Question

800 words eassy on adam smith wealth of nations?

Answer 1

Ans) The pivotal second chapter of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, &quot Of the Principle which gives occasion to the