The Wealth Of Nations

In this episode of the, I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep learning about the wealth of nations. Yep, pretty boring stuff here. Reading this was almost like reading an old contract in a Marx Brothers movie, "...the party of the first part".
Happy listening!

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,

Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster.

Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,

The Wealth of Nations.

An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations generally referred to by its shortened title,

The Wealth of Nations,

Is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith.

First published in 1776,

The book offers one of the world's first collected descriptions of what builds nations' wealth and is today a fundamental work in classical economics.

By reflecting upon the economics at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution,

The book touches upon such broad topics as the division of labor,

Productivity,

And free markets.

III The Wealth of Nations was published in two volumes on the 9th of March 1776,

With books 1 through 3 included in the first volume and books 4 and 5 included in the second,

During the Scottish Enlightenment and the Scottish Agricultural Revolution.

It influenced several authors and economists such as Karl Marx,

As well as governments and organizations setting the terms for economic debate and discussion for the next century and a half.

For example,

Alexander Hamilton was influenced in part by The Wealth of Nations to write his report on manufacturers,

In which he argued against many of Smith's policies.

Hamilton based much of this report on the ideas of Jean-Baptiste Colbert,

And it was in part Colbert's ideas that Smith responded to and criticized with The Wealth of Nations.

The Wealth of Nations was the product of 17 years of notes and earlier studies,

As well as an observation of conversation among economists of the time,

Like Nicholas Megans,

Concerning economic and societal conditions during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution,

And it took Smith some ten years to produce.

The result was a treatise which sought to offer a practical application for a formed economic theory,

To replace the mercantilist and physiocratic economic theories that were becoming less relevant in the time of industrial progress and innovation.

It provided the foundation for economists,

Politicians,

Mathematicians,

And thinkers of all fields to build upon.

Irrespective of historical influence,

The Wealth of Nations represented a clear paradigm shift in the field of economics,

Comparable to what Immanuel Kant's critique of pure reason was for philosophy.

Five editions of The Wealth of Nations were published during Smith's lifetime,

In 1776,

1778,

1784,

1786,

And 1789.

Numerous editions appeared after Smith's death in 1790.

To better understand the evolution of the work under Smith's hand,

A team led by Edwin Cannon collated the first five editions.

The differences were published along with an edited sixth edition in 1904.

They found minor but numerous differences,

Including the addition of many footnotes between the first and the second editions.

The differences between the second and third editions are major.

In 1784,

Smith annexed these first two editions with the publication of Additions and Corrections to the First and Second Editions of Dr.

Adam Smith's Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,

And he also had published the three-volume third edition of The Wealth of Nations,

Which incorporated Additions and Corrections,

And for the first time an index.

Among other things,

The Additions and Corrections included entirely new sections,

Particularly to Book 4,

Chapters 4 and 5,

And to Book 5,

Chapter 1,

As well as an additional chapter,

8.

Conclusion of the mercantile system in Book 4.

The fourth edition,

Published in 1786,

Had only slight differences from the third edition,

And Smith himself says in the advertisement at the beginning of the book,

I have made no alterations of any kind.

Finally,

Cannon notes only trivial differences between the fourth and fifth editions,

A set of misprints being removed from the fourth and a different set of misprints being introduced.

Synopsis.

Book 1 of the Causes of Improvement in the Productive Powers of Labor.

Of the Division of Labor.

Division of labor has caused a greater increase in production than any other factor.

This diversification is greatest for nations with more industry and improvement,

And is responsible for universal opulence in those countries.

This is in part due to increased quality of production,

But more importantly because of increased efficiency of production,

Leading to a higher nominal output of units produced per time unit.

Agriculture is less amenable than manufacturing to division of labor.

Hence,

Rich nations are not so far ahead of poor nations in agriculture as in manufacturing.

Of the Principle which gives occasion to the division of labor.

Division of labor arises not from innate wisdom,

But from human's propensity to barter.

That the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market.

Limited opportunity for exchange discourages division of labor.

Because water carriage,

I.

E.

Transportation,

Extends the market,

Division of labor,

With its improvements,

Comes earliest to cities near waterways.

Civilization began around the highly navigable Mediterranean Sea.

Of the Origin and Use of Money.

This division of labor,

The produce of one's own labor,

Can fill only a small part of one's needs.

