Thread by @adamsmithworks

Today, we continue #AdamSmith's Digression on Silver. You have been warned. #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

When last we spoke, we learned that nothing interesting happened to silver prices between 1570 and 1640. Maybe people were too busy creating great literature? Anyway, Silver prices rose again between 1640 and 1700, for a lot of reasons.(I.xig.1) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

War makes everything expensive, especially corn. Cornfields become battlefields, and ploughshares become swords. (Reminder: "corn" is a catch-all term for "the staple crop(s) of the population") (I.xi.g.3) #ItsAllCorn #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Paying people a bounty to export corn might encourage abundance in the long term (as more people might plant) but short term, it just causes scarcity and high prices at home. (I.xi.g.4) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

There’s also debasement of silver by clipping & wearing. Wearing is the natural wearing down of a coin’s size/weight through use. (I.xi.g.5) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

(People would also “salt” coins by shaking them in a pouch to speed wear so they could collect the bits that fell off. We, the SmithTweeters, love early modern crime.) (I.xi.g.5) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Clipping is cutting off pieces of a coin to melt down and use. Super illegal. Happened all the time. It’s one reason modern coins have milled edges. (I.xi.g.5) historyhouse.co.uk/articles/coin_…
#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

But even as the century became more peaceful and orderly, the price of silver continued to rise. The is only partially because of bounty on exporting corn (I.xi.g.7–15) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Corn, when Smith was writing, was expensive not because of the bounty on exports as much as because of bad weather.(I.xi.g.17) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

(Smith gets a little biblical here when he notes that “10 years of extraordinary scarcity, besides, are not more wonderful than 10 years of extraordinary plenty.”)(I.xi.g.17)

#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Price of labor is rising when Smith writes because demand for labor is rising, not because silver is falling.(I.xi.g.20) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

SIDE-EYE on the colonialist "savage nations" talk, Dr. Smith. (I.xi.g.26) threadreaderapp.com/thread/1346098…
#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

But his greater observation, which is the vastly increased supply of silver and increased market for all trade goods, is important even when his wording isn’t what we’d like. (I.xi.g.27–29) tenor.com/view/ok-fine-w…
#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

(#AdamSmith calls #tea a drug. We have no idea why he’d say that. Excuse us while we brew another pot to calm our nerves.) (I.xi.g.27) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Remember that gold and silver don’t all become money for exchange. Some of it (LOTS of it) is used up for manufacturing stuff (LIKE TEA SETS) gilding books, making lace, etc. And that’s sort of “lost” to the money market.(I.xi.g.30) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

More #SmithSnark! “The elegant and, sometimes, well informed Author…” (I.xi.g.33) ameriburn.org/public-resourc…
#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Really, metal prices are impressively stable over time. And we shouldn’t worry too much about discovery of new mines or loss of metal to manufacturing. (I.xi.g.37) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

And that’s it! Digression on Silver over and out! Back to….OMG IS IT REALLY A DIGRESSION IF IT’S LONGER THAN MOST OF YOUR REAL CHAPTERS?? We’ll see you tomorrow. We need more tea. #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets