Adam Smith

About the author

Adam Smith (1723–1790), born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, is widely regarded as the father of modern economics and a central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. Educated at the universities of Glasgow and Oxford, he taught moral philosophy at Glasgow before producing his two landmark works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and The Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter is considered his magnum opus and the founding text of economics as a systematic discipline, notable for its exposition of absolute advantage and its grounding of economic life in natural and social forces rather than divine will.