Thread by @adamsmithworks

So one of the things we sometimes wonder about when we work on #WealthOfTweets is how #AdamSmith decided to divide up #WealthOfNations. 65 pages on silver prices...followed by the history of textiles in, like, 12? #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Anyway, here we go! #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Improvements make things cheaper—better machinery, higher skilled labor, better division of labor all drive prices down. (1.xi.o.1) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Sometimes the cost of raw materials goes up so much that these improvements can’t compensate. (This is why SmithTweets are so pricey. You think this kind of pithy commentary grows on trees?) (1.xi.o.2) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Smith is really interested in watches, which is very 18thC of him. They’re his go-to example for increasingly good, increasingly inexpensive toys. It’s not clear he really approves of them. (1.xi.o.4) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

(More on #AdamSmith and watches here: adamsmithworks.org/speakings/what… )

Clothing manufacture hasn’t changed as rapidly, but if you look at what it was like in the 15thC you can see the improvements namely: spinning wheels, machine for winding yarn and warping loom, and fulling mills. (1.xi.o.5–12) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Sumptuary laws interfere with having a good sense of the real price of textiles. It's like drug prohibition, but for ruffles! (1.xi.o.9–10) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Yes, Elizabeth I wore knitted stockings. (You can see a pair @Hatfield_House!) but she also refused a patent to William Lee, who invented a machine to knit stockings. (1.xi.o.11) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

TL;DR: It might look like some (textile) manufactures were cheaper in the past than they are in a more advanced economy, but there's more evidence that they, like everything else, have gotten cheaper as economies get wealthier. (I.xi.o.13–15) #SmithTweets #WealthOfTweets

(Want more fun on the history of economics and textiles, to understand why Smith is talking about it at all? @vpostrel's new book can tell you more!) amzn.to/36bhDG3
#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

You can also read Caren Oberg's great piece on 18th century dressmaking here: adamsmithworks.org/life_times/who…
And check out @AmericanDuchess @zachpinsent and @abbyc_o_x for starters!