Introduction

The Wealth of Nations, in full An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, appeared in the same year as the American Declaration of Independence and founded economics as a discipline of its own. Smith begins with a small pin factory: one worker alone could scarcely make a single pin in a day, but ten men dividing the work among them make forty-eight thousand. The division of labour is the source of growing wealth, and it is limited by the extent of the market. He discusses money, prices, wages, profit and rent, and shows that each man, pursuing his own interest, is 'led by an invisible hand' to promote the interest of society: 'It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.' He attacks mercantilism and argues for free trade. This volume translates its most important parts.