Smith classified domestic servants, civil servants, clergy, lawyers, and entertainers as unproductive because their work did not produce durable vendible commodities.

Evidence (1)

What counts as productive? Redefining ‘producers’ in economic discourse, 1890–1960 — Classical political economy: producers as creators of material wealth

the work of all of them perishes in the very instant of its pro - duction

https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2024.2404355#unit-4-p2

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