# Their Servants — The Wealth of Nations character guide

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

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** their servants

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

## Snapshot

Household workers whose labour vanishes in the moment of performance, leaving no vendible trace behind for future exchange.

## Who they are

Servants occupy a peculiar place in Smith's scheme: their work is real, often necessary, and yet unproductive in his technical sense because it fixes itself in no lasting commodity. They are maintained out of the annual produce just like everyone else, but they add nothing to next year's stock. Their presence sharpens the book's distinction between labour that reproduces capital and labour that merely consumes it.

## Links

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