An Analysis of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations: (The Macat Library)

Adam Smith’s 1776 Inquiry into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations - more often known simply as The Wealth of Nations - is one of the most important books in modern intellectual history. Considered one of the fundamental works of classical economics, it is also a prime example of the enduring power of good reasoning, and the ability of reasoning to drive critical thinking forward.Adam Smith was attempting to answer two complex questions: where does a nation’s wealth come from, and what can governments do to increase it most efficiently?At the time, perhaps the most widely accepted theory, mercantilism, argued that a nation’s wealth was literally the amount of gold and silver it held in reserve.Smith, meanwhile, weighed the evidence and came to a different conclusion: a nation’s wealth, he argued, lay in its ability to encourage economic activity, largely without government interference.Underlying this radical redefinition was the revolutionary concept that powered Smith’s re