The Wealth Of Nations - An Exclusive Offer From The Folio Society

摘要

In 1776, the streets of London, Liverpool and Bristol teemed with goods brought from overseas by a burgeoning empire that was only decades old. Textiles, precious metals and jewels, tobacco, tea and sugar were just some of the commodities flooding into the ports of Britain. At the same time, however, dissenting voices blamed society's ills - corruption, drunkenness, vice - on this new 'rapacious' materialism.rnThat same year, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was first published, in which Adam Smith, with the cool detachment of an enlightened empiricist, suggested that commercial self-interest, far from being immoral, could lead society towards greater co-operation and increased benefits. Concepts such as the 'free market', 'supply and demand' and the 'division of labour' - were first coined in this magisterial work. Smith, in effect, established economics as an entirely new field of study.