Adam Smith (1723–1790)
First edition of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
London: Strahan and Cadell, 1776
The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
First edition of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith believed that national prosperity was best measured by a country’s labor power rather than by how much gold lay in its treasury. The Wealth of Nations has proved immensely important in the history of economics, perhaps most famously in Smith’s metaphor of an “invisible hand” that governs markets. His argument that individual wealth benefits society as a whole has at times served as an excuse for selfishness, but Smith himself wrote a treatise on moral sentiments that unambiguously asserts that compassion is what distinguishes “a humane and polished people” from beasts.
: The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Currently on View at Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
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