# First Sort explained — The Wealth of Nations > Chapter companion for The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. ## What happens This chapter examines the first sort of rude produce whose price rises with societal progress: those goods that nature produces in limited quantities and cannot be multiplied by human industry. Using examples like rare birds and fish, the text explains how increased demand from wealth and luxury drives prices to extreme levels, as seen in ancient Rome. It also compares the real value of silver across times, arguing that high prices for rarities reflect the abundance of labor and subsistence available to buyers, not the abundance of silver. ## Themes in this chapter ### Wealth and Money Explores how wealth and luxury increase demand for rare goods, driving prices to extreme levels, and compares the real value of silver across historical periods. ## Character check-ins ### The Romans Discussed in context of their high prices for rare birds and fishes during their greatest grandeur, and their wheat pricing policies in Sicily. ### Silver Analyzed for its real value in ancient Rome compared to present Europe, and its role in pricing rare commodities. ## Key lines > The first sort of rude produce of which the price rises in the progress of improvement, is that which it is scarce in the power of human industry to multiply at all. The first category of raw goods whose price increases as society advances consists of items that human effort can hardly increase in quantity. _Introduces the central thesis of the chapter about goods with limited supply._ > The quantity of such commodities, therefore, remaining the same, or nearly the same, while the competition to purchase them is continually increasing, their price may rise to any degree of extravagance, and seems not to be limited by any certain boundary. Since the supply of these goods stays constant while more people compete to buy them, their price can skyrocket without any apparent limit. _Explains the mechanism of price inflation for rare goods._ > The real value of silver was higher at Rome, for some time before and after the fall of the republic, than it is through the greater part of Europe at present. Silver had greater purchasing power in Rome around the time of the republic's fall than it does in most of Europe today. _Key comparison of silver's value across eras._ > What occasioned the extravagance of those high prices was, not so much the abundance of silver, as the abundance of labour and subsistence, of which those Romans had the disposal, beyond what was necessary for their own use. The extreme prices were caused more by the Romans having excess labor and food to spend than by having a lot of silver. _Clarifies the real driver behind high prices for rarities._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_wealth_of_nations_se/chapters/first-sort - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_wealth_of_nations_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_wealth_of_nations_se/chapters