Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations
March 9, 1776
A Scottish moral philosopher published a long inquiry into how nations got rich. His answer - through divided labor, open markets, and self-interest restrained by competition - arrived in London just as empire was cracking. The book invented economics. Its admirers and its enemies have been quoting selectively ever since.
In context
Also in 1776 (7 other events on record)
- Declaration of Independence · North America · Politics
- Paine's Common Sense · North America · Politics
- Washington Crosses the Delaware · North America · War
- Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · Europe · Culture
- Virginia Declaration of Rights · North America · Politics
- Bentham's Fragment on Government · Europe · Culture
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Culture
Era
Enlightenment (1651–1800), one of 696 events from that era on Saeculum.