WEALTH

has generally been accepted as the subject-matter of Economics, though economists have found it difficult to agree on a comprehensive definition. The initial difficulty is that wealth is the same word as well-being, though it is usually employed in a more definitely concrete sense. Wealth is regarded either as an accumulation of valuable things or as the po e ion of the right to secure and enjoy such valuable things. So the economists have attempted to give precision to the term by confining it to such things as satisfy human wants and can be transferred from person to person. Transferability involves exchange, which, in turn, means that a certain value can be attached to the transferable thing. of external material goods—i.e., of desirable things which satisfy human wants—land is wealth because it can be transferred, while air is not because it cannot be transferred. Similarly, a man may sell the goodwill of a busine , while he cannot transfer the respect in which he is held to another; the former is wealth, while the latter is not. These distinctions do not meet all the difficulties, but they do convey the idea that wealth is normally used in economic discu ion in a more or le material sense. It follows, therefore, that wealth is something which may be treated as measurable. Wealth may be produced, distributed, and exchanged. Its production will nece itate the exertion of human effort on external things. The conditions of it will differ according to the skill of man and his command over the resources of nature. Its distribution among those who cooperate in its production will be partly a matter of law and custom, and it will be partly governed by the nece ity of giving to each the reward requisite to induce him to exert the effort. Exchange will be effected by the adoption of some convenient standard of value, in terms of which one commodity may be compared with another. The maintenance and development of the wealth of the nation was long regarded ‘as an important question of policy. Attempts were made to secure these ends by conserving the supply of bullion, and by promoting exports while limiting imports, with the object of attaining a ‘favorable balance of trade,’ which would, it was supposed, bring bullion into the country. The fallacies of these mercantilist ideas were exposed by Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations (1776). But the principle of. trying to promote national wealth by protective Measures still exercised a powerful influence.