The fourth of the four stages is the Age of Commerce. Since the stages are progressive then this stage marks an advance. Its superiority is conveyed by its synonyms - it is ‘civilised’ or ‘cultivated’ or ‘polished’. But we need also to recall some of the straws blowing in the wind of the earlier chapters. The Scots were not uncritical of this fourth stage, of their own society. While it is too strong to say that they were ambivalent, they nevertheless judge commercial society to be superior only ‘on balance’; there is a downside. This chapter examines their overall assessment, both their positive and negative appraisals. This will prove to be a lengthy and involved task. An important reason for this is that on this issue the Scots appear more divided and that the divisions are not straightforward or clear-cut. The most appropriate image is that of points on a scale (differing shades of grey) rather than root and branch opposition (black or white). Even those, like Smith and Hume, who accentuate the positive do not eliminate the negative elements and conversely those, like Ferguson and Kames, who find much to debit do not withhold entries on the credit side of the ledger.

A: Prosperity

A student records Smith professing in his Glasgow lectures that ‘opulence and freedom’ were the ‘two greatest blessings men can possess’ (LF: 185). This linkage is central to Smith's vindication of commercial society (cf. Berry 1989, 1992). I will discuss his view of ‘freedom’ in the next section; here I focus on ‘opulence’.

i) The Division of Labour

For Smith one characteristic of a developed commercial society is the presence of a ‘universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people’ (WN: 22). A mark of this opulence is that these ranks are supplied ‘abundantly’ with what they have ‘occasion for’. The source of this abundance is the division of labour. Smith conjectures that this practice is a consequence of a ‘propensity’ in human nature to ‘truck, barter and exchange’ (25). Since this is a ‘propensity’, an inclination or disposition, then this consequence (which results in ‘so many advantages’) is neither the fruit of deliberation nor an intended outcome. Furthermore, as a propensity it cannot be the prerogative of the fourth stage alone; the division of labour in a rudimentary form exists in the first stage.