AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF
THE WEALTH OF NATIONS
BOOK II
Of the Nature, Accumulation, and Employment of Stock
(Continued)
CHAPTER III
Of the Accumulation of Capital, or of Productive and Unproductive Labor
THERE is one sort of labor which adds to the value of the subject upon which it is bestowed: there is another which has no such effect. The former, as it produces a value, may be called productive; the latter, unproductive labor.[1] Thus the labor of a manufacturer adds, generally, to the value of the materials which he works upon, that of his own maintenance, and of his master's profit. The labor of a menial servant, on the contrary, adds to the value of nothing. Though the manufacturer has his wages advanced to him by his master, he, in reality, costs him no expense, the value of those wages being generally restored, together with a profit, in the improved value of the subject upon which his labor is
bestowed. But the maintenance of a menial servant never
- ↑ Some French authors of great learning and ingenuity have used those words in a different sense. In the last chapter of the fourth book, I shall endeavor to show that their sense is an improper one.
