Today marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations on March 9, 1776. The Wealth of Nations remains a remarkable book that not only established Adam Smith as the “father of economics” but also laid some of the foundations of liberal political theory.
This book formalizes our understanding of the importance of the division of labor and large competitive markets. Explore the division of labor through an interactive virtual pin factory based on Smith’s famous example.
Adam Smith didn’t stop at the pin factory. The opening chapters of The Wealth of Nations are filled with illustrations. Wool coats unite absurd people, boys who love to play and innovate, and dogs who cannot profit from their differences because they cannot trade. See these (and other famous lines and insights from Smith) in AdamSmithWorks comics.
It has become a cliché that The Wealth of Nations should be read alongside Smith’s first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. And in fact, these books work in harmony. Our “propensities to truck, barter, and exchange” (volume 1, chapter 2), explored in The Wealth of Nations, depend on our capacity for mutual understanding, explored in Moral Sentiments. An understanding of the Wealth of Nations that ignores Smith’s moral philosophy will be poor. Our video series, An Animal That Trades, explores Smith’s thoughts.
As important as Smith’s entire body of work is, today we’re talking about the Wealth of Nations.
Here at EconLog, we’re kicking off six weeks of Wealth of Nations content, centered around a series we share with our sister publication Liberty Matters. Check back on Wednesday for Book 1, the first entry by Eric Schliesser.
If you’re hearing about this for the first time, it’s too late to join us for the first of six monthly meetings in the Wealth of Nations Virtual Reading Group Series. This series is moderated by those who provided #WealthOfTweets (including myself). Of course, we read the full text, but if you don’t have time, we recommend a summary reading list for each discussion. We’ll discuss Book 1 today (March 9th) at 2:00 ET. Please join us to discuss Book 2 in April, Book 3 in May, Book 4 in June, Chapter 1 of Book 5 in July, and some or all of Chapters 2 and 3 of Book 5 in August.
Join us as we spend a month exploring why this book is worth celebrating a quarter of a millennium.
