Causes of Growing Production

Here are some of the things which may help a nation to become more productive and thus "wealthier." The list may not cover the whole story (we don't know everything) and the different items on the list may overlap and certainly are interdependent. But the list will serve to organize our "inquiry. "

increase in quantities of resources available
discovery of new technologies
increases in the division of labor and specialization
improvements in the allocation of existing resources
increases in the rate of use of existing resources

The last two causes will be the subjects of most of the chapters in this hyperbook; accordingly, we will leave them for later. The first three were also the ones which Adam Smith stressed, But not in the order of importance that Smith gave them. Smith put the division of labor first. In this chapter, we will follow the more modern approach, and put resources first.

Resources