# Third Sort explained — The Wealth of Nations

> Chapter companion for The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.

## What happens

This chapter examines the third category of rude produce whose price naturally rises with societal improvement, where human industry's ability to increase quantity is either limited or uncertain. It discusses how the markets for wool, raw hides, and other such goods differ from those for butcher's meat, and how regulations and international trade affect their prices. The chapter also explores the uncertain discovery of precious metal mines and the impact on real versus nominal wealth.

## Themes in this chapter

### Free Trade and Market Competition

Discusses how market extent for wool and hides differs from that for butcher's meat, and how trade regulations affect prices.

### Wealth and Money

Explores the distinction between real and nominal value, and the impact of precious metal discoveries on wealth.

## Character check-ins

### David Hume

Cited for his observation on the value of fleece in Saxon times.

## Key lines

> The third and last sort of rude produce, of which the price naturally rises in the progress of improvement, is that in which the efficacy of human industry, in augmenting the quantity, is either limited or uncertain.

The final category of raw materials whose price increases as society develops includes those where human effort to increase supply is restricted or unpredictable.

_Introduces the main subject of the chapter._

> Mr. Hume observes, that in the Saxon times, the fleece was estimated at two-fifths of the value of the whole sheep, and that this was much above the proportion of its present estimation.

David Hume noted that in Saxon England, wool made up 40% of a sheep's value, a much higher share than today.

_Historical observation on changing relative values._

> The cheapness and abundance of gold and silver plate, would be the sole advantage which the world could derive from the one event, and the dearness and scarcity of those trifling superfluities the only inconveniency it could suffer from the other.

If new fertile mines are discovered, the only benefit is cheaper precious metals; if mines become barren, the only drawback is their scarcity and higher cost.

_Highlights the limited real impact of precious metal abundance on true wealth._

## Links

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