# Their Masters — The Wealth of Nations character guide

> Their Masters in The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** their masters

**First appearance:** 0011-viii-of-the-wages-of-labour

## Snapshot

The unseen employers whose fields, workshops, and households absorb the labour of everyone below them, setting wages and terms from a distance.

## Who they are

In Smith's economic drama, masters are the counterpart to workers: the ones who buy labour, own the capital, and decide whether to hire or hold back. Their bargaining advantage is structural, not personal — they can wait longer, combine more easily, and rarely face ruin if a dispute drags on. That asymmetry is one of the early engines of the book's argument about why wages, prices, and power land where they do.

## Links

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