28 lines
946 B
Markdown
28 lines
946 B
Markdown
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# Common Stock
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## Definition
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The aggregate pool of goods and services created when individuals bring
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their diverse specialised products together through exchange. Smith argues
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that among humans, unlike animals, different talents are made useful to
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one another because their products can be "brought, as it were, into a
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common stock, where every man may purchase whatever part of the produce
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of other men's talents he has occasion for." This common stock is the
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emergent result of widespread exchange among specialised producers.
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## Source Chapter
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Book I, Chapter 2: "Of the Principle which gives Occasion to the Division
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of Labour"
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## Context
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Appears in the chapter's concluding argument comparing humans and animals.
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While a mastiff cannot benefit from a greyhound's speed due to lack of
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exchange, humans can pool their different abilities through trade, making
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all talents contribute to the general welfare.
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## Economic Domain
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Exchange
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