An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: The Patriot’’s Edition, Including Five Books and an Extensive Appendix to the Articles

Adam Smith was born in a small Scottish village in 1723 and was raised by his widowed mother. He was college educated in England and was made Chair of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University in 1752. Twelve years later, Smith decided to leave the world of academia to tutor the young duke of Buccleuch. For the next two years, they traveled throughout Switzerland and France, meeting the likes of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Francois Quesnay and Voltaire during their travels. Due to Smith’s service to the duke, Smith was granted a life pension and he returned home to his small Scottish village of Kirkcaldy to write The Wealth of Nations. The book was published the same year as the American Declaration of Independence, 1776. Smith’s work remains as popular as ever with his explanation of how rational self-interest in a free-market economy leads to economic well-being. Adam Smith became one of the leading expositors of economic thought, with currents of his thoughts seen in works by Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman.