erson must bear a certain proportion to
his capital, so the number of those that can be continually employed by
all the members of a great society must bear a certain proportion to the
whole capital of that society and never can exceed that proportion. No
regulation of commerce can increase the quantity of industry in any
society beyond what its capital can maintain. It can only divert a part
of it into a direction into which it might not otherwise have gone; and
it is by no means certain that this artificial direction is likely to be
more advantageous to the society than that into which it would have gone
of its own accord.

Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most
advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his
own advantage, indeed, and not that of the society, which he has in
view. But the study of his own advantage naturally, or rather
necessarily, leads him to prefer that employment which is most
advantageous to the society.

As every individual, therefore, endeavors as much as he can both to
employ his capital in the support of domestic industry and so to direct
that industry that its product may be of the greatest value; every
individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of the
society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to
promote the public interest nor knows how much he is promoting it. By
preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he
intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a
manner that its product may be of the greatest value, he intends only
his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an
invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor
is it always worse for the society that it was no part of it. By
pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society
more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never
known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.
It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very
few words need be employed in dissuading them from it.

What is the species of domestic industry which his capital can employ,
and of which the product is likely to be of the greatest value, every
individual, it is evident, can, in his local situation, judge much
better than any statesman or lawgiver can do for him. The statesman who
should attemp