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# Mercantile Stock

## Definition

The capital employed in trade and commerce that is considered barren and unproductive in agricultural systems because it only continues the existence of its own value without producing any new value, similar to manufacturing stock.

## Source Chapter

Book IV, Chapter 9

## Context

Smith explains how agricultural systems classify mercantile stock alongside manufacturing stock as unproductive, arguing that both only replace their own value and the maintenance of their employers without generating the surplus produce that characterizes productive agricultural labour.

## Economic Domain

Distribution

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