An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations ranks alongside Newton’s Principia Mathematica, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, and Lavoisier’s Elementary Treatise of Chemistry as a profound work that helped lay the intellectual foundations of the modern world. Over a period of seventeen years Adam Smith assembled notes and observations of discussions among economists and spent ten years writing a treatise that offered a practical reformed economic theory to meet the challenges of the emerging Industrial Revolution and replace increasingly obsolete mercantilist and physiocratic economic theories.  It consists of five Books: Book I, Of the Causes of Improvement in the Productive Powers of Labour; Book II, Of the Nature, Accumulation, and Employment of Stock; Book III, Of the Different Progress of Opulence in Different Nations; Book IV - Of Systems of Political Economy; and Book V - Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth. The ideas and policies articulated by Smith have influenced countless economists and authors as well as governments and organizations over the ages. The notion that individuals guided by their enlightened self-interest will achieve an economic outcome that benefits the public at large is a sacred tenet of neoclassical economics, as is the related idea of “an invisible hand” that creates economic equilibrium and prosperity when markets are allowed to operate freely.  The book was an instant success when it was published in 1776, selling out in six months. It went through five editions in Smith’s lifetime, with significant Additions and Corrections and an index included in the third edition of 1784. It continues to be a fundamental work in classical economics to this day.

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