The Wealth of Nations: Economic Insights and Modern Market Theories

1. 2007行為財務學暨新興市場理論與實證研討會 經濟與道德：從亞當．斯密談起 薛琦 台灣金融研訓院 世新大學財務金融學系 2007年1月6日

2. 大 綱 I. 亞當‧斯密--被遺忘的古典智慧 原富(The Wealth of Nations):探討國家財富的本質及起源 道德情操論: 亞當‧斯密的矛盾 ( Das Adam Smith Problem) II. 奎內（ François Quesnay）的金融觀 貨幣像人身體的血液 市場紀律的維護者─金融的酷 (cruel and cool) • 結語

3. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes ofThe Wealth of NationsBy Adam Smith 1723-1790 “The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes…”

4. V. Challenges Ahead

5. According to The Wealth of Nations • Wealth is not a fixed quantity - wealth is a function of labor productivity and therefore of people, and of the incentives which encourage them to raise productivity. • Even today, some people still mistakenly believe that the world’s wealth is a fixed quantity, and where one grows richer and another grows poorer.

6. Adam Smith • Since mercantilists and colonialists believed thatwealth was limited, they wanted thegovernment to keep most of it. They established government-authorized monopolies, controlled by their friends and supporter, using the police to stop anyone from competing with the monopolies.

7. The Wealth of Nations – Specialization and Division of Labor • Nations have become wealthy because labour has become more productive. • Labour is more productive because it is more specialized; tasks have been divided and subdivided until anyone can easily learn to do any job and do it well. • The division of labor saves time that is lost “in passing from one species of work to another.” • The division of labour leads to invention, and it makes it easier for a worker to learn and become skilled at the job.

8. The Wealth of Nations - Market and Capital Stock • The extent of the division of labour is limited by the extent of the market. • The more people there are involved in mutual exchange, the more specialized each can be. • The accumulation of capital (stock) is also relevant - “Labour can be more and more subdivided in proportion only as stock is previously more and more accumulated”

9. The Wealth of Nations - Liberalism Laissez Faire • “Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way…” • A system of natural liberty: a nation’s wealth is increased by whatever industry is most profitable, i.e. whatever industry produces the greatest surplus, available to support further division of labour. • Therefore, the government should not try to direct industry into export industry, or into agriculture, or in any particular direction.

10. The Wealth of Nations - Speculation Those who are called philosophers or men of speculation, whose trade it is, not to do any thing, but to observe everything; and who, upon that account, are often capable of combining together the powers of the most distant and dissimilar objects.

11. According to Adam Smith • Self-interest is an unchangeable part of human nature, so it is wise to let personal incentives build a richer economy. • Strong government was a great necessity, particularly to create and enforcelaws and to ensure justice.

12. Adam Smith “The sovereign has only three duties: first… protecting the society from violence and invasion… secondly… protecting … every member of the society from the injustice or oppression of every other member thirdly… erecting and maintaining certain publicworks and certain public institutions which it can never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals…”

13. Adam Smith Government and the people should do what it does best: businessmen should not control the justice system; government should not try to run businesses. Monopoly…is a great enemy to good management.

14. Regarding Government • The market works less efficiently in the developing economy than in the developed economy. • The market gives better service in rich than in poor countries, so also the government tends to be better administered, has more resources, and is slightly less dominated by “politics” and personal advantage in decision making. • The imperfect solution of the market could be better than that of the government. The government needs to be modernized just as much as the market. Also the assumption that the government “represents” the people may not hold W.A. Lewis, “The State of Development Theory”AER (March 1984), p.4.

