Recherches sur la nature et les causes de la richesse des nations
- Langue:
- anglais
- État:
- Œuvre complète
- Paternité:
- Écrite par l'auteur
- État du texte:
- Avec des erreurs de numérisation (mesure automatique sur tout le texte, non vérifiée à la main) · 4 passages illisibles, exclus des réponses
- Étendue:
- ~400 000 mots · 1 899 passages
Citer cette œuvre
- APAAdam Smith. (n.d.). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations [Recherches sur la nature et les causes de la richesse des nations]. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/fr/works/adam-smith/an-inquiry-into-the-nature-and-causes-of-the-wealth-of-nations
- MLAAdam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations [Recherches sur la nature et les causes de la richesse des nations]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/fr/works/adam-smith/an-inquiry-into-the-nature-and-causes-of-the-wealth-of-nations.
- ChicagoAdam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations [Recherches sur la nature et les causes de la richesse des nations]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/fr/works/adam-smith/an-inquiry-into-the-nature-and-causes-of-the-wealth-of-nations.
Référence de l'édition que reproduit SigPhi : SigPhi en est la reproduction numérique, pas l'éditeur. L'année de l'édition ne figure pas dans les métadonnées (d'où « n.d. ») et le traducteur n'apparaît que lorsqu'il est connu.
De quoi il s'agit
Un traité sur la production et la répartition de la richesse d'un pays, qui s'ouvre en expliquant pourquoi la division du travail multiplie ce qu'on peut produire.
Contexte et histoire
Smith était professeur de philosophie morale à Glasgow et y travailla plus de dix ans, dont ceux passés en France auprès des physiocrates. L'ouvrage parut en mars 1776, l'année de l'indépendance américaine. L'image de la « main invisible », qu'on lui prête comme thèse centrale, n'y figure qu'une seule fois.
Contexte éditorial, non une source citable : contrairement aux passages de l'œuvre, ces données ne peuvent pas être vérifiées dans le corpus.
one very simple object. It is naturally to be expected, therefore, that some one or other of those who are employed in each particular branch of labour should soon find out easier and readier methods of performing their own particular work, whenever the nature of it admits of such improvement. A great part of the machines made use of in those manufactures in which labour is most subdivided, were originally the invention of common workmen, who, being each of them employed in some very simple operation, naturally turned their thoughts towards finding out easier and readier methods of performing it. Whoever has been much accustomed to visit such manufactures, must frequently have been shewn very pretty machines, which were the inventions of such workmen, in order to facilitate and quicken their own particular part of the work. In the first fire engines {this was the current designation for steam engines}, a boy was constantly employed to open and shut alternately the communication between the boiler and the cylinder, according as the piston either ascended or descended. One of those boys, who loved to play with his companions, observed that, by tying a string from the handle of the valve which opened this communication to another part of the machine, the valve would open and shut without his assistance, and leave him at liberty to divert himself with his play-fellows. One of the greatest improvements that has been made upon this machine, since it was first invented, was in this manner the discovery of a boy who wanted to save his own labour. All the improvements in machinery, however, have by no means been the inventions of those who had occasion to use the machines.…