Deat Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations
SECTION 1
Basic text A.
New Words:
Physiocrats - фізіократи
Mercantilists - меркантилісти
Output – продукція, кількість продукції, що випускається
To outperform - демонструвати to exert – напружити to pin - проколювати, скріпляти pertain – належати, мати відношення.
Pre-reading task:
What do you know about Adam Smith? What was he?
Read the title of the text and say what it can be about?
1. Reading. 1.1. Read the text.
Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations
1776, the year that we associate with the signing of The Declaration of Independence, also marked the publication in England of one of the most influential books of our time, The Wealth of Nations. Written by Adam Smith, it earned the author the title “the father of economics,” Smith objected to the principal economic believes of his day. He differed with the physiocrats who argued than land was the only source of wealth. He also disagreed with the mercantilists who measured the wealth of a nation by its money supply, and who called for government regulation of the economy in order to promote a “favorable balance of trade.” In Smith’s view, a nation’s wealth was dependent upon production, not agriculture alone. How much it produced, he believed, depended upon how well it combined labour and the other factors of production. The more efficient the combination is, the greater the output is, and the greater the nation’s wealth is. The heart of Smith’s economic philosophy was his belief that the economy would work best if left to function on its own without government regulation. In those circumstances, self-interest would lead business firms to produce only those products that consumers wanted, and to produce them at the lowest possible cost. They would do this not as a means of benefiting society, but in an effort to outperform their competitors and gain the greatest profit. But all this self-interest would benefit society as a whole by providing it with more and better
Basic text A.
New Words:
Physiocrats - фізіократи
Mercantilists - меркантилісти
Output – продукція, кількість продукції, що випускається
To outperform - демонструвати to exert – напружити to pin - проколювати, скріпляти pertain – належати, мати відношення.
Pre-reading task:
What do you know about Adam Smith? What was he?
Read the title of the text and say what it can be about?
1. Reading. 1.1. Read the text.
Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations
1776, the year that we associate with the signing of The Declaration of Independence, also marked the publication in England of one of the most influential books of our time, The Wealth of Nations. Written by Adam Smith, it earned the author the title “the father of economics,” Smith objected to the principal economic believes of his day. He differed with the physiocrats who argued than land was the only source of wealth. He also disagreed with the mercantilists who measured the wealth of a nation by its money supply, and who called for government regulation of the economy in order to promote a “favorable balance of trade.” In Smith’s view, a nation’s wealth was dependent upon production, not agriculture alone. How much it produced, he believed, depended upon how well it combined labour and the other factors of production. The more efficient the combination is, the greater the output is, and the greater the nation’s wealth is. The heart of Smith’s economic philosophy was his belief that the economy would work best if left to function on its own without government regulation. In those circumstances, self-interest would lead business firms to produce only those products that consumers wanted, and to produce them at the lowest possible cost. They would do this not as a means of benefiting society, but in an effort to outperform their competitors and gain the greatest profit. But all this self-interest would benefit society as a whole by providing it with more and better