the effects of its accumulation into capital of different kinds, and the
effects of the different employments of those capitals. This book is divided
into five chapters. In the first chapter, I have endeavoured to shew what
are the different parts or branches into which the stock, either of an
individual, or of a great society, naturally divides itself. In the second,
I have endeavoured to explain the nature and operation of money, considered
as a particular branch of the general stock of the society. The stock which
is accumulated into a capital, may either be employed by the person to whom
it belongs, or it may be lent to some other person. In the third and fourth
chapters, I have endeavoured to examine the manner in which it operates in
both these situations. The fifth and last chapter treats of the different
effects which the different employments of capital immediately produce upon
the quantity, both of national industry, and of the annual produce of land
and labour.



CHAPTER I.

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,