The Wealth of Nations Warfare Quotes

In a civilized society, there are fewer people who can go to war compared to an uncivilized society. That's because people need to stay behind to run farms and make sure the production of the country doesn't crash and burn because everyone is off busy fighting. In a small tribe, the whole group can pick up and travel to another place, so there isn't the same demand for people to stay and work a specific piece of land.

In the old days, a large part of the society would consider themselves soldiers. That's because the standards for being a soldier weren't as high. Soldiers nowadays spend their entire adult lives training just for the possibility of going into combat. Back then, it was more like, "Hey, you look pretty tough. Come with us to war."

It wasn't until governments created huge military budgets that the modern army was born. This is what allowed people to become soldiers for their entire careers. And naturally, this led to much more skilled soldiers.

Back in the old days, people had to be in the army whether they wanted to or not. You'll still see this nowadays when a country does something called conscription, which means that they randomly draw names from a pool of people living in the country and force them to fight in a war.

The farther history goes, the more complicated war seems to get. Back in the old days, it was a pretty clear-cut affair, where two sides with swords and horses ran at each other. Nowadays, there's a remote control drone on the other side of the world.

Smith suggests that one reason military combat has become so advanced in the modern age is because "soldier" has become an official career. In the old days, all soldiers were amateurs who spent most of their time working a day job like miner or carpenter. In modern times though, people become soldiers for their whole careers and get a lot better at warfare.

In some countries, it's a militia instead of an army that does most of the actual fighting in wars. But militias are much more disorganized than armies. Most of the people who fight in militias have day jobs. The militia is more of a part-time gig.

Smith mentions that in some societies, everyone goes off to war at the same time. This is usually the case with nomads, who travel together anyway. So everyone just grabs a weapon and fights as well as they can.

Smith is amazed by the idea that in some societies, women have joined men as warriors. This just goes to show how different some cultures can be from one another. The folks from these other cultures would probably look at an English army and think, "Where are all the women? They're only using fifty percent of their people."

Smith believes that the only way a society can protect itself is through military force. Free trade is all well and good, but Smith knows that every now and then you're going to get violent conflict.