We’re joining our friends at Liberty Matters in their celebration of the 250th anniversary of the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations through a series of six weekly essays.
In this fourth essay, Brianne Wolf explores Book IV of Wealth of Nations, where Smith discusses the mercantile system, against which the whole Wealth of Nations was a “very violent attack.” From the article:
While Adam Smith has often been thought of as only the father of economics, most scholars now agree that the projects undertaken in the two books published during his lifetime, Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations are not separate endeavors of moral philosophy and political economy, respectively, but two ways of approaching one, unified project about realizing human flourishing. Though it is recognized that Smith’s moral philosophy informs, supplements, and supports his economic project, what has not been explored as much is that Smith’s political economy also has moral implications.
