Bell presents for the first time a foundational conception of wealth as a form of social resource, and explains the consequences for our understanding of social relations and social process. He demonstrates the articulation of household resources in relation to wealth, constructs a measure of the social power attributable to the holding of wealth assets, and presents an analytically powerful conception of balanced exchange. By observing the implications of wealth on a cross-cultural and multi-societal basis he shows how we can gain new insights into the implications of capital formation during this period of global accumulation.