Criticizing mercantilists who sought to use the state to increase their nations’ supply of precious metals, Smith points out that a nation’s wealth should be measured by the well-being of its people. Prosperity in turn requires voluntary exchange of goods in a peaceful, well-ordered market. How to establish and maintain such markets? For Smith the answer lay in man’s social instincts, which government may encourage by upholding social standards of decency, honesty, and virtue, but which government undermines when it unduly interferes with the intrinsically private functions of production and exchange.
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9780865970083
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Liberty Fund - Incorporated
Publication Date: 02-28-1982
Pages: 1094
Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 3.00(d)
Age Range: 18 Years
Series: Glasgow Edition of the Works of Adam Smith