15. According to Adam Smith 財富分配 “No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.”

16. According to Adam Smith “Adam Smith’s economy grows to its ‘full complement of riches’ as permitted by its laws and institutions, and there it rests.” Arthur W. Lewis, 1984

17. Das Adam Smith Problem Question raised by German historical school: How to reconcile altruism in Morality laid out vividly in Moral Sentiments of which the first chapter in on Sympathy and self interest in Economics which is the core of Wealth of Nations

18. Das Adam Smith Problem Chronology of Smith’s teaching and writing career 1723 born 1737 Glasgow, studying Greek, Latin, Mathematics and Morality 1940 Oxford, studying Philosophy 1948 Edinburgh, lecture 1750 Lecture note on Economics 1751 Glasgow, Professor of Logic; 1752 Professor of Morality 1759 Publishing MS 1761 2nd ed. of MS expanding the part on Politics, Economics and Jurisprudence 1763 Lecturing on “Law, Police, Revenue, and Arms.” 1764 Turing in European continent for 2 years and 8 months with Duke Buccleugh and starting to draft WN

19. Smith Problem (cont) • 1765.12-66.10 meeting F. Quesnay in Paris • 3rd ed. MS, adding “considerations concerning the first formation of languages” • More information on taxation in America, 4th ed MS 1776 Publication of WN • 2nd ed. WN • 5th ed. MS • 3RD ed. WN 1786 adding Introduction and the final edition of WN • Honorable principal of Glasgow U. • intensive revision of MS, adding sec. III, Ch.3 1790 the final 6th ed. of MS

20. Let Smith Answer the Question • Smith has constantly and interweavingly revised MS and WN. • “In the last paragraph of the present work, I said, that I should in another discourse endeavour to give an account of the general principles of law and government and …in what concerns police, revenue, and arms, and whatever else is the subject of law. In the Enquiry… I have partly executed this promise; at least so far as concerns police, revenue, and arms.” Advertisement, MS.

21. Let Smith Answer the Question • In Scotland then, moral philosophy covers ethnology, morality, jurisprudence, and politics including political economy.

22. Let Smith Answer the Question • “What purpose is…the pursuit of wealth?… what are the advantages which we propose by that great purpose of human life which we call bettering our condition? To be observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with sympathy, complacency, and approbation …” 追求財富的目的，所謂的讓我們生活得更好， 是為了讓別人看到，受人矚目，獲得「同情」 （關心），一種自滿與認同。

23. Let Smith Answer the Question • “Power and riches appear then to be, what they are, enormous and operose machines contrived to produce a few trifling conveniencies to the body,…They are immense fabricks,…save him from some smaller inconveniencies, …but leave him always as much, and sometimes more exposed than before, to anxiety, to fear, and to sorrow; to diseases, to danger, and to death. 權力與財富看起來像是，而且的確也是，一組龐大又耐操的機具，用來生產一些可帶給我們肉體上些微的便利。它們像一棟大廈，可以省卻一些小小的不便，但最後留下的常常跟過去一樣，甚至更多的焦慮、恐懼、悲傷、病痛、危險與死亡。

24. Let Smith Answer the Question • “It is the vanity, not the ease, or the pleasure, which interests us. But vanity is always founded upon the belief of our being the object of attention and approbation”. • “the eye is larger than the belly,… The capacity of his stomach ( the land lord )bears no proportion to the immensity of his desires, and will receive no more than that of the meanest peasant.”

25. Let Smith Answer the Question • “In what constitutes the real happiness of human life, they are in no respect inferiour to those who would seem so much above them. In ease of body and peace of mind, all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level, and the beggar, who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for.” 一個人在生命中所獲得真正的快樂，決不會比那些居高位的人來得少。講到身體的自在、悠閒與心境的平衡，所有的不同階層的人是處在同一水平。一個在路邊晒太陽的乞丐，他所享有的安全，是一個國王要用多少的武力來保護才能爭取到的。

26. Let Smith Answer the Question • “When Providence divided the earth among a few lordly masters,…They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants;”

27. Let Smith Answer the Question • On government: “The man of system, …is apt to be very wise in his own conceit, and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government.”

