22 lines
886 B
Markdown
22 lines
886 B
Markdown
<!-- generated: provider=openrouter model=arcee-ai/trinity-large-preview:free date=2026-02-19 source=book-4-chapter-01 -->
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# Political Economy Objectives
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## Definition
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The goals that governments and societies pursue in managing economic affairs, which under the mercantile system focused primarily on accumulating precious metals through favourable trade balances, rather than on promoting real production, efficient resource allocation, and general prosperity.
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## Source Chapter
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Book IV, Chapter 1
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## Context
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Smith introduces political economy as the field concerned with national wealth, and immediately contrasts the mercantile objective of metal accumulation with what he sees as the proper goals: maximizing productive capacity, ensuring efficient resource use, and promoting the real welfare of the population through economic freedom.
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## Economic Domain
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Regulation
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---
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