Quotation of the Day

From An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Oxford World Classics Edition, Book 4, Chapter 1 (pages 276-277):

"That wealth consists in money, or in gold and silver, is a popular notion which naturally arises from the double function of money, as the instrument of commerce, and as the measure of value.  In consequence of its being the instrument of commerce, when we have money we can more readily obtain whatever else we have occasion for, than by means of any other commodity.  The great affair, we always find, is to get money.  When that is obtained, there is no difficulty in making any subsequent purchase.  In consequence of its being the measure of value, we estimate that of all other commodities by the quantity of money which they will exchange for.  We say of a rich man that he is worth a great deal, and of a poor man that he is worth very little money.  A frugal man, or a man eager to be rich, is said to love money; and a careless, a generous, or a profuse man, is said to be indifferent about it.  To grow rich is to get money; and wealth and money, in short, are, in common language, considered as in every respect synonymous.
A rich country, in the same manner as a rich man, is supposed to be a country abounding in money; and to heap up gold and silver in any country is supposed to be the readiest way to enrich it.  For some time after the discovery of America, the first enquiry of the Spaniards, when they arrived upon any unknown coast, used to be, if there was any gold or silver to be found in the neighbourhood?  By the information which they received, they judged whether it was worth while to make a settlement there, or if a country was worth the conquering.  Plano Carpino, a monk sent ambassador from the king of France to one of the sons of the famous Gengis Khan, says that the Tartars used frequently to ask him, if there was plenty of sheep and oxen in the kingdom of France?  Their enquiry had the same object with that of the Spaniards.  They wanted to know if the country was rich enough to be worth the conquering.  Among the Tartars, as among all other nations of shepherds, who are generally ignorant of the use of money, cattle are the instruments of commerce and the measures of value.  Wealth, therefore, according to them, consisted in cattle, as according to the Spaniards it consisted in gold and silver.  Of the two, the Tartar notion, perhaps, was the nearest to the truth."