When the institutional arrangement of market economy has brought excess returns to the countries that took the lead in implementing market economy, like individual investors who took the lead in technological innovation, when almost all countries in the world finally chose market economy after painful institutional comparison and exploration, we should sincerely thank Adam Smith and admire the greatness of his economic thought. He proved that the market economy can make their country rich, thus making their people rich.
The first academic economist
1723 On June 5th, Adam Smith was born in Scotland. His father, a local customs auditor, died a few months before Smith was born. His mother, the daughter of a big landlord, lived to be 90 years old and died six years before Smith. Smith has never been married, and his life is as harmonious and orderly as the economic world he imagined. All the materials show that he doesn't seem to have had the slightest love with any woman, nor has he experienced a passionate romance. He lived alone with his mother and served her wholeheartedly for 60 years, repaying her for her parenting.
Smith was once a professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow University, a doctor of law, a member of the Royal Society and the first scholastic economist. 1759, he published his famous ethics works on the topic of "On Moral Sentiments", which was a necessary preparation for his academic research. What made him famous in the world later was the study on the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations (hereinafter referred to as the Wealth of Nations) published by him in 1776. The book has far-reaching influence and laid the foundation for political economy to become an independent science. Smith also had a far-reaching influence because of The Wealth of Nations, and his works were translated into many languages.
Smith himself said that he had nothing good in his life, but books were his favorite. From the age of 44 to 53, he devoted himself to writing The Wealth of Nations. In his own words, "research has always been his only thing, and his only entertainment is walking on the beach." The current situation will never be happy and satisfied. " Smith's book is not only the product of a great thought, but also the product of the whole era, which needed political economists. In the past, he might just be a moral philosopher.
Once, British Prime Minister Peter was talking to an important person, and Smith was invited to attend. Everyone stood up when he entered the room. Smith said, "gentlemen, please sit down." Peter replied, "no, we won't sit down unless you sit down." We are all your disciples. " .
Smith is a model of his rigorous scholarship. He never refuses to make his immature works public for fear of delaying future generations. Smith died in July 1790. In the previous 1787, he entrusted his friends to burn all his drafts after his death. The rigorous scientific spirit he left to future generations is equally touching.
Smith's task for political economy is to "enrich the country and enrich the people". He said: "As a politician or legislator, scientific political economy has put forward two different goals: first, to provide people with enough income or livelihood, or more precisely, to enable people to provide such income or livelihood for themselves; Second, provide enough income for the country or society to carry out official duties. In short, its purpose is to enrich the country and enrich the people. " So why make the country rich and the people strong? Answer: Market economy. This is the core idea of The Wealth of Nations. Smith expounded this idea profoundly from many aspects.
The wealth of the country
Adam Smith/this book
Guo Yanan/translation
Commercial press
2065438+June 2005
self-interest
Self-interest is the ethical premise for Smith to study human economic behavior and construct economic system. Without the confirmation of one's own interests, there is no affirmation of the market economic system. In all Smith's expositions, the economic system is actually set by human behavior patterns, which is exactly the same as the viewpoint of modern western economics.
Let's not forget that the author of The Wealth of Nations is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In Smith's view, human behavior is naturally driven by six motives: self-love, sympathy, desire for freedom, sense of justice, labor habits and the tendency to exchange one thing for another. The "self-love" he said here is actually self-interest. He commented: "There is no doubt that everyone is born to care about himself first."
The Wealth of Nations gives full play to the idea of "egoism". Smith pointed out that people who pursue their own interests can often promote social interests more effectively than those who really want to pursue them. Man's behavior is guided by an "invisible hand" and tries his best to achieve a goal that is not his original intention, that is, the public interest. For example, he said that the reason why we get our food needs from butchers and chefs is not because of their kindness or kindness, but because they care about their own interests. We deal with these people not because of their kindness, but because of their self-interest. As Montevideo said in The Fable of Bees, private evil is public interest.
Smith's analysis tells us that as far as human beings are concerned, people tend to pursue personal interests, including material interests and spiritual interests. However, under the condition of market economy, to realize self-interest, we must first meet the needs of society. If you can't meet the needs of society, society won't need your products and services, and self-interest can't be realized. This is somewhat subjective for oneself and objective for society, and it is also similar to Marx's theory on the contradiction between private labor and social labor. This process is guided by an "invisible hand", that is, the invisible economic order, and the "invisible hand" is the market mechanism.
A large number of facts have proved that as an economic science that studies human behavior, the key to a series of successful analysis lies in whether there is a scientific hypothesis that can stand the test of practice. Now it seems that Smith's identification of egoism is in line with the basic rules of human behavior. His theoretical system has been verified by practice again and again, which is why people always choose the most humane economic system, that is, the most effective economic system with the smallest input and the largest output. If the hypothesis of human behavior pattern implied in an economic system is contrary to human nature, then the organizational cost of this system will be very large. This is why the continuous political movement and a series of education that love factories and families under the planned economy have little effect. Smith's viewpoint or method of analyzing on the premise of egoism had a great influence on later western economics, so that the hypothesis of "economic man" became a self-evident axiom in western economics. This is undoubtedly Smith's credit. Schumpeter once spoke highly of: "It was through Smith's works that18th century's thoughts on human nature reached economists".
Division of labor and efficiency
The first chapter of The Wealth of Nations is "On Division of Labor". In this chapter, Smith begins all his economic analysis with the first paragraph, "The greatest improvement of labor productivity and greater proficiency, skills and judgment in using labor seem to be the result of division of labor".
Smith lived in the era of workshop handicraft industry, and the industrial revolution was brewing. The contribution of scientific and technological progress to the economy has not been fully demonstrated, but the positive results brought by division of labor and specialization have just begun to appear. Smith lived in Glasgow for some time, which was the industrial center of Scotland at that time. Ironmaking industry and textile industry are more developed than Britain. Smith actually observed the economic life of the industrial zone and realized the true meaning of division of labor.
Although it has become an axiom that division of labor can improve efficiency today, it is really "far-sighted" to discuss division of labor and efficiency, division of labor and comparative advantage, division of labor and market scope, division of labor and free trade at multiple levels and angles in Smith's era. This unique life background makes him extremely proud to eulogize the division of labor. Smith studied the division of labor, first of all, linking it with efficiency. Because the purpose is efficiency, he did not distinguish between internal division of labor and social division of labor. The purpose of distinguishing internal division of labor and social division of labor is to study the root of commodity production.
Smith made a careful observation on the division of labor and efficiency. He pointed out that if a dozen processes are completed by a worker who lacks special training, not even one can be done in a day, let alone 20. But if 10 processes are shared by specialized workers, these 10 workers can produce 48,000 pieces every day. Division of labor not only promotes efficiency, but also social progress. "In an uncivilized society, one person's labor is generally shared by several people in a progressive society." History has gone through a long river. In the era of natural economy, society has been stagnant for a long time because there is basically no professional division of labor. Later, the efficiency improvement and social progress of industrial society were all due to the division of labor. Overlooking the history, we can't help but lament Smith's foresight at that time.
So, what is the principle of division of labor? This is the repeated comparative advantage or factor endowment of modern economics. Smith said that in a hunting society, a person started hunting and made bows and arrows. Later, he found himself better at making bows and arrows. He specializes in making bows and arrows to exchange prey, which is more efficient than both. Another man started hunting and making bows and arrows. Later, he found himself better at hunting. He specializes in hunting and changing bows and arrows, which is more efficient than both. Therefore, they give full play to their comparative advantages and then exchange, which not only makes their own "cake" bigger, but also makes the "cake" of the whole society bigger.
In fact, if people are "calculating" and choose the biggest one under given conditions, then the real biggest one is probably to give play to their comparative advantages. Many "poor people" spend a long time waiting for the bus, while "rich people" save time by buying a car and taking a taxi precisely because they are consciously exerting their resource advantages. The resource advantage of the poor is time, the time of the poor is the least valuable, the resource advantage of the rich is money, and the money of the rich is the least valuable. Under the condition of market economy, the success of a person, an enterprise and a country lies in finding the combination of their own resource advantages and market economy and giving full play to their own resource advantages, because only by giving full play to their own resource advantages can the cost be minimized and the result be maximized. However, the effectiveness of the East, long restraint, short promotion and lack of its own characteristics are probably difficult to succeed. This is what an enterprise and a country should pay special attention to when formulating the economic development strategy.
Smith extended the exchange between individuals to the exchange between countries, thinking that each country has its own resource advantages and its own international division of labor. If a commodity is produced in other countries and the cost is lower than that in China, it should not be produced in China. It will be more cost-effective to buy cheap goods in other countries with the money from exporting the goods we are good at producing. Therefore, he not only advocates domestic free market economy, but also advocates international free trade. Later, Smith's thought was developed by david ricardo into a famous "comparative cost" theory, which dominated international trade. Smith is talking about absolute comparative advantage, that is, the production efficiency of shoes and hats in country A is higher than that in country B, while Ricardo is talking about comparative advantage. Although the production efficiency of two products in country B is lower than that in country A, the production efficiency of shoes is relatively high, so country B can specialize in producing shoes and exchange them with country A ... The production efficiency of shoes and hats in country A is higher, but the efficiency of hats is higher. Country A can specialize in producing hats and exchange them with country B ... so that the cakes of both countries can be bigger. Smith advocates borderless market and world economic integration. However, when it comes to national interests and national security, free trade is replaced by protectionism.
Division of labor and legal system
Division of labor causes exchange, and division of labor and exchange based on comparative advantage is actually a market economy. The division of labor has made such great achievements, so in Smith's pen, of course, the finer the division of labor, the more professional the better. However, whether the division of labor can be more and more detailed is conditional, because in Smith's view, the division of labor is limited by the market scope. Smith said that "the division of labor is the result of exchange ability, so the degree of division of labor is always limited by exchange ability." If the market is too small, people can't be encouraged to specialize in one industry for life, because in this state, they can't exchange the surplus of their own labor products for the surplus of others' labor products they need at will. "
Smith cited many trivial examples in his life to illustrate this truth. For example, porters can only live in big cities (like Chongqing's "greatness"), because the big city market is vast and the rural market is small. The market scope mentioned by Smith here refers to people's dependence on exchange, consumption level and purchasing power in their lives, and is a sign of a country's economic progress or not. Of course, division of labor and market scope are mutually conditional and mutually reinforcing. In China, at present, due to the improvement of people's purchasing power and the pull of demand, many emerging industries have emerged, which is the modern proof that the division of labor is limited by the market scope.
However, both division of labor and specialization need legal protection, and the actual economic behavior and legal system construction are constantly improved in repeated games. "If the law does not force people to perform contracts," division of labor and transactions will be difficult to exist. In this sense, the market economy is a legal economy and must have the spirit of contract.
The spirit of contract is not only reflected in the buyer and seller, but also in the relationship between the debtor and the bank. Adam smith said that Scottish banks have long made it very clear that all customers should repay their loans regularly. If he can't do it, no matter how big his property and credit are, he won't want to borrow a penny from the bank. Our banks should learn from it. The bank's non-performing loan is the result of the bank lending when it knows that it can't be recovered.
The reason why Smith's research starts from the division of labor and highly praises it is because he directly perceives the great economic benefits brought by his time and division of labor, which is the source of his dynamic economic research. For our realistic economic research, this is enlightening-economic practice is always the inexhaustible source of economic theoretical research. The development of China's economy has prepared sufficient practical provisions for the development of China's characteristic political economy, and the rest is the research of economists.
In Smith's view, the finer the division of labor, the more specialized the better. However, after 16 1 year, 1937, Professor R. Coase challenged or revised Smith's theory in his famous paper The Nature of Enterprises. Based on the concept of "transaction cost", Coase points out that due to the existence of transaction cost, the market-oriented division of labor is not as fine as possible, but should have a moderate scale. In other words, enterprises are substitutes for the market, that is, the "visible hand" of internal management of large enterprises replaces the "invisible hand" of market regulation. Chandler, a corporate historian, also reached the same view through the investigation of corporate history.
Late-developing countries have exerted their own comparative advantages at the beginning of development, such as the stability of resources, labor and environment, and can also exert their late-developing advantages, but they cannot be intoxicated with comparative advantages and fall into the trap of comparative advantages. It is necessary to change the development mode in time, put innovation first, and solidly promote high-quality development.
Labor value
Smith studied "what is the real measure of exchange value" from the perspective of division of labor. In his view, since there is a division of labor, most of the necessities that everyone needs depend on the labor of others, and individuals also work for others. People want to exchange things with each other. Commodity exchange is actually the exchange of labor hidden in commodities, so the value of commodities naturally depends on labor. Accordingly, Smith put forward the basic viewpoint of labor theory of value, which holds that labor is the real measure to measure the exchange value of all commodities.
In Marx's view, Smith's contribution is to confirm that labor determines the value of goods. The disadvantage is that there is no distinction between value and exchange value, and there is no distinction between value and use value. Classical economics adheres to the labor theory of value, and labor creates social wealth. Marx said that on the issue of value, the labor theory of value is not his contribution, but his contribution only puts forward the principle of duality of labor, that is, abstract labor and concrete labor. Marx also distinguished between value and exchange value. It seems that in the era of classical economics and Marx, it is inevitable to adhere to the labor theory of value. The Wealth of Nations is an economics about how to get rich. Of course, we should study what kind of labor is conducive to getting rich. Smith has two definitions of productive labor and unproductive labor. First of all, he regards whether he can produce material products as the standard to distinguish productive labor from unproductive labor, and thinks that the labor that produces material products is productive labor. For example, he said, "The labor of manufacturing workers can be fixed and realized in special commodities and marketable commodities, and it can take some time and will not die with life." On the contrary, "the labor of domestic servants is not fixed, and it is not realized in special goods or marketable goods." The labor of domestic servants dies with birth, so it is difficult to preserve the value of employing the same amount of labor in the future. "
(The writer is an academic member, professor of economics and doctoral supervisor of the National Socialism with Chinese characteristics Political Economy Research Center of Renmin University of China. )