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Combining economics, political theory, history, philosophy, and practical programs, Smith's Wealth of Nations assumes that human self-interest is the basic psychological drive behind economics and that a natural order in the universe makes all the individual, self-interested strivings add up to the social good. His conclusion, that the best program is to leave the economic process alone and that the government is useful only as an agent to preserve order and to perform routine functions, is now known as laissez-faire economics or noninterventionism.
In noting, for the first time, the significance of the division of labor and by stating the hypothesis that a commodity's value correlates to its labor input, Smith anticipated the writings of Karl Marx. Like Marx's Das Capital and Machiavelli's The Prince, and this great book marked the dawning of a new historical epoch. Complete in one volume, this edition includes Edwin Cannan's celebrated introduction and notes as well as a full index.
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