Capstone Classics

It is easy to forget that when Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations in the late 18th century, the word ‘economics’ was not actually in use. Instead, ‘political economy’ was a branch of philosophy that mainly concerned how governments collected and spent money, and as a professor of moral philosophy Smith lectured on the subject.

By its nature, political economy carried the assumption that the state was essentially the driver or source of national wealth. Smith’s genius was to break away from this, showing that the private economy and the industry of individuals, not the state, created the wealth of nations. To use a modern phrase, in Smith’s eyes government was part of the problem, not the solution. Fed up with the endless red tape, trade restrictions and vested interests of the day, people were ready for Smith’s message, and in clinically revealing the state policies that hampered the ‘natural’ progress of humanity towards ‘opulence’, The Wealth of Nations provided an attractive alternative to the status quo. What is amazing is that the work continues to provide an alternative to the status quo, providing a useful measuring stick by which to judge the creep of government into civil society.

For this new edition of the book, I've written an Introduction that gives an idea of the world that Smith inhabited, and how we came to write his great work. I lay out the main themes, which include:

• Specialization as the key to prosperity
• Self-interest and how it makes for the best allocation of resources
• The crucial role of capital
• The difference between money and wealth
• Productive and unproductive labour
• Price and demand in a market economy
• Creating wealth through trade
• Natural human liberty and the proper role of government
• National and personal attributes of success

The full Wealth of Nations is a huge 2-volume work that today's reader would find difficult to grapple with. Therefore, this is an edited selection of the most relevant bits for the contemporary reader. Most of what I have excised is outdated historical material, and this means you get a more powerful distallation of the book.

I firmly believe that this book is a must-have for anyone even vaguely interested in how capitalism works. Many of Smith's explanations and examples have never been bettered, and unlike nearly all economics books you read today, this is written for the general reader. Smith's wry sense of humour is an added bonus!

Some details...

The Wealth of Nations
The Economics Classic
Selections for the contemporary reader

Capstone Wiley

2010 Publication: 23 July UK; 14 September USA

424 pages, hardback

£9.99/$14.95 - Much less if you buy online!

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