# Universal Opulence

## Definition

The general material well-being that extends across all ranks of society,
including the lowest, as a consequence of the division of labour and the
resulting multiplication of production. Smith argues that through exchange,
every workman can supply others abundantly with their specialised product
and receive in return the products of others' specialisation, creating a
"general plenty" that benefits even the poorest members of a civilised society.

## Source Chapter

Book I, Chapter 1: "Of the Division of Labour"

## Context

The concluding argument of the chapter. Smith illustrates universal opulence
by examining the "accommodation of the most common artificer or daylabourer,"
showing that even a coarse woollen coat requires the cooperation of shepherds,
wool-combers, dyers, weavers, merchants, sailors, and many others — a vast
chain of interdependent labour that would be impossible without specialisation
and exchange.

## Economic Domain

Distribution

## Smith's Original Wording

"It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts,
in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed
society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of
the people."
