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Quotation of the Day…

…  is from Book IV, Chapter 1 – on page 435, Vol. 1, of the 1981 Liberty Fund edition – of Adam Smith’s 1776 An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations:

We trust with perfect security that the freedom of trade, without any attention of government, will always supply us with the wine which we have occasion for: and we may trust with equal security that it will always supply us with all the gold and silver which we can afford to purchase or to employ, either in circulating our commodities, or in other uses.

DBx: Matters today differ somewhat from Smith’s day, for we now live in a world littered with central banks that claim responsibility for controlling the supply of money in each of their respective countries. Nevertheless, Smith’s larger point holds – namely, to worry that trade will harm us by reducing the domestic supply of money is to worry without warrant.

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