    an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, generally referred to by its shortened title the wealth of nations, is the magnum opus of the scottish economist and moral philosopher adam smith. first published in 1776, the book offers one of the world's first collected descriptions of what builds nations' wealth and is today a fundamental work in classical economics. through reflection over the economics at the beginning of the industrial revolution the book touches upon such broad topics as the division of labour, productivity and free markets. ==history== the wealth of nations was published 9 march 1776, during the scottish enlightenment and the scottish agricultural revolution.see , volume 2 via google books it influenced a number of authors and economists, as well as governments and organizations. for example, alexander hamilton was influenced in part by the wealth of nations to write his report on manufactures, in which he argued against many of smith's policies. interestingly, hamilton based much of this report on the ideas of jean-baptiste colbert, and it was, in part, colbert's ideas that smith responded to with the wealth of nations. many other authors were influenced by the book and used it as a starting point in their own work, including jean-baptiste say, david ricardo, thomas malthus and, later, ludwig von mises. the russian national poet aleksandr pushkin refers to the wealth of nations in his 1833 verse-novel eugene onegin. the wealth of nations was the product of seventeen years of notes, and observation of conversation among economists of the time concerning economic and societal conditions during the beginning of the industrial revolution, and took smith ten years to produce. the result, an inquiry to the wealth of nations, was a treatise which sought to offer a practical application for reformed economic theory to replace the mercantilist and physiocratic economic theories that were becoming less relevant in the time of industrial progress and innovation.
1776_books Books_about_wealth_distribution Books_by_Adam_Smith Classical_liberalism Economics_books History_books_about_civilization Political_philosophy_literature