A key distinguishing feature of a commercial society is that, compared to earlier ‘stages’, it is richer in the crucial sense that its inhabitants are better fed, clothed and housed. The institution at the heart of this amelioration is the division of labour. It is not just that the division of labour produces ‘opulence’ but that this is a ‘good thing’. This judgment reveals what Ryan Hanley (2009a: 6, 93) in his discussion of Smith terms a ‘commitment to normativity’. Albeit Smith is very much the focus of attention in this chapter, this commitment is not his alone; there is a moral and normative core to the Scots' account of commerce and that will be explored in the following chapters. This chapter will, nonetheless, explore the obverse of the positive assessment of opulence or prosperity, namely, a negative view of poverty. For the Scots there is nothing redemptive about ‘poverty’ and any social ethic which endorses that view is deficient.

The records of Smith's Glasgow lectures that have survived report him professing that ‘opulence and freedom’ were the ‘two greatest blessings men can possess’ (LJA iii.112/185). Crucially these blessings are linked and it is this linkage that is central to Smith's vindication of commercial society. This chapter concentrates on ‘opulence’, the first blessing. I will discuss the second blessing in Chapters 4 and 5. In both discussions, however, the significance of their being linked is addressed.