Adam Smith on wealth, power, and the self-correcting nature of markets

Last week (see here and here), I mentioned how I recently re-discovered that Adam Smith published a 79-page pamphlet in 1784 containing 13 separate inserts or “additions” to the first two editions of The Wealth of Nations (1776, 1778). Of these 13 inserts, the first two additions correspond to Volume 1 of his magnum opus. (The first two editions of The Wealth of Nations were originally printed as a two-volume set.) First off (Addition #1 to Vol. 1 of WN), Smith explores the relationship between wealth and power: “Wealth as Mr. Hobbes says, is power. But the person who either acquires, or succeeds to a great fortune, does not necessarily acquire or succeed to any political power, either civil or military. His fortune may, perhaps, afford him the means of acquiring both; but the mere possession of that fortune does not necessarily convey to him either. The power which that possession immediately and directly conveys to him, is the power of purchasing; a certain command over all the…