Reflections On The Formation And Distribution Of Wealth - Softcover

Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0461230267 ISBN 13: 9780461230260

Publisher: HardPress, 1794

Synopsis

Reflections On The Formation And Distribution Of Wealth by Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot is an English translation of an influential eighteenth?century French treatise on political economy. The essay argues that wealth arises not from a simple equal division of land, but from a complex system of production, exchange, and social division of labor. Turgot identifies three primary social classes in early societies—the cultivators who produce subsistence, the artificers who transform goods, and the proprietors who own land and capital—and traces how land cultivation, revenue generation, and exchanges drive the circulation of wealth. He analyzes how lands are made productive through various arrangements, the role of capital and advances in agriculture and industry, and the emergence of money as a universal measure and medium of exchange. The work also explicates the nature of value, the means by which metals such as gold and silver become money, and the regulation of interest and credit. As a foundational precursor to later economic thought, it prefigures some themes later developed by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, while offering its own rigorous account of the formation and distribution of riches.

Edition details

• Publisher: HardPress
• Publication date: 1794
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0461230267
• ISBN 13: 9780461230260
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 142