• Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.

    Adam Smith: Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.
    Adam Smith, comte Germain Garnier, Dugald Stewart (1835). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.96