelf with the fkin of the first large animal he kills; and when his hut begins to go to ruin, he repairs it, as well as he can, with the trees and the turf that are neareft it.

But when the divifion of labour has once been thoroughly introduced, the produce of a man's own labour can fupply but a. very fmall part of his occafional wants. The far greater part of them are fupplied by the produce of other men's labour, which he purchafes with the produce, or, what is the fame thing, with the price of the produce of his own. But this purchafe D D 4 cannot

BOOK cannot be made till fuch time as the produce of his own labour has not only been completed, but fold. A stock of goods of different kinds, therefore, must be stored up fomewhere fufficient to maintain him, and to fupply him with the materials and tools of his work, till fuch time, at leaft, as both thefe events can be brought about. A weaver cannot apply himfelf entirely to his peculiar bufinefs, unlefs there is beforehand stored up fomewhere, either in his own pofTeffion or in that of fome other perfon, a stock sufficient to maintain him, and to fupply him with the materials and tools of his work, till he has not only completed, but Ibid his web. This accumulation must, evidently, be previous to his applying his industry for fo long a time to fuch a peculiar bufinefs.

As the accumulation of stock must, in the nature of things, be previous to the divifion of labour, fo labour can be more and more fubdivided in proportion only as ftock is previoufly more and more accumulated. The quantity of materials which the fame number of people can work up, increafes in a great proportion as Jabour comes to be more and more fubdivided; and as the operations of each workman are gradually reduced to a greater degree of fimplicity, a variety of new machines come to be invented for facilitating and abridging thofe operations. As the division of labour advances, therefore, in order to give conftant employment to an equal number of workmen, an equal Rock of provifions, and a greater flock of materials and tools

than