Adam Smith Publishes The Wealth of Nations
A butcher does not sell you meat out of kindness, Smith writes, but self-interest coordinated by the market can still serve everyone
Quick facts
- Author
- Adam Smith
- Work
- An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
- Published
- March 9, 1776
- Key idea
- Division of labor; the invisible hand of market competition
What happened
Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in March 1776. Smith opened by describing a pin factory where breaking production into separate specialized steps, one worker drawing the wire, another cutting it, another sharpening the point, let a small team produce many times more pins per day than the same workers could individually, illustrating what he called the division of labor as the main engine of increased productivity. He argued that an individual pursuing only their own gain in a competitive market is, in his words, "led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention," often benefiting society more effectively than someone who deliberately sets out to serve the public good, and he argued against government-granted monopolies and trade restrictions that protected established interests over open competition.
Why it matters
The Wealth of Nations gave classical economics its founding text and its central image, self-interest channeled by competition into public benefit, that later economists and policymakers have argued over ever since, including how far Smith himself meant the invisible-hand passage as a general rule rather than one specific observation about domestic versus foreign investment.
How we know
The Wealth of Nations survives in Smith's original text; the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's entry on Smith's moral and political philosophy dates its 1776 publication, and the Library of Economics and Liberty's online edition of Book IV preserves the invisible-hand passage in context.
Sources
- Adam Smith (Library of Economics and Liberty). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book IV · Primary source (author-declared)econlib.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Adam Smith's Moral and Political Philosophy · Reputable sourceplato.stanford.edu · The domain "plato.stanford.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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