The Austrian notion of stages of production and the related principle of the greater productivity of roundabout methods plus the neo-Austrian notions of vertical integration and vertical division of labour are utilized in this paper in an attempt to reconstruct Smith’s convoluted arguments on the different employment of capitals in Chapter V, Book II, of the Wealth of Nations. Smith’s arguments are first clarified in the light of the two concepts of capital (money capital and productive capital), of the two aspects of productive labour (living labour and dead labour) and of the two viewpoints (of an individual and of society) on which Smith’s theory is based. The results of this clarification are then used to prove that, independently of Smith’s own words but in consistency with his theory, the notions of ‘quantity’ and ‘productivity’ of productive labour have a ‘vertical’ as well as an ‘horizontal’ dimension so that they fit both the input-output scheme and the Austrian framework of time-consuming methods of production.
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Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number
11702.
Find related papers by JEL classification: B10 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - General B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith) B53 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Austrian
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