Summary of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: The foundation for all modern economic thought and political economy, The Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of Scottish economist Adam Smith, who introduces the world to the very idea of economics and capitalism in the modern sense of the words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Oct 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638156659

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Summary of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations

Contents

Overview

Introduction

Division of Labor

Money

Individual Wealth

Wages, Profit, Rent

Natural and Market Prices

Wages of Labor

The Variation of Labor Rates

Capital

Paper Money

Productive and Unproductive Labor

Loans

The Development of Agriculture

What Makes a Nation Wealthy

Balance of Trade

Drawbacks and Bounties

Colonization

The Mercantile System Is Anti-Consumer

The Three Duties of the Commonwealth

Taxes

The Debt of Nations

Author’s Style

Author’s Perspective

Overview

Have you ever wondered what was the first book ever written about a certain subject? Well, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations was the first book ever written about modern economics, all the way back in 1776.

The Wealth of Nations provides a comprehensive explanation of what creates countries’ wealth. It’s a foundational text in classical economics, with Adam Smith being considered the father of economics as we know it. Smith focuses on broad issues such as the division of labor, productivity, and free markets by reflecting on economics during the start of the Industrial Revolution. The Wealth of Nations encapsulates ideas that are critical to comprehending modern civilization.

Introduction

Every nation’s yearly labor is the fund that provides it with all the necessities and comforts of life that it annually consumes, and which always consists either in the direct product of that labor or in what is bought with that product from other countries. A nation’s wealth is determined by two factors: the ability, dexterity, and judgment with which its labor is usually used; and the percentage of people who are engaged in beneficial labor against those who are not. Whatever the soil, climate, or size of a nation’s territory, the abundance or scarcity of its yearly supply must be determined by those two factors, particularly the former rather than the latter.

For example, in primitive hunter-gatherer societies, everyone who is competent enough to work

Reviews for Summary of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations

[stephen gross · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very useful. In very few pages it nicely summarizes (1) Smith’s remarkable contributions to economic thought; (2) the extent to which Smith’s thinking reflected (unavoidably) the circumstances of 18th century Great Britain, and (3) Smith’s not infrequent errors and misleadingly incomplete analyses.