The great insight he took from Smith’s treatise was that while the new aristocracy of the modern world would be based on wealth rather than inherited bloodlines, the psychological imperatives of commercial societies would be driven by the same passions for distinction that animated the aristocracies of old, and would benefit from the same emotional urge for conspicuous displays of extravagance that royal families had enjoyed in the medieval world. The crucial Adams contribution was to recognize that Smith’s analysis of the irrational urges driving the new commercial aristocracy would prove
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