Adam Smith, natural resources and financialization

Abstract

The objective of this work is to describe the importance of natural resources in the work of Adam Smith to analyze the processes of commodification of nature. A historical description will be made from the fifteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, trying to contrast the different schools of economic thought and the role played by natural resources in their economic analysis, highlighting the work of Adam Smith within the classical school, the which gave rise to environmental economics (neoclassical school), whose conception of natural resources has commodified their use value, increasing the processes of privatization and financialization of nature. Therefore, environmental policies related to taxes, property rights, payment for environmental services have predominated, which include a set of financial instruments such as bonds, derivative products, among other market mechanisms that have deepened the problems of environmental degradation, pollution and overexploitation, increasing economic and ecological inequality between developed and undeveloped countries.