Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol
Adam Smith pop quiz: is it better to be a worker or a capitalist?
Chapter 10 of The Wealth of Nations is the second-longest chapter in Book 1 of Smith’s magnum opus: it consists of two parts, contains 115 paragraphs (52 paragraphs in part one, followed by another 63 paragraphs in part two), and … Continue reading
Adam Smith versus Karl Marx
Chapter 9 of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (available here) is another intellectual and historical tour de force. Among other things, Smith not only compares and contrasts the levels of wealth of many different nations and regions of the world … Continue reading
Adam Smith: champion of the working classes
Let’s pick up my survey of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations where we left off: with Chapter 8 on “The Wages of Labour” (available here). As it happens, this particular chapter is one of the lengthiest and most tedious chapters … Continue reading
Santa Cruz de la Sierra update
Last weekend, I got to meet a pro-market sociologist, Fabio Rojas (Indiana), as well as the “open borders” advocate Bryan Caplan (George Mason) at the Santa Cruz Economic and Political Forum in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Among the … Continue reading
Monday medley: musica de Luis Vega
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
Sunday song: Santa Cruz de antaño
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
Adam Smith’s three laws of market price motion
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
Adam Smith’s general theory of price
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
Adam Smith on real versus nominal prices
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
Adam Smith’s apology
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

