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Yes, that people kill their own children, pretty gross. I wonder if that was accurate: how could he have gotten this kind of information back then? But China i

Yes, that people kill their own children, pretty gross. I wonder if that was accurate: how could he have gotten this kind of information back then? But China is a very extreme case: in general, if you dont have enough money to support a family, you wouldnt have a family, and lower wages would affect the demographic growth of the lowest earning members of society. The logical corollary for this is that you always will have people in the lowest earning spectrum, because if they earned more they would have more children, increase surplus and reduce wages. We don't have a reserve army concept yet at WoN, unfortunately. (btw Marx seems to agree 100% with this concept of lowest earning spectrum/demographics)

dredmorbius 9y ago
The British East India Company as a thing by 1776 (its stock collapse, a few years earlier, is highly likely to have cloured Smith's thinking on joint stock companies generally). In 1672, the English East India Company finally secured a trading post in Taiwan - ten years after the Dutch East India Company had been expelled from the island by the Chinese. The Company was soon engaged in direct and regular trade with the Chinese from that base and was permitted to make regular voyages to Amoy, Chusan and Canton. By the turn of the century, the Company's base for the China trade was transferred from Taiwan to its "factory" at Canton. With its Royal Charter, the Company was granted the privilege of monopoly of trade in the East Indies until 1833. From 1700 onwards, most foreign traders were confined in Canton, where rigid restrictions were imposed through the practice of Co-hong, a guild of Chinese merchants, the sole recognized agency between foreign and Chinese merchants. http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/china/guidesources/chinatrade/ http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/china/guidesour... You can also find David Ricardo and Malthus in agreement on wages. Ricardo gives us the subsistence theory of wages (I associate this as the Iron Law of Wages though that may be incorrect ... ah, J.K. Galbraith, whom I've read, makes that attribution): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_wages https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_wages
- conanbatt 9y ago
  Ah, I mistook subsistence of Smith with Ricardo? (I finished Ricardo's book a month ago and WoN about 3 months ago, easy to mix up, particularly on Ricardo quoting WoN). Nice exchange of messages! Glad to be able to talk about things written 250 years ago with random internet strangers.
  - dredmorbius 9y ago
    I've yet to read Ricardo closely, though I'm somewhat familiar with his work. There's less of it, among other things (he died young and kept busy with other matters). That said, on wages, I get the impression he's not all that far from Smith. And likewise, appreciate the discussion.

dredmorbius 9y ago

The British East India Company as a thing by 1776 (its stock collapse, a few years earlier, is highly likely to have cloured Smith's thinking on joint stock companies generally). In 1672, the English East India Company finally secured a trading post in Taiwan - ten years after the Dutch East India Company had been expelled from the island by the Chinese. The Company was soon engaged in direct and regular trade with the Chinese from that base and was permitted to make regular voyages to Amoy, Chusan and Canton. By the turn of the century, the Company's base for the China trade was transferred from Taiwan to its "factory" at Canton. With its Royal Charter, the Company was granted the privilege of monopoly of trade in the East Indies until 1833. From 1700 onwards, most foreign traders were confined in Canton, where rigid restrictions were imposed through the practice of Co-hong, a guild of Chinese merchants, the sole recognized agency between foreign and Chinese merchants. http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/china/guidesources/chinatrade/ http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/china/guidesour... You can also find David Ricardo and Malthus in agreement on wages. Ricardo gives us the subsistence theory of wages (I associate this as the Iron Law of Wages though that may be incorrect ... ah, J.K. Galbraith, whom I've read, makes that attribution): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_wages https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_wages

conanbatt 9y ago
Ah, I mistook subsistence of Smith with Ricardo? (I finished Ricardo's book a month ago and WoN about 3 months ago, easy to mix up, particularly on Ricardo quoting WoN). Nice exchange of messages! Glad to be able to talk about things written 250 years ago with random internet strangers.
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  I've yet to read Ricardo closely, though I'm somewhat familiar with his work. There's less of it, among other things (he died young and kept busy with other matters). That said, on wages, I get the impression he's not all that far from Smith. And likewise, appreciate the discussion.