Foil

Character Role Analysis

The Farmers and the Merchants

There are two major groups of people who run the economy in The Wealth of Nations—the farmers and the merchants. The farmers live in the country and the merchants live in the cities, and both tend to benefit each other.

Some people might think that the merchants exist to cheat and lie to the farmers. But in Smith's mind, the merchants take on the role of finding customers for the farmers so the farmers can spend their time thinking about making food. If they didn't have the merchants, they'd spend more time on advertising and selling than they would producing food. And the whole country would suffer as a result because there'd be less food. And food is delicious.