"Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the
most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command.
It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of the society,
which he has in view. But the study of his own advantage naturally,
or rather necessarily, leads him to prefer that employment
which is most advantageous to the society.
First, every individual endeavours to employ his capital as near
home as he can, and consequently as much as he can in the support
of domestic industry, provided always that he can thereby
obtain the ordinary, or not a great deal less than the ordinary profits
of stock.
Thus, upon equal, or nearly equal profits, every wholesale merchant
naturally prefers the home trade to the foreign trade of consumption,
and the foreign trade of consumption to the carrying
trade. In the home trade, his capital is never so long out of his
sight as it frequently is in the foreign trade of consumption. He
can know better the character and situation of the persons whom
he trusts; and if he should happen to be deceived, he knows better
the laws of the country from which he must seek redress. In the
carrying trade, the capital of the merchant is, as it were, divided
between two foreign countries, and no part of it is ever necessarily
brought home, or placed under his own immediate view and command.
The capital which an Amsterdam merchant employs in
carrying corn from Koningsberg to Lisbon, and fruit and wine
from Lisbon to Koningsberg, must generally be the one half of it
at Koningsberg, and the other half at Lisbon. No part of it need
ever come to Amsterdam. The natural residence of such a merchant
should either be at Koningsberg or Lisbon; and it can only
be some very particular circumstances which can make him prefer
the residence of Amsterdam. The uneasiness, however, which he
feels at being separated so far from his capital, generally determines
him to bring part both of the Koningsberg goods which he
destines for the market of Lisbon, and of the Lisbon goods which
he destines for that of Koningsberg, to Amsterdam; and though
this necessarily subjects him to a double charge of loading and
unloading as well as to the payment of some duties and customs,
yet, for the sake of having some part of his capital always under
his own view and command, he willingly submits to this extraordinary
charge; and it is in this manner that every country which
has any considerable share of the carrying trade, becomes always
the emporium, or general market, for the goods of all the different
countries whose trade it carries on. The merchant, in order to save
a second loading and unloading, endeavours always to sell in the
home market, as much of the goods of all those different countries as he can; and thus, so far as he can, to convert his carrying
trade into a foreign trade of consumption. A merchant, in the
same manner, who is engaged in the foreign trade of consumption,
when he collects goods for foreign markets, will always be
glad, upon equal or nearly equal profits, to sell as great a part of
them at home as he can. He saves himself the risk and trouble of
exportation, when, so far as he can, he thus converts his foreign
trade of consumption into a home trade. Home is in this manner
the centre, if I may say so, round which the capitals of the inhabitants
of every country are continually circulating, and towards
which they are always tending, though, by particular causes, they
may sometimes be driven off and repelled from it towards more
distant employments. But a capital employed in the home trade,
it has already been shown, necessarily puts into motion a greater
quantity of domestic industry, and gives revenue and employment
to a greater number of the inhabitants of the country, than an
equal capital employed in the foreign trade of consumption; and
one employed in the foreign trade of consumption has the same
advantage over an equal capital employed in the carrying trade.
Upon equal, or only nearly equal profits, therefore, every individual
naturally inclines to employ his capital in the manner in
which it is likely to afford the greatest support to domestic industry,
and to give revenue and employment to the greatest number
of people of his own country.
Secondly, every individual who employs his capital in the support
of domestic industry, necessarily endeavours so to direct that
industry, that its produce may be of the greatest possible value.
The produce of industry is what it adds to the subject or materials
upon which it is employed. In proportion as the value of this
produce is great or small, so will likewise be the profits of the
employer. But it is only for the sake of profit that any man employs
a capital in the support of industry; and he will always, therefore,
endeavour to employ it in the support of that industry of
which the produce is likely to be of the greatest value, or to exchange
for the greatest quantity either of money or of other goods.
But the annual revenue of every society is always precisely equal
to the exchangeable value of the whole annual produce of its industry,
or rather is precisely the same thing with that exchangeable
value. As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as
he can, both to employ his capital in the support of domestic
industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce maybe of
the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render
the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally,
indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows
how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic
to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce
may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain;
and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand
to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it
always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing
his own interest, he frequently promotes that of the society
more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have
never known much good done by those who affected to trade for
the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common
among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading
them from it."
Como explica Chomsky en este video.
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