Different commodities have served as common medium of exchange,

But all nations have finally settled on metals which are durable and divisible for this purpose.

Before coinage,

People had to weigh and assay with each exchange or risk the grossest frauds and impositions.

Thus,

Nations began stamping metal on one side only to ascertain purity,

Or on all sides to stipulate purity and amount.

The quantity of real metal in coins has diminished due to the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states,

Enabling them to pay their debts in appearance only and to the defraudment of creditors.

Of the Wages of Labor.

In this section,

Smith describes how the wages of labor are dictated primarily by the competition among laborers and masters.

When laborers bid against one another for limited opportunities for employment,

The wages of labor collectively fall.

Whereas,

When employers compete against one another for limited supplies of labor,

The wages of labor collectively rise.

However,

This process of competition is often circumvented by combinations among laborers and among masters.

When laborers combine and no longer bid against one another,

Their wages rise.

Whereas,

When masters combine,

Wages fall.

In Smith's day,

Organized labor was dealt with very harshly by the law.

Smith himself wrote about the severity of such laws against worker actions,

And made a point to contrast the clamor of the masters against workers' associations,

While associations and collusions of the masters are never heard by the people,

Though such actions are always and everywhere taking place.

We rarely hear,

It has been said,

Of the combinations of masters,

Though frequently of those of workmen.

But whoever imagines upon this account that masters rarely combine is as ignorant of the world as of the subject.

Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit but constant and uniform combination,

Not to raise the wages of labor above their actual rate.

Masters too sometimes enter into particular combinations to sink the wages of labor even below this rate.

These are always conducted with the utmost silence and secrecy till the moment of execution,

And when the workmen yield,

As they sometimes do without resistance,

Though severely felt by them,

They are never heard of by other people.

In contrast,

When workers combine,

The masters never cease to call aloud for the assistance of the civil magistrate,

And the rigorous execution of those laws which have been enacted with so much severity against the combination of servants,

Laborers,

And journeymen.

In societies where the amount of labor exceeds the amount of revenue available for waged labor,

Competition among workers is greater than the competition among employers and wages fall.

Conversely,

Where revenue is abundant,

Labor wages rise.

Smith argues that therefore labor wages only rise as a result of greater revenue disposed to pay for labor.

Smith thought labor the same as any other commodity in this respect.

The demands for men like that for any other commodity necessarily regulates the production of men,

Quickens it when it goes on too slowly,

And stops it when it advances too fast.

It is this demand which regulates and determines the state of propagation in all the different countries of the world,

In North America,

In Europe,

And in China,

Which renders it rapidly progressive in the first,

Slow,

And gradual in the second,

And altogether stationary in the last.

However,

The amount of revenue must increase constantly in proportion to the amount of labor for wages to remain high.

Smith illustrates this by juxtaposing England with the North American colonies.

In England there is more revenue than in the colonies,

But wages are lower because more workers flock to new employment opportunities caused by the large amount of revenue,

So workers eventually compete against each other as much as they did before.

By contrast,

As capital continues to flow to the colonial economies at least at the same rate that population increases to fill out this excess capital,

Wages there stay higher than in England.

Smith was highly concerned about the problems of poverty.

He writes,

Poverty,

Though it does not prevent the generation,

Is extremely unfavorable to the rearing of children.

It is not uncommon in the Highlands of Scotland for a mother who has born twenty children not to have two alive.

In some places one-half the children born die before they are four years of age,

In many places before they are seven,

And in almost all places before they are nine or ten.

This great mortality,

However,

Will everywhere be found chiefly among the children of the common people,

Who cannot afford to tend them with the same care as those of better station.

The only way to determine whether a man is rich or poor is to examine the amount of labor he can afford to purchase.

Labor is the real exchange for commodities.

Smith also describes the relation of cheap years and the production of manufacturers versus the production in deer years.

He argues that while some examples such as the linen production in France show a correlation,

Another example in Scotland shows the opposite.

He concludes that there are too many variables to make any statement about this.

Of the Profits of Stock In this chapter,

Smith uses interest rates as an indicator of the profits of stock.

This is because interest can only be paid with the profits of stock,

And so creditors will be able to raise rates in proportion to the increase or decrease of the profits of their debtors.

Smith argues that the profits of stock are inversely proportional to the wages of labor,

Because as more money is spent compensating labor,

There is less remaining for personal profit.

