Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol

Luis Vega is a Bolivian singer and songwriter who originates from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the tropical town where I visited and read Book I of The Wealth of Nations last week. Below is a small sample of his … Continue reading →

I have been reading Book I of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations in the old town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in the lowlands of Bolivia this past week, and I will have much more to say about my … Continue reading →

Chapter 7 of The Wealth of Nations (available here) is a veritable economics tour de force. Among other things, Adam Smith draws a distinction between actual price (or “market price”) and natural price (or what Smith also calls “real price”): … Continue reading →

In Chapter 6 of The Wealth of Nations (available here), Adam Smith writes: “Wages, profit, and rent, are the three original sources of all revenue as well as of all exchangeable value. All other revenue is ultimately derived from some … Continue reading →

Chapter 5 of The Wealth of Nations (available here) draws a distinction between “real” and “nominal” prices. To begin, the “nominal” price of any given good or service is its money price, which can change over time, since the value … Continue reading →

Picking up where we left off, Adam Smith concludes Chapter 4 of The Wealth of Nations (available here) thus: 4. Para. 18. Last but not least, Smith concludes Chapter 4 with the following words of warning or an apology of … Continue reading →

Which came first? Money or the division of labor? Chapter 4 of The Wealth of Nations is devoted to “The Origin and Use of Money,” and in the first part of this chapter (paragraphs 1 to 11, available here), Adam … Continue reading →

The Christmas season might be over and done with in most of the Anglo-American world, but it is just getting started in my beloved Island of Puerto Rico: Three Kings’ Day and “Octavitas” are still around the corner!

Chapter 3 of The Wealth of Nations (available here) is a veritable microcosm of Adam Smith’s genius, another timeless reason why his great work is still worth reading today, 250 years later. Here, Smith not only introduces one of his … Continue reading →

In his posthumously published treatise History of Economic Analysis (Oxford U Press, 1954; available here), Joseph Schumpeter made the following gratuitous and now oft-quoted claim: “… the fact is that The Wealth of Nations does not contain a single analytic … Continue reading →