Key Arguments

• A villein who had secretly accumulated some stock would 'naturally conceal it with great care from his master, to whom it would otherwise have belonged, and take the first opportunity of running away to a town,' showing that any surplus was hidden and then physically moved to urban jurisdictions.
• The law deliberately weakened lordly power over fugitives: 'if he could conceal himself there from the pursuit of his lord for a year, he was free for ever,' so urban residence for a limited time conferred permanent personal freedom.
• Smith generalizes that 'Whatever stock, therefore, accumulated in the hands of the industrious part of the inhabitants of the country, naturally took refuge in cities, as the only sanctuaries in which it could be secure to the person that acquired it,' explicitly linking the legal privileges of towns to the geographic concentration of capital.
• This migration of stock depended on a political design: the law was 'so indulgent to the inhabitants of towns, and so desirous of diminishing the authority of the lords over those of the country,' revealing the intentional use of town privileges as a counterweight to feudal power.

Source Quotes

servitude of villanage, some little stock should accumulate, he would naturally conceal it with great care from his master, to whom it would otherwise have belonged, and take the first opportunity of running away to a town. The law was at that time so indulgent to the inhabitants of towns, and so desirous of diminishing the authority of the lords over those of the country, that if he could conceal himself there from the pursuit of his lord for a year, he was free for ever.

servitude of villanage, some little stock should accumulate, he would naturally conceal it with great care from his master, to whom it would otherwise have belonged, and take the first opportunity of running away to a town. The law was at that time so indulgent to the inhabitants of towns, and so desirous of diminishing the authority of the lords over those of the country, that if he could conceal himself there from the pursuit of his lord for a year, he was free for ever. Whatever stock, therefore, accumulated in the hands of the industrious part of the inhabitants of the country, naturally took refuge in cities, as the only sanctuaries in which it could be secure to the person that acquired it.

The law was at that time so indulgent to the inhabitants of towns, and so desirous of diminishing the authority of the lords over those of the country, that if he could conceal himself there from the pursuit of his lord for a year, he was free for ever. Whatever stock, therefore, accumulated in the hands of the industrious part of the inhabitants of the country, naturally took refuge in cities, as the only sanctuaries in which it could be secure to the person that acquired it. The inhabitants of a city, it is true, must always ultimately derive their subsistence, and the whole materials and means of their industry, from the country.

Key Concepts

• servitude of villanage, some little stock should accumulate, he would naturally conceal it with great care from his master, to whom it would otherwise have belonged, and take the first opportunity of running away to a town.
• The law was at that time so indulgent to the inhabitants of towns, and so desirous of diminishing the authority of the lords over those of the country, that if he could conceal himself there from the pursuit of his lord for a year, he was free for ever.
• Whatever stock, therefore, accumulated in the hands of the industrious part of the inhabitants of the country, naturally took refuge in cities, as the only sanctuaries in which it could be secure to the person that acquired it.

Context

Early in this passage of Book III, Chapter III, as Smith explains how specific legal rules about villeins’ freedom in towns led accumulated rural stock to concentrate in cities.