Thread by @adamsmithworks

Good morning, Smithketeers! Time for Fun With 18thC Spelling! WHY does #AdamSmith, who invented modern economics, spell it with an O like some kind of crazy person? #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

It's because he's thinking about the Greek roots of the word. Oikos=Household and Nomia=Management [Sending some love to our friends @kefimgr] #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

We, the SmithTweeters, support a revival of this spelling. We're sure it won't bother any of our oeconomist friends, or their oeconomics departments. Right? #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Political Oeconomy, says Smith, does two things...oh, fine. We'll go back to the modern spelling, but only because we need all our characters to tweet the last half of #WealthOfNations. Those Os add up. #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

(Plus, we'd probably have to capitulate to the demands of Canadian SmithTweeters and start putting Us everywhere. Where would that leave us? Oueconomy? It's too much.) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

The first thing political ᴇᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ does is provide a plentiful revenue for the people. But Smith knows that’s backwards and he revises. It enables them to provide a plentiful revenue for themselves. That’s an important difference (IV.Intro.1) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

The second thing political economy does is provide the state with enough revenue for public services. (IV.Intro.1) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

There are two different systems of political economy for reaching these ends: commerce and agriculture. We’re going to start with commerce! (No cows today, folks, sorry.) (IV.Intro.2) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets #MaybeJustOne🐄

Smith is still really annoyed by how we talk about wealth and money as if they're the same thing. There’s not really anything he can do to stop it, but he’s going to point it out every.single.time. (IV.i.1) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

More financial advice from #AdamSmith. “The great affair, we always find, is to get money.” (IV.i.1) #ThanksWeGuess #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

It’s not just linguistically irritating to Smith, though, to use wealth and money interchangeably. It’s WRONG to think that piling up gold and silver means a country is wealthy. (IV.i.2) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

[Oh, thank goodness. Cows! They’re the money that moos.] (IV.i.2) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

#AdamSmith says that #JohnLocke says that gold and silver are wealth. Why would John Locke say that? Because gold and silver are the best portable store of value. Anything else perishes or decays. (IV.i.3) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

But others admit that it’s really hard and basically fruitless to eat money, so consumables are where real wealth is at. But you should still accumulate money so you can pay for wars. (IV.i.4) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

This means that nations do nutty things to guard their gold and silver, like forbidding people from taking money out of the country. VERY inconvenient for merchants. (IV.i.5–6) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

As you’d predict, merchants made good and bad arguments for ending prohibitions on taking money out of country.
Good ones were about utility and feasibility.
Bad ones were about the balance of trade and need for govt. support of trade.(IV.i.6–9) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Good or bad, the arguments worked. Everyone knew that foreign trade makes nations rich. They might not have understood how it worked (esp. says Smith, if they were politicians) but they knew it worked.(IV.i.10) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

So instead of keeping people from exporting money, the government turned its attention to maintaining the “balance of trade.” (IV.i.10) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Hey, #AdamSmith, tell us what you think about the #BalanceOfTrade?

Oh, it’s “more intricate, much more embarrassing, and just equally fruitless” as preventing exportation of money? #SmithSnark (IV.i.10) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

The new focus on #BalanceOfTrade led to a silly obsession with foreign imports (because they're paid for with gold) and not enough to trade within the country (even though it creates the most wealth). (IV.i.10) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

This is silly, says Smith, because we can “trust with perfect security” that free trade will always provide us with enough wine and enough gold and silver. The government can and should stay the heck out of it. (IV.i.11) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

[This is great and all, but we, the SmithTweeters, would like to know what Smith considers to be “enough” wine. Also, does this apply to tea? We have concerns.] (IV.i.11) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Oh! It’s okay! Smith’s observation applies to every commodity! Their supply is regulated by effectual demand! [A newer oeconomics book would have a graph for this somewhere.] (IV.i.12) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Gold and silver regulate themselves most efficiently because they are small in size and high in value. Like #SmithTweets! (IV.i.12) #WealthOfTweets

Also, small, valuable things like precious metals are easy and profitable to smuggle. It’s a waste of time to try to keep them in one place. (IV.i.13) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

News About Tea! British tea was more expensive than competitors’. The Boston Tea Party wasn’t about a new tax on tea. It was about forcing the colonists to buy expensive British tea! (IV.i.13) bostonteapartyship.com/the-tea-act
#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

[Canadian SmithTweeters remain nonplussed by American Revolutionary Fervor.] (And it's fervour, darnit.) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

We're going to call it there for today before we accidentally trigger an 1812 do-over. We'll be back with the rest of Chapter 1 tomorrow! #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets