Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations

1776 CE — British Isles, Scottish Enlightenment

Today: Scotland (Edinburgh and Glasgow)

A Scottish moral philosopher published a book arguing that a nation's wealth lay not in hoarded gold but in the productive work of its people, and that individuals pursuing their own interest could, through exchange, enrich everyone. Adam Smith gave the emerging industrial economy its founding text and its most quoted metaphor, the invisible hand. He also warned repeatedly that merchants conspire against the public and that markets need rules — a caution frequently left out when he is invoked.

Worth knowing: Smith mentions the 'invisible hand' exactly once in the book, almost in passing, and considered his earlier work on moral sentiments the more important of the two. The phrase everyone quotes was a footnote to him.

Pattern: Ideological movement — A belief system rises, spreads, institutionalizes, and then schisms — changing the rules people accept as legitimate.

Entry 177 of 240 in Precedent, a walk through the whole human story in order.