It follows that in societies where competition among laborers is greatest relative to competition among employers,

Profits will be much higher.

Smith illustrates this by comparing interest rates in England and Scotland.

In England,

Government laws against usury had kept maximum interest rates very low,

But even the maximum rate was believed to be higher than the rate at which money was usually loaned.

In Scotland,

However,

Interest rates are much higher.

This is the result of a greater proportion of capitalists in England,

Which offsets some competition among laborers and raises wages.

However,

Smith notes that,

Curiously,

Interest rates in the colonies are also remarkably high.

Recall that in the previous chapter,

Smith described how wages in the colonies are higher than in England.

Smith attributes this to the fact that when an empire takes control of a colony,

Prices for a huge abundance of land and resources are extremely cheap.

This allows capitalists to increase their profits,

But simultaneously draws many capitalists to the colonies,

Increasing the wages of labor.

As this is done,

However,

The profits of stock in the mother country rise,

Or at least cease to fall,

As much of it has already flocked offshore.

Of Wages and Profit in the Different Employments of Labor and Stock Smith repeatedly attacks groups of politically aligned individuals who attempt to use their collective influence to manipulate the government into doing their bidding.

At the time,

These were referred to as factions,

But are now more commonly called special interests,

A term that can comprise international bankers,

Corporate conglomerations,

Outright oligopolies,

Trade unions,

And other groups.

Indeed,

Smith had a particular distrust of the tradesman class.

He felt that the members of this class,

Especially acting together within the guilds they want to form,

Could constitute a power block and manipulate the state into regulating for special interests against the general interest.

People of the same trade seldom meet together,

Even for merriment and diversion,

But the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public,

Or in some contrivance to raise prices.

It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings by any law which either could be executed or would be consistent with liberty and justice.

But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together,

It ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies,

Much less to render them necessary.

Smith also argues against government subsidies of certain trades,

Because this will draw many more people to the trade than what would otherwise be normal,

Collectively lowering their wages.

Of the Rent of the Land Chapter 10 Part 2 motivates an understanding of the idea of feudalism.

Rent considered as the price paid for the use of land is naturally the highest the tenant can afford in the actual circumstances of the land.

In adjusting lease terms,

The landlord endeavours to leave him no greater share of the produce than what is sufficient to keep up the stock from which he furnishes the seed,

Pays the labour,

And purchases and maintains the cattle and other instruments of husbandry,

Together with the ordinary profits of farming stock in the neighbourhood.

This is evidently the smallest share with which the tenant can connect himself without being a loser and the landlord seldom means to leave him any more.

Whatever part of the produce,

Or what is the same thing,

Whatever part of its price,

Is over and above this share,

He naturally endeavours to reserve to himself as the rent of this land,

Which is evidently the highest the tenant can afford to pay in the actual circumstances of the land.

Sometimes indeed the liberality more frequently the ignorance of the landlord makes him accept of somewhat less than this portion,

And sometimes too though more rarely the ignorance of the tenant makes him undertake to pay somewhat more,

Or to content himself with somewhat less than the ordinary profits of farming stock in the neighbourhood.

This portion however may still be considered as the natural rent of land,

Or the rent for which it is naturally meant that land should be,

For the most part,

Be let.

Book Two of The Nature,

Accumulation and Employment of Stock Of The Division of Stock When the stock which a man possesses is no more than sufficient to maintain him for a few days or a few weeks,

He seldom thinks of deriving any revenue from it.

He consumes it as sparingly as he can,

And endeavours by his labour to acquire something which may supply its place before it be consumed altogether.

His revenue is,

In this case,

Derived from his labour only.

This is the state of the greater part of the labouring poor in all countries.

But when he possesses stock sufficient to maintain him for months or years,

He naturally endeavours to derive a revenue from the greater part of it,

Reserving only so much for his immediate consumption as may maintain him till this revenue begins to come in.

His whole stock therefore is distinguished in two parts.

That part which he expects to afford him this revenue is called his capital.

Of money considered as a part-branch of the general stock of the society.

From references of the first book that the price of the greater part of commodities resolves itself into three parts,

Of which one pays the wages of the labour,

Another the profits of the stock,

And a third the rent of the land which had been employed in producing and bringing them to the market.

That there are indeed some commodities of which the price is made up of two of those parts only,

The wages of labour and the profits of stock,

And a very few in which it consists altogether in one,

The wages of labour.

