Adam Smith Wealth Of Nations Summary

In 1776, Adam Smith completed and published “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, more commonly referred to as simply “The Wealth of Nations”. In this document, Smith analyzed wages, labor, trade, population, rents, and money supply (Andrea, 151). Because of his work, Smith is known as the founder of the academic study of economics and the father of capitalism. The kind of economy Smith envisioned and described in “The Wealth of Nations” resembles capitalism, as well as promoted a free market. Smith also spends a great deal of time arguing against mercantilism, which was largely popular at the time. Throughout Smith’s work, he talks about self-interest, embodying the Enlightenment obsession with human nature and

He argued that with private individuals owing business instead of the government, an economy would gain the greatest financial reward and maximize the economic well-being of a society (“Invisible hand”). Through his series of explanations and ties to self-interest, we are introduced to a view of capitalism. He believed that private individuals should control most of the economy. Within his view on capitalism, we are introduced to Smiths promotion of a limited government. He believed that the people should hold more power than the government. This view, of course, fits in with his policies on self-interest. Smith also envisioned a world with a free market. He explained that governments should keep taxes low and allow free trade across borders by eliminating tariffs

Although he was known as the founder of economics, he considered himself a philosopher not an economist. He, like many other philosophers of the time, had an obsession with human nature. His views on self-interest fit with the Enlightenment philosophers theme of always calculating human nature into their theories. Smith also matched the Enlightenments views on progress. In Smiths argument against mercantilism, he states that a laissez fair, what he called the invisible hand, would produce a more ‘progressive state’ than mercantilism (“Grad Student