“The importation of gold and silver is not the principal, much less the sole benefit which a nation derives from its foreign trade.”

— Adam Smith

Source: (1776), Book IV, Chapter I, p. 479.

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Adam Smith 175

Scottish moral philosopher and political economist 1723–1790

Paul Craig Roberts (1939) American economist

"A Bankrupt Superpower," CounterPunch (2008-03-18)

“A great nation's foreign policy involves power, money, trade, oil and arms, but it proeeds from ideas.”

William Pfaff (1928–2015) American journalist

Source: Barbarian Sentiments - How The American Century Ends (1989), Chapter 5, Nationalism, p. 149.

“The economic betterment of a nation which is at a low level of intelligence and culture, or in which the population is small in relation to the extent and productivity of its territory, is best accomplished through free trade with highly cultivated, rich, and industrious nations. In the case of such a country every restriction of trade, intended to plant manufacturing industry within its borders, is premature and injurious, not only to the welfare of mankind in general, but to the progress of the nation itself. Only when the intellectual, political, and economic education of the nation has so far advanced as a result of free trade that its further progress would be checked and hindered by the import of foreign manufactures and the lack of a sufficient market for its own goods, can protective measures be justified.”

Friedrich List (1789–1846) German economist with dual American citizenship

Introduction, in Hirst (1909), p. 312
The National System of Political Economy (1841)

“Kisses are but like sands of gold and silver, found upon the ground which are not worth much themselves but as they promise a mine near too be dig'd.”

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1628–1687) English statesman and poet

Source: Commonplace book, P. 195

“they possess most gold and silver, by which war, like everything else, flourishes.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VI, 6.34; "they have abundance of gold and silver, and these make war, like other things, go smoothly" ( trans. http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/thucydides/jthucbk6rv2.htm Benjamin Jowett)
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VI

“Nor can private counterparties restrict supplies of gold, another commodity whose derivatives are often traded over-the-counter, where central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.”

Alan Greenspan (1926) 13th Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the United States

Testimony Before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives July 24, 1998 http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/1998/19980724.htm.
1990s