Adam Smith on the subordination of wage-earners in the commercial society

Jean Dellemotte () and Benoît Walraevens
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Jean Dellemotte: PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Adam Smith's discourse on wage labour is both original for its time and complex. While Smith indisputably considered the substitution of serfdom by wage labour as an improvement in both opulence and independence, we argue that he nevertheless saw the wage relationship as one founded on subordination. We then cast light on the material factors and symbolic mechanisms which, in his writings, explain how and why the worker agrees to this subordination. Finally, we endeavour to show that Smith's praise for the system of natural liberty as well as his repeated criticisms of merchants and capital owners aimed to transcend this issue.

Keywords: History of economic thought; wage labour; subordination; Adam Smith (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2015, 22 (4), pp.692-727. ⟨10.1080/09672567.2013.792375⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01244684

DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2013.792375

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