29. The Theory of Moral Sentiments1759Chapter I. Of Sympathy • How selfish soever man many be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, expect the pleasure of seeing it. • 不管一個人有多麼自私，都有一種很明顯的本性，那就是關心別人的幸福，把別人的快樂當成自己的事，樂於看到它發生，此外別無所求。

30. 前 言 • 自由社會，自由市場的基石－正義的關心、道德的培養。 • 自由的危險就在於忘卻道德的意義。 • 缺乏行動的道德姿態無異是空口白話。 • 經濟效率與道德操守是可以互相強化的。一個基於道德的商業模式才能夠結合「最靈光的腦袋和最善良的心」。

31. Part 1財富 Wealth • 在人類之間，使其成為社會的，非常重要的互動，也就是一種「同情」。 • 過度分工會使人變笨，註1而且人的特性之中比較高貴的部份會遭到遺忘。 • 市場力量雖然不具備人格特質，卻不表示我們不是人。 註1：過度分工會使人變笨，這是斯密提出的觀點，見WN, V.I.f.50 [781-5]。

32. Part 1財富 Wealth • 即使市場機制是無私的，身為一個人，卻不能，也不可以毫無感情。感情其實是很重要的。 • 毫無限制地追求財富會「造成腐化」。 • 缺乏一個有限政府，商業制度將無法完美運作，但一個社會若缺乏道德基礎，它也一樣無法妥善運作。

33. Part 1財富 Wealth • 自私是當你的需求和別人的法定權益發生衝突時，還自我中心地固守自己的需求。 • 自利是人在為自己設想的同時，別人也可以獲益。註3 • 要創造財富，社會必須讓每一個個人享有充分的權益。 註3：見WN, IV.ii.11 [456]。

34. Part 1財富 Wealth • 財富多寡無關幸福。…對於已經超過窮苦境地的人來說，富人與窮人可能得到的幸福不會有什麼實質差異。 • 心境平和可以決定人是否幸福。 • 貧富程度和他的幸福卻沒有絕對的因果關係

35. Part 1財富 Wealth • 窮人之子的寓言:(在追求名利之後），如今他已走到生命的終點，他的身體受到勞苦與病痛的磨損，心總因為憶起過去的千般傷害與失望，而感到懊惱。註4名利不過是瑣碎的小裝飾品，不會強過孩子的百寶箱。 • （失業者）受傷的是他的自尊心。 • 坐在包廂看球與到酒吧看球，都是一項理性選擇？人們隨時都在自我欺騙。 註4：斯密絕妙的寓言＜窮人之子＞見於TMS, IV.I.8 [181]。

36. Part 1財富 Wealth • 她比任何她擁有的東西都要優越。(To own or to be) • 心靈是自我做主的地方，光靠它就可以將天堂變成地獄，地獄化為天堂。註5 • 財富當然值得人們去追求。但它並不值得用那麼激烈的熱情去追求，那樣的熱情會驅使我們去違背審慎或正義的原則。註6 註5：彌爾頓有關天堂與地獄的詩是出自《失樂園》（Paradise Lost, 1674）, Book 1, Line 253。 註6：見TMS, III.3.31 [149]。

37. Part 1財富 Wealth • 假如財富成為一個單一目標，你就會看到，總是有人比你有錢。…富人的愉悅，多的是虛榮心與優越感，很少帶著全然的寧靜祥和。註7 • 企業在短期內的高利潤，對消費者而言，其實是好的。註8 • （大企業）這個階層的人的終極利益，就是反對競爭。 註7：見TMS, III.3.31 [150]。 註8：「斯密覺得弔詭的理論好玩…」。在斯密的“Essay on Astronomy”(EPS, IV.34, p.75)裡，他表示做學問的人自然會喜歡弔詭。據說斯密也喜歡用弔詭做為教學工具(Stewart, EPS, p.275)。

38. Part 2轉型 Transformation • 論仇恨：你無法同情我所遭遇的不幸，或無法分擔一些我的悲傷，那麼我們將完全無法互相容忍。…你該開始設想人的感覺，分享人的感情。 • 每一個人的心裡，都存在著被愛的欲望！ • 「同情」彼此的感覺是生命的根本。 註9： 相對於霍布斯，斯密寫到，人天生有種「取悅別人的原始欲望」；除此之外，人還有種「應該」獲得認可的欲望，也就是，成為一個值得讚賞的對象(TMS, iii.2.6-7 [116-117])。

