871 B
871 B
Diamond Buckles Metaphor
Definition
Smith's illustration of how commercial wealth transforms aristocratic spending from maintaining large numbers of dependents to purchasing trivial luxury goods, showing that for the gratification of childish vanity, great proprietors bartered their whole power and authority for frivolous items that provided exclusive personal consumption.
Source Chapter
Book III, Chapter 4
Context
Used to demonstrate how the introduction of commerce gave landowners a method of consuming their entire rent themselves without sharing it, leading them to exchange the maintenance of 1000 men for a year for personal luxury items, thereby destroying their political power.
Economic Domain
Consumption