Conclusions

In our brief description of the views of wealth up to Smith we have moved from trade to the surplus of necessaries, on to the role of technology in cultivation and then to capital accumulation in the productive sectors of the economy.

Concepts such as surplus in the production of necessaries, backward agriculture, reproduction, productive and unproductive labor and, of course, capital accumulation are still of crucial importance in present-day discussions.¹⁷ Between winter 2015 and spring 2016, Ethiopia experienced a serious famine in the northern part of the country. Many countries in Africa are in an endemic condition of food vulnerability. The huge granaries that one can easily see outside some capital cities in Africa witness a situation in which stocks of cereals have to be kept aside in order to face times of scarcity. Goal number two of the Sustainable Development Goals, which were approved by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, reads, “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture,” and target 2.3 asks for a doubling of agricultural productivity by 2030 (see UN, 2015).¹⁸

The method of investigation of classical political economists relied a lot on com­parative economic history and a long-run approach to the evolution of societies. Both issues represent major challenges for present-day theories and views on development. Unfortunately, few modern development economists seem to be aware of the analytical wealth of classical political economy and of how far this wealth could contribute to deal­ing with modern challenges.