# Common Servants — The Wealth of Nations character guide

> Common Servants in The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** common servants, Their, their

**First appearance:** 0037-iii-of-the-accumulation-of-capital-or-of-productive-and-unproductive-labour

## Snapshot

Ordinary household workers whose wages and upkeep Smith tracks to show how the price of labor settles across an entire economy.

## Who they are

They are the baseline case, the workers whose pay reflects nothing but the going rate for unskilled hands. Their situation dramatizes the gap between what keeps a laborer alive and what lets him raise a family, a gap Smith treats as the real floor under wages. Following them through the early chapters shows how the wealth of a nation is measured in the daily bread of its least conspicuous workers.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wealth_of_nations_se/characters/common_servants
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wealth_of_nations_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wealth_of_nations_se/characters