The Wealth of Nations

The Wealth of Nations offers one of the worlds first connected accounts of what builds nations wealth and has become a fundamental work in classical economics. It influenced a number of authors and economists as well as governments and organizations. Alexander Hamilton was influenced in part by The Wealth of Nations to write his Report on Manufactures in which he argued against many of Smiths policies. Interestingly Hamilton based much of this report on the ideas of Jean-Baptiste Colbert and it was in part Colberts 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 Wealth of Nations was the product of seventeen years of notes and earlier studies as well as an observation of conversation among economists of the time concerning economic and societal conditions during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and it took Smith some ten years to produce. It provided the foundation for economists politicians mathematicians and thinkers of all fields to build upon. Irrespective of historical influence The Wealth of Nations represented a clear paradigm shift in the field of economics comparable to what Immanuel Kants Critique of Pure Reason was for philosophy.