An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

by Adam Smith

Publishers:

Robert P. Gwinn; Encyclopedia Britannica

, 1990

Overview

The makers of Encyclopaedia Britannica bring you one of the Great Books of the Western World. This text captures major ideas, stories, and discoveries that helped shape Western culture.

Contents

Top Highlights

“In the progress of society, philosophy or speculation becomes, like every other employment, the principal or sole trade and occupation of a particular class of citizens. Like every other employment too, it is subdivided into a great number of different branches, each of which affords occupation to a peculiar tribe or class of philosophers; and this subdivision of employment in philosophy, as well as in every other business, improves dexterity, and saves time. Each individual becomes more expert in his own peculiar branch, more work is done upon the whole, and the quantity of science is considerably increased by it.” (Page 6)

“This great increase of the quantity of work which, in consequence of the division of labour, the same number of people are capable of performing, is owing to three different circumstances; first, to the increase of dexterity in every particular workman; secondly, to the saving of the time which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another; and lastly, to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many.” (Page 5)

“The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the effect of increasing wealth, so it is the cause of increasing population. To complain of it is to lament over the necessary effect and cause of the greatest public prosperity.” (Page 39)

“The causes of this improvement, in the productive powers of labour, and the order, according to which its produce is naturally distributed among the different ranks and conditions of men in the society, make the subject of the first book of this Inquiry.” (Page 1)

Product Details

• Title: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
• Author: Adam Smith
• Edition: Second Edition
• Series: Great Books of the Western World
• Volume: 36
• Publishers: Robert P. Gwinn, Encyclopedia Britannica
• Print Publication Date: 1990
• Logos Release Date: 2016
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Economics; Economics › Early works to 1800
• ISBNs: 0852295316, 9780852295311
• Resource ID: LLS:GBWW36
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:11:31Z

About Adam Smith

Adam Smith (1930–2014) is the pseudonym of George Goodman, a writer and editor best known for his Emmy Award–winning PBS program Adam Smith’s Money World. After graduating from Harvard College, he studied political economy as a Rhodes scholar at the University of Oxford. Goodman made his name as a journalist presenting financial and economic concepts to mainstream audiences and was a bestselling author of numerous books, including The Money Game, Supermoney, and Powers of Mind. He was also a screenwriter, as well as a cofounder of New York magazine and Institutional Investor.