Peter Foster: Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations at 250

2026-03-06 - 11:13

Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (TWON), published on March 9, 1776, shares the year of its birth with the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Both documents were revolutionary. Smith described his book — which is considered by many the seminal work of economics — as a “very violent attack ... on the whole commercial system of Great Britain.” However, he was optimistic about the prospects of the North American colonies, which he saw as a laboratory for his free market ideas. He predicted that the U.S. would eventually become a great nation and Britain’s senior trading partner, which it did. Read More