Developing a Comprehensive Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of Capitalist Economic Systems: Adam Smith

Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776 [1976], hereafter cited as WN) marked the advent of “mature classical economics” (Walsh and Gram 1980: 48). Smith provided a clear conception of long-period prices that included a general rate of profit on capital as an element of normal production prices. He thus based the theory of value and distribution firmly on capitalist market relations. In addition, Smith also made some decisive steps towards integrating manufacturing and trade into the theory of production and growth, although he continued to attribute a special role to agriculture, and, in particular, to “food” or “corn” production, in the generation of the surplus.