One difficulty with this discussion of wealth is that several of the 
contributors tie wealth to money. As an historian of the ancient economy, I 
have the luxury of considering the nature of wealth in societies within 
which money has a far more limited role than now. It seems to me that for 
people then, wealth consisted of valuables (whether valuable for their 
income-generating potential or because they could be sold or traded to 
others). Such valuables included rights to the use of land, social status (a 
key source of income), and goods. The demand for valuables, and hence their 
worth and the wealth of society, could increase either through a growth in 
purchasing power, or the creation of new desires. Purchasing power could 
grow because of increased production, closely linked to population size, or 
improvements in credit, including improvements in the use of money and 
increases in its velocity, developments that allowed expectations of future 
wealth to increase present purchasing power. I think wealth also increased 
as a result of the creation of new desires. This was one of the signal 
accomplishments of the market system; by making goods and services known and 
easy to access, the markets kindled new desires, and the Greeks responded by 
increasing production in order to acquire these new-found valuables. 
 
Keith Roberts