An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (generally referred to by the short title The Wealth of Nations) is a book of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. It was first published in 1776. It is an account of political economics at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, as well as a politically motivated rhetorical piece written for the generally educated individual of the 18th century - advocating a free market economy as hypothetically more productive and more beneficial to society, but not the individual. The book is often considered to have laid the basic groundwork for modern (political) economic theory.
