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Explanation:
As the American Revolution began, a Scottish philosopher started his own economic revolution. In 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, probably the most influential book on market economics ever written.
Born in 1723, Adam Smith was the son of a customs official in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. At 14, he entered the University of Glasgow. After graduating, he attended Oxford in England and studied philosophy.
Smith became a professor of philosophy at Glasgow in 1751. He actively took part in Glasgow debating societies and often argued for free trade.
In 1759, Smith published The Theory of Moral Sentiments. His book looked at human nature and ethics. At the beginning of the book, he stated that all people had the capacity to care about others. He pointed out that no matter how selfish a man might be,
. . . there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.
But Smith also believed that people often acted in their self-interest, especially in economic matters. He contended, however, that this was not bad. He concluded that self-seeking individuals were "led by an invisible hand" that caused them to unintentionally act in ways that still benefited society.
In 1763, Smith quit his professorship at Glasgow and tutored the stepson of Charles Townshend, who later became Britain’s treasury minister in the years leading up to the American Revolution. Smith traveled to Paris with his student and met Voltaire and other philosophers involved in the French Enlightenment.
Smith also met the leading French economist, Francois Quesnay. Quesnay had devised a system called "Physiocracy," which he believed explained the source of national wealth. Quesnay took issue with the popular belief, known as mercantilism, that a nation’s wealth was its hoard of gold or silver. He believed a nation’s wealth came from its farm produce, which circulated throughout the land, nourishing everyone. Quesnay’s innovative idea prompted Smith to begin to write his own book on economics.
In 1766, Smith moved to London. He worked as a researcher for Charles Townshend, who was then in charge of Britain’s finances. Townshend had to deal with the huge national debt that resulted from the Seven Years’ War. This war enabled Britain to seize all of French North America. Townshend wanted the American colonists to help pay down the war debt through such measures as a tax on tea.
Smith researched Britain’s credit and debt along with the history of colonization by ancient Rome. He also became acquainted with leading political figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Edmund Burke (an important British political writer and leader).
The following year, Smith returned home to Scotland to finish his book, a task that took him nine more years. During this period, he visited London several times and witnessed debates in Parliament on the growing American resistance to British rule.
Finally, in March 1776, Smith published An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. This massive work of almost 1,000 pages was based on his exhaustive research and personal observations. Smith attacked government intervention in the economy and provided a blueprint for free markets and free trade. These two principles eventually would become the hallmarks of modern capitalism.
