Send us a text Tracing out Adam Smith’s Book IV, chapters 1–6, to show how mercantilism mistakes money for wealth, how protection creates monopolies at home, and why free exchange raises real prosperity. Smith defends two narrow exceptions—defense and tax parity—while rejecting bounties and politicized treaties that entangle trade with war. • mercantile vs physiocratic systems and their influence • wealth as goods and industry, not specie • balance of trade as a “pestilent error” • make-or-b...
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Send us a text Tracing out Adam Smith’s Book IV, chapters 1–6, to show how mercantilism mistakes money for wealth, how protection creates monopolies at home, and why free exchange raises real prosperity. Smith defends two narrow exceptions—defense and tax parity—while rejecting bounties and politicized treaties that entangle trade with war. • mercantile vs physiocratic systems and their influence • wealth as goods and industry, not specie • balance of trade as a “pestilent error” • make-or-b...
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Episode #2--The "Model"
The Answer Is Transaction Costs
57 minutes
4 months ago
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Episode #2--The "Model"
Send us a text Transaction costs provide the key to understanding Adam Smith's complete philosophical system and how his two great works form an integrated whole. • Smith's two essential claims: humans desire to learn proper behavior and have an innate propensity to truck, barter, and exchange • Sympathy in Smith's view means synchronizing feelings with others—not perfect emotional matching but sufficient "concords" for social harmony • Three core principles guide proper behavior: just...
The Answer Is Transaction Costs
Send us a text Tracing out Adam Smith’s Book IV, chapters 1–6, to show how mercantilism mistakes money for wealth, how protection creates monopolies at home, and why free exchange raises real prosperity. Smith defends two narrow exceptions—defense and tax parity—while rejecting bounties and politicized treaties that entangle trade with war. • mercantile vs physiocratic systems and their influence • wealth as goods and industry, not specie • balance of trade as a “pestilent error” • make-or-b...