91. The total Riches of a nation consists, 1. in the clear
revenue of all the real estates, multiplied by the rate of the
price of land. 2. in the sum of all the moveable riches existing
in a nation.
Real estates are equivalent to any capital equal to their
annual revenue, multiplied by the current rate at which lands are
sold. Thus if we add the revenue of all lands, viz. the clear
revenue they render to the proprietor, and to all those that
share in the property, as the lord that levies a rent, the curate
that levies the tythe, the sovereign that levies the tax; if say
I, we should add all these sums, and multiply them by the rate at
which lands are sold, we would have the sum of all the wealth of
a nation in real estates. To have the whole of a nation's wealth,
the moveable riches ought to be joined, which consist in the sum
of capitals converted into enterprises of culture, industry, and
commerce, which is never lost; as all advances, in any kind of
undertaking, must unceasingly return to the undertaker, to be
unceasingly converted into enterprises, which without that could
not be continued. It would be a gross mistake to confound the
immense mass of moveable riches with the mass of money that
exists in a state; the latter is a small object in comparison
with the other. To convince one's self of this, we need only
remember the immense quantity of beasts, utensils, and seed,
which constitute the advances of agriculture; the materials,
tools, moveables, and merchandises of every kind, that fill up
the work-houses, shops, and warehouses of all manufacturers, of
all merchants, and of all traders, and it will be plain, that in
the totality of riches either real or moveable of a nation, the
specie makes but an inconsiderable part: but all riches and money
being continually exchangeable, they all represent money, and
money represents them all.