39. Part 2轉型 Transformation • 我們希望看到別人的幸福，而道德也就是從這個基礎上建立起來的。註10 • 「戀愛」是一種想像的激情，也是有點可笑的，至少在外人眼裡看來。註11 註10：見TMS, I.I.1 [7]。 註11：詳見TMS, I.ii.2.1 [32]。

40. Part 3道德 Virtue • 我從來沒見過有什麼體系是完美的！而且有許多並不完美的體系卻運作得相當不錯。 • 所謂同情，是對他人情感的一種了解。也就是「同情」別人的感覺。註13 • 我們的被動情感雖然幾乎總是直接、下流（慶幸沒發生在我身上），而自私的，但我們的主動原則往往很慷慨而高貴。 註13：斯密對「同情」的廣義定義可見於TMS, I.I.1.5 [10]。

41. Part 3道德 Virtue • 利潤不是目標，而是為員工塑造工作意義之後的副產品。 • 心境平和也就是幸福之所繫。 • 當你面對的是一個你知道會重視內在自我形象的人，信任就會產生。註14 • 論物價資本，人力資本，社會資本（制度）：社會資本包括道德。註15 註14：見WN, IV.ii.6 [454]。 註15：見J.S. Coleman, “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital,” American Journal of Sociology, 94 (Supp1.), 1988, pp. s95-s120。

42. Part 3道德 Virtue • 幸福是來自內在的成長與轉化，來自與他人的關係漸入佳境。 • 良知是一種心念能力，使人能夠判斷自己的行為，並運用責任感自我調整，讓自己的行為符合道德標準。 • 理性幫助我們運用自制力，理性與自制力就構成了謹慎的情操。

43. Part 3道德 Virtue • 更高等的謹慎是以熱情、廣闊的博愛、毫不動搖地關心正義的律法、帶著適度的自制。更高等的謹慎是最靈光的腦袋加上最善良的心。註16 • 沒有預先灑下法治的沃土, 那麼要導向永續的成功是很有疑問的。 註16：見TMS, VI.I.14 [216]。

44. Part 3道德 Virtue • 資本主義進入英格蘭之前，那個國家已經為了司法正義打過許多次戰爭。註17 • 我相信我們這個豐足的社會，是來自於我們有些殘存的道德情操。 註17：英國權利法案是1689年由議會制定的。法案裡的人權宣言是為了限制政府的權力。

45. François Quesnay1694-1774 • 重農學派(Physiocrats)或農業體制(Agricultural system) • 最有名望的醫師，於1755年擔任路易十五的御醫，62歲才踏入經濟學領域。

46. Quesnay • You recognize but one rule of commerce; that is to allow free passage (laissez passer) and freedom of action (laissez faire) to all buyers and sellers whoever they may be. • 反對政府假任何社會目的之名進行任何形式的干預。

47. Quesnay 經濟表(Tableau Economique)用以說明 一方面，財貨如何從農民流到地主再到商人、製造商和其他非生產族群； 另方面，金錢如何透過許多流通過程再回到農民手中。 這也說明各經濟部門﹝包括各工業及利益團體﹞彼此間如何各取所需，互相補償，而成一完整的連繫制度。

48. Quesnay • 有關金融： Money resembles the blood of human body.

49. 血液是輸送養份的流體 • 血液是輸送消滅病菌抗體的流體 Delivering oxygen, nutrients, hormones... Red blood cells White blood cells Looking out for signs of disease and producing antibodies and attacking

50. V. Challenges Ahead 金融分配資源之功能 Investment Proposals 潛在投資人 資金提供者 金融部門: 分配資金 Resource Deprivation (RBC) (WBC) 投資失敗 壞帳 Inefficient Allocation 土地 勞工 設備 Case approved 生產順利 Resource Acquisition/Allocation Efficient Allocation