Adam Smith concludes his survey of public duties in Chapter 1 of Book V of The Wealth of Nations (available here; scroll down to “Part IV”) by pointing out one last major outlay or “expence” that a government must incur: “Over and above the expence necessary for enabling the sovereign to perform his several duties [i.e. the duties of national defense, justice, and public works], a certain expence is requisite for the support of his dignity.” (WN, V.i.h.1; my emphasis) Even here, Smith has something important to say. More specifically, he observes that the size or magnitude of this particular expense — what he calls “the Expence of supporting the Dignity of the Sovereign” — is a function of two variables. One is the general level of wealth of society:

“In an opulent and improved society, where all the different orders of people are growing every day more expensive in their houses, in their furniture, in their tables, in their dress, and in their equipage, it cannot well be expected that the sovereign should alone hold out against the fashion. He naturally, therefore, or rather necessarily, becomes more expensive in all those different articles too. His dignity even seems to require that he should become so.” (WN, V.i.h.2)

In other words, the more wealthy a society is, the more it will cost to maintain “the dignity of the sovereign.” The other variable is what type of government a country has. The majesty of a Versailles (pictured below), of a royal court of an absolute monarch of a great nation, will be more expensive to maintain than that of, say, a governor’s mansion of a small or upstart state:

“As in point of dignity a monarch is more raised above his subjects than the chief magistrate of any republic is ever supposed to be above his fellow-citizens, so a greater expence is necessary for supporting that higher dignity. We naturally expect more splendour in the court of a king than in the mansion-house of a doge or burgo-master.” (WN, V.i.h.3)

Although this is one of the shortest subsections of Smith’s entire magnum opus — it contains a mere six sentences spread across three short paragraphs — here, the Scottish scholar is making a deeper point: appearances are as important as reality, form is just as important as substance, for in addition to the duties of national defense (see Part 1 of Ch. 1 of Book V), the administration of justice (see Part 2), and the provision of public goods (see Part 3), the government also has a duty to conduct itself with a certain decorum and majesty (Part 4).

Nota bene: I will conclude my general survey of Chapter 1 of Book V of The Wealth of Nations in my next post.