What is the value of Nephite wealth? The value is that the society could share in the necessities of life. If there was any sick, naked, or hungry, they could be provided for. What does the provision for the needy have to do with wealth?
In an agrarian culture the provision of the necessities of life is the first priority. It is also the first priority to provide for one’s immediate family, and secondly to the kin group. The ability to eat is directly related to the ability to labor.
When one is ill and unable to work, they must still eat, and must eat food produced by someone else. Either they take that food out of someone else’s mouth, or they take if from a store of food that exceeds the needs of those who labor. This is the “wealth” of the abundance of the flocks and grains. The Nephites prospered in that they had more than required for bare subsistence. This extra allowed them to be generous and provide for those unable to provide for themselves. They were wealthy because they could provide.
Even in the modern world we understand that true wealth has an assumption of social responsibility to share the excess of wealth. We call this philanthropy, but it is a different economic system’s equivalent of the Nephite wealth. The excess allows for the redistribution of needed items to those who were unable to provide for their own needs.
Lest we make any mistake in our assumptions of Nephite wealth, however, Mormon is very clear that they did not seek after riches but rather that they had wealth. For the modern world it might be a odd distinction, as we suppose that wealth is riches.
For Mormon, however, wealth was more an attitude than a thing. It was the communal abundance over the individual acquisition that he defines as wealth. In Mormon’s terms, none of the people might be considered to have riches, but they were wealthy in that they had what they needed and more to share.