But that the price of every commodity necessarily resolves itself into some one or other,

Or all of these three parts,

Every part of it which goes neither to rent nor to wages,

Being necessarily profit to somebody.

Of the accumulation of capital,

Or of productive and unproductive labour.

One sort of labour 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 labour.

Thus the labour 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 labour of a menial servant,

On the contrary,

Adds to the value of nothing.

Of stock lent at interest.

The stock which is lent at interest is always considered as a capital by the lender.

He expects that in due time it is to be restored to him,

And that in the meantime the borrower is to pay him a certain annual rent for the use of it.

The borrower may use it either as a capital or as a stock reserved for immediate consumption.

If he uses it as a capital,

He employs it in the maintenance of productive labourers,

Who reproduce the value with the profit.

He can in this case both restore the capital and pay the interest without alienating or encroaching upon any other source of revenue.

If he uses it as a stock reserved for immediate consumption,

He acts the part of a prodigal,

And dissipates in the maintenance of the idle what was destined for the support of the industrious.

He can in this case neither restore the capital nor pay the interest without either alienating or encroaching upon some other source of revenue,

Such as the property or the rent of the land.

The stock,

Which is lent at interest,

Is no doubt occasionally employed in both these ways,

But in the former much more frequently than in the latter.

Of the Different Employment of Capital A capital may be employed in four different ways,

Either first in procuring the rude produce annually required for the use and consumption of the society,

Or secondly in manufacturing and preparing that rude produce for immediate use and consumption,

Or thirdly in transporting either the rude or manufactured produce from the places where they abound to those where they are wanted,

Or lastly in dividing particular portions of either into such small parcels as suit the occasional demands of those who want them.

Book Three of the Different Progress of Opulence in Different Nations Long-Term Economic Growth Adam Smith uses this example to address long-term economic growth.

Smith states,

As subsistence is in the nature of things prior to convenience and luxury,

So the industry which procures the former must necessarily be prior to that which ministers to the latter.

In order for industrial success,

Subsistence is required first from the countryside.

Industry and trade occur in cities while agriculture occurs in the countryside.

Agricultural Jobs Agricultural work is a more desirable situation than industrial work because the owner is in complete control.

Smith states that,

In our North American colonies where uncultivated land is still to be had upon easy terms,

No manufacturers for distant sale have ever yet been established in any of their towns.

When an artificer has acquired a little more stock than is necessary for carrying on his own business and supplying the neighboring country,

He does not in North America attempt to establish with it a manufacturer for more distant sale,

But employs it in the purchase and improvement of cultivated land.

From artificer he becomes planter,

And neither the large wages nor the easy subsistence which that country affords to the artificer can bribe him rather to work for other people than for himself.

He feels that an artificer is the servant of his circumstances from whom he derives his subsistence,

But that a planter who cultivates his own land and derives his necessary subsistence from the labor of his own family is really a master and independent of all the world.

Where there is open countryside agriculture is much preferable to industrial occupations and ownership.

Adam Smith goes on to say,

According to the natural course of things,

Therefore,

The greater part of the capital of every growing society is first directed to agriculture,

Afterwards to manufacturers,

And last of all to foreign commerce.

This sequence leads to growth and therefore opulence.

The great commerce of every civilized society is that carried on between the inhabitants of the town and those of the country.

It consists in the exchange of crude for manufactured produce either immediately or by the intervention of money,

Or of some sort of paper which represents money.

The country supplies the town with the means of subsistence and the materials of manufacture.

The town repays this supply by sending back a part of the manufactured produce to the inhabitants of the country.

The town in which there neither is nor can be any reproduction of substances may very properly be said to gain its whole wealth and subsistence from the country.

We must not,

However,

Upon this account,

Imagine that the gain of the town is the loss of the country.

The gains of both are mutual and reciprocal,

And the division of labor is in this,

As in all other cases,

Advantageous to all the different persons employed in the various occupations into which it is subdivided.

Of the Discouragement of Agriculture Chapter II's long title is Of the Discouragement of Agriculture in the Ancient State of Europe after the Fall of the Roman Empire.

When the German and Scythian nations overran the western provinces of the Roman Empire,

The confusions which followed so great a revolution lasted for several centuries.

The rapin and violence which the barbarians exercised against the ancient inhabitants interrupted the commerce between the towns and the country.

