Smith's Limitations In His Criticism Of "Mercantilist Concept Of Monetary Wealth"

Under the traditional influence of Adam Smith's strongly criticizing mercantilism, there is a great dogmatic tendency in the domestic academic field as for the mercantilist thinking, which is regarded as an "out-dated and naive" theory. Based on the ground of historical materialism, this paper attempts to avoid the bondage and influence of the dogma and stereotypes and uses the criticized content about monetary wealth concept in mercantilism in Business and Principles of Mercantilism by Adam Smith as the specific material for discussion and analyzed object and tries to make an in-depth analysis of the limitations of the criticism made on "monetary wealth concept in mercantilism" according to the basic category of money. Consequently, the paper reveals the inherent and positive wealth concept existing in mercantilism.This paper is divided into five chapters.All the cited contents as proof in the thesis are truly based on the original of the works of Smith. The first chapter describes the ideological purpose of this paper, the object for discussion and analysis, the meaning of this study, and the research train of thought as well as the content framework. The second chapter focuses on Smith's basic judgement about mercantilism standpoint on the relationship between money and wealth and the basic connotation of Smith's concept category of wealth as well, and analyses the lack of awareness of the wealth and misplaced concept category of wealth reflecting in the course of his criticism about mercantilism. The third chapter tells the "de-money" idea of Smith reflecting in the course of the discussion about gold and silver, the analysing train of thought based on the simple circulation of commodities, and the following limitations in Smith's critique:the neglect of the basic functions of money, the trade relationship proposition analysis of money "de-capitalism", and the deletion of money function and monetary adjustment mechanism. The forth chapter analyzes the source of value theory and money epistemology resulting in the limitations in Smith's critique. The fifth chapter points out that the money and wealth concept of mercantilist should be understood dialectically and materialistically, and gives a brief summary about the basic thought of this paper as well as some suggestions for the further study.