CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

The Anguish of Adam Smith 287
Prevailing Practices and Contrary Offerings by Adam
Common Views Smith in Wealth of Nations
The wealth of a nation is The wealth of a nation is in its
seen in its accumulation consumption of goods and
of national treasure, in services.
particular, gold and “Wealth does not consist in money or in
silver. gold and silver but in what money
purchases and is valuable only for
purchasing.” 18
Land and agriculture The process of exchange between
are the true sources agriculture and manufactured
of wealth. goods is the proper source of
wealth.
“The country supplies the town with the
means of subsistence and the materials
to manufacture. The town repays this
supply by sending back part of the
manufactured produce to the inhabitants
of the country. The gains of both are
mutual and reciprocal, and the division
of labour is in this, as in all other cases,
advantageous to all the different persons
employed in the various occupations
into which it is subdivided.” 19
The value of land is the The value of commodities results
principal source of the from the relationship of land,
value of commodities. labor and profit, of which labor is
the key component.
“The real value of all the different
component parts of price is measured by
the quantity of labour which they can,
each of them, purchase or command.
Labour measures the value not only of that
part of price which resolves itself into
labour, but of that which resolves itself
into rent and of that which resolves itself
into profit.” 20
(Continued)