The towns were deserted and the country was left uncultivated,

And the western provinces of Europe which had enjoyed a considerable degree of opulence under the Roman Empire sunk into the lowest state of poverty and barbarism.

During the continuance of those confusions,

The chiefs and principal leaders of those nations acquired or usurped to themselves their greater part of the lands of those countries.

A great part of them was uncultivated,

But no part of them,

Whether cultivated or uncultivated,

Was left without a proprietor.

All of them were engrossed and the greater part by a few great proprietors.

This original engrossing of uncultivated lands,

Though great,

Might have been but a transitory evil.

They might soon have been divided again and broken to small parcels either by succession or by alienation.

The law of primogeniture hindered them from being divided by succession.

The introduction of entails prevented their being broke into smaller parcels by alienation.

Of the rise and progress of cities and towns after the fall of the Roman Empire.

The inhabitants of cities and towns were,

After the fall of the Roman Empire,

Not more favored than those of the country.

They consisted indeed of a very different order of people from the first inhabitants of the ancient republics of Greece and Italy.

These last were composed chiefly of the proprietors of lands,

Among whom the public territory was originally divided,

And who found it convenient to build their houses in the neighborhood of one another and to surround them with a wall for the sake of common defense.

After the fall of the Roman Empire,

On the contrary,

The proprietors of the lands seemed generally to have lived in fortified castles on their own estates and in the midst of their own tenants and dependents.

The towns were chiefly inhabited by tradesmen and mechanics,

Who seem in those days to have been of servile,

Or very nearly of servile condition.

The privileges which we find granted by ancient charters to the inhabitants of some of the principal towns in Europe sufficiently show what they were before those grants.

The people to whom it is granted as a privilege that they might give away their own daughters in marriage without the consent of their Lord,

That upon their death their own children and not their Lord should succeed to their goods,

And that they might dispose of their own effects by will,

Must before those grants have been either altogether or very nearly in the same state of villainage and the occupiers of land in the country.

How the commerce of the towns contributed to the improvement of the country.

Smith often harshly criticized those who act purely out of self-interest and agreed and warns that,

All for ourselves and nothing for other people seems in every age of the world to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.

Book 4 of Systems of Political Economy.

Smith vigorously attacked the antiquated government restrictions he thought hindered industrial expansion.

In fact,

He attacked most forms of government interference in the economic process,

Including tariffs,

Arguing that this creates inefficiency and high prices in the long run.

It is believed that this theory influenced government legislation in later years,

Especially during the 19th century.

Smith advocated a government that was active in sectors other than the economy.

He advocated public education for poor adults,

A judiciary,

And a standing army,

Institutional systems not directly profitable for private industries.

Of the Principle of the Commercial or Mercantile System.

The book has sometimes been described as a critique of mercantilism and a synthesis of the emerging economic thinking of Smith's time.

Specifically,

The wealth of nations attacks inter alia,

Two major tenets of mercantilism.

1.

The idea that protectionist tariffs serve the economic interests of a nation or indeed any purpose whatsoever,

And 2.

The idea that large reserves of gold bullion or other precious metals are necessary for a country's economic success.

This critique of mercantilism was later used by David Ricardo when he laid out his theory of comparative advantage.

Of Restraints Upon the Importation.

Chapter 2's full title is Of Restraints Upon the Importation from Foreign Countries of Such Goods as Can Be Produced at Home.

The invisible hand is a frequently referenced theme from the book,

Although it is specifically mentioned only once.

As every individual therefore endeavors as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry,

And so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value,

Every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can.

He generally indeed neither intends to promote the public interest,

Nor knows how much he is promoting it.

By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry,

He tends only his own security.

And by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value,

He intends only his own gain,

And he is in this,

As in many other cases,

Led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.

Or is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it?

By pursuing his own interest,

He frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.

The metaphor of the invisible hand has been widely used out of context.

Smith is referring to the support of domestic industry and contrasting that support with the importation of goods.

Neoclassical economic theory has expanded the metaphor beyond the domestic-foreign-manufacture argument to encompass nearly all aspects of economics.

Of the Extraordinary Restraints Chapter 3's long title is,

Of the Extraordinary Restraints upon the Importation of Goods of Almost All Kinds,

From those countries with which the balance is supposed to be disadvantageous.

Of Drawbacks Merchants and manufacturers are not contended with the monopoly of the home market,

But desire likewise the most extensive foreign sale for their goods.

Their country has no jurisdiction in foreign nations,

And therefore can seldom procure them any monopoly there.

They are generally obliged,

Therefore,

To content themselves with petitioning for certain encouragements to exportation.

Of these encouragements,

What are called drawbacks seem to be the most reasonable.

To allow the merchant to draw back upon exportation,

Either the whole or a part of whatever excise or inland duty is imposed upon domestic industry,

Can never occasion the exportation of a greater quantity of goods than what would have been exported had no duty been imposed.

Such encouragements do not tend to turn towards any particular employment a greater share of the capital of the country than what should go to that employment of its own accord,

But only to hinder the duty from driving away any part of that shares to other employments.

Of bounties,

Bounties upon exportation are in Great Britain frequently petitioned for,

And sometimes granted to the produce of particular branches of domestic industry.

By means of them,

Our merchants and manufacturers,

It is pretended,

Will be enabled to sell their goods as cheap or cheaper than their rivals in the foreign market.

A greater quantity,

It is said,

Will thus be exported and the balance of trade consequently turned more in favor of our own country.

We cannot give our workmen a monopoly in the foreign as we have done in the home market.

We cannot force foreigners to buy their goods as we have done our own countrymen.

The next best expedient,

It has been thought,

Therefore,

Is to pay them for buying.

It is in this manner that the mercantile system proposes to enrich the whole country and to put money into all our pockets by means of the balance of trade.

Of treaties of commerce,

When a nation binds itself by treaty either to permit the entry of certain goods from one foreign country which it prohibits from all others,

Or to exempt the goods of one country from duties to which it subjects those of all others the country,

Or at least the merchants and manufacturers of the country,

Whose commerce is so favored,

Must necessarily derive great advantage from the treaty.

Those merchants and manufacturers enjoy a sort of monopoly in the country which is so indulgent to them.

That country becomes a market both more extensive and more advantageous for their goods.

More extensive because the goods of other nations being either excluded or subjected to heavier duties,

It takes off a greater quantity of theirs.

More advantageous because the merchants of the favored country enjoyed a sort of monopoly there,

Will often sell their goods for a better price than if exposed to the free competition of all other nations.

Such treaties,

However,

Though they may be advantageous to the merchants and manufacturers of the favored,

Are necessarily disadvantageous to those of the favoring country.

A monopoly is thus granted against them to a foreign nation,

And they must frequently buy the foreign goods they have occasioned for dearer than if the free competition of other nations was admitted.

Of Colonies Of the motives for establishing new colonies.

The interest which occasioned the first settlement of the different European colonies in America and the West Indies was not altogether so plain and distinct as that which directed the establishment of those of ancient Greece and Rome.

All the different states of ancient Greece possessed each of them but a very small territory,

And when the people in any one of them multiplied beyond what that territory could easily maintain,

A part of them were sent in quest of a new habitation in some remote and distant part of the world.

Warlike neighbors surrounded them on all sides,

Rendering it difficult for any of them to enlarge their territory at home.

The colonies of the Dorians resorted chiefly to Italy and Sicily,

Which in the times preceded the foundation of Rome,

Were inhabited by barbarous and uncivilized nations,

Those of the Ionians and the Aeolians,

The two other great tribes of the Greeks,

The Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean Sea,

Of which the inhabitants seem at that time to have been pretty much in the same state as those of Sicily and Italy.

The mother city,

Though she considered the colony as a child,

At all times entitled to great favor and assistance,

And owing in return much gratitude and respect,

Yet considered it as an emancipated child,

Over whom she pretended to claim no direct authority or jurisdiction.

The colony settled its own form of government,

Enacted its own laws,

Elected its own magistrates,

And made peace or war with its neighbors as an independent state,

Which had no occasion to wait for the approbation or consent of the mother city.

Everything can be more plain and distinct than the interest which directed every such establishment.

Reviews

So interesting and yet, I learned nothing
Thanks for another episode, as boring as ever

Hilarious concept that works. It's like having someone sitting by your bedside until you fall asleep. Thank you, thank you! I'm going to work my way through all of your work info-meditations

Was very boring but In an interesting way. Your voice is very soothing, also thanks for helping me fall asleep!💤🛌

Excellent! Thank you for this and for your soothing voice. Very dull which is exactly what I wanted! 🤗🤗🤗🤗