Adam Smith and the Labour Contract: Is Labour Exchange Analogous to Commodity Exchange?

Tony Aspromourgos

The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2010, vol. 20, issue 2, 39-48

Abstract: In his seminal and canonical text for the new science of political economy, the Wealth of Nations , Adam Smith seems to proceed as if there are markets for labour, akin to markets for ‘commodities' in the ordinary sense of that term. It might therefore seem as if for Smith, the production, distribution and exchange (or pricing) of commodities finds a more or less strict analogy in the production, distribution and exchange (or pricing) of labour or labour services, in ‘commercial society’ (his term), or in a liberal capitalist social economy. But how close, really, is the analogy between commodities in the ordinary sense and labour, in Smith's understanding?

Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:20:y:2010:i:2:p:39-48

DOI: 10.1177/103530461002000203

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