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# Merchant-Country Gentleman Transition

## Definition

The social and economic phenomenon where successful urban merchants acquire
rural estates and become country landowners, bringing with them commercial
habits of profitable investment, order, economy, and attention that make them
particularly effective improvers of agricultural land compared to traditional
country gentlemen.

## Source Chapter

Book III, Chapter 4

## Context

Smith's second mechanism explaining how commerce improves the country, noting
that merchants accustomed to profitable projects are bolder and more effective
land improvers than traditional country gentlemen who employ capital mainly in
expense rather than investment.

## Economic Domain

Distribution

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