Adam Smith PSA

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations (Excerpts). Modified from the Modern History Internet Sourcebook. 1776. Fordham University. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/adamsmith-summary.asp (accessed September 18, 2013).

 In The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, various positive aspects of the economic system of capitalism are described.  Adam Smith grew up in a small town in Scotland and went to the University of Glasgow and earned a scholarship to Oxford University.  Being a well educated man, who wrote the book with no personal agenda during the beginning of the industrial revolution, his book and these excerpts from it prove to be a reliable primary source.  Smith wrote the book to present and discuss his views on an economic system which would eventually be called capitalism.  He met different politicians, French intellectuals, and philosophers who influenced his economic ideas.  In these excerpts from his book, he discusses that through the division of labor, multiple people working on a job together, using their various skills, dexterity, and judgment, can produce a greater amount of goods in a shorter amount of time, than one person performing all the tasks on their own.  To demonstrate this, Smith writes that if one person was making pins by themselves, it would take much longer to perform all the required tasks, than if multiple people each have one specific job in the production of pins.  Smith also discusses how through capitalism, people are motivated by their own self-interest.  People, Smith says, perform jobs so that they will make money or receive something in return.  Smith, when writing the book, had no idea the influence his work would have on industrialists who manipulated his ideas to become rich.  Smith presents a positive tone throughout the excerpts, which can be seen by his discussion on all the “great” things that can be accomplished through the division of labor and capitalism in general.