Words    Words    Words

We’re still waiting for a few external things before the Brand!  New! blog and homepage come to exist.  Meanwhile, I’m about ready to declare myself done with The Wealth of Nations. While I still have several chapter to comment on, I have read them, and they do not concern aspects of political economy that interest [...]

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Page 424: “When manufactures have advanced to a certain pitch of greatness, the fabrication of the instruments of trade becomes itself the object of a great number of very important manufactures.”
Page 436: “To hurt in any degree the interest of any one order of citizens, for no other purpose but to promote that of some [...]

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This chapter deals with colonies.  Smith begins by discussing ancient Greek and Roman colonies, in order to contrast them with the colonies of his day.  I don’t know enough history to be certain, but I get the feeling that the ancient colonies had nothing in common with the more modern ones except the name, so [...]

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This chapter deals with treaties of commerce.  As one would expect, Smith wants as few restrictions on trade as possible, and makes a good case.
Page 410: “A direct foreign trade of consumption is always more advantageous than a round-about one; and to bring the same value of foreign goods to the home market, requires a [...]

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p 392: “…every branch of trade in which the merchant can sell his goods for a price which replaces to him, with the ordinary profits of stock, the whole capital employed in preparing and sending them to market, can be carried on without a bounty.”
This is not the first time we’ve seen that phrase, “the [...]

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This very short chapter deals with drawbacks.  I’d have had an easier time of it if I knew what drawbacks are.  Next chapter is about bounties, and the same applies.  As near as I can tell, a drawback is a refund of a portion of whatever duty is charged on export.
Page 389: “They tend not [...]

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In this chapter Smith gets into restrictions on trade in some detail.  In brief, he argues that restricting trade, while not always a mistake, will never be advantageous economically to society as a whole, but at most to certain small sections of it.  He address balance of trade, and makes some interesting points.  In brief, [...]

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Here we begin what seems to be Smith’s major campaign: to prove that anything that restrains trade (with a very few exceptions) is bad for society as a whole.  The difficulty with this proposition appears in the very formulation: society “as a whole” consists of divisions whose interests are opposed to each other; thus to [...]

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Page 326: “That wealth consists in money, or in gold and silver, is a popular notion which naturally arises from the double function of money, as the instrument of commerce, as well as the measure of value.”  In fact, according to Smith, wealth of the individual consists in what can be purchased for money, and [...]

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319: “The great commerce of every civilized society, is that carried between the inhabitants of the town and those of the country.”  Even though this has changed in the sense that this commerce is now a tiny fraction of all commerce, it is still the most fundamental, because without it, nothing else can happen.  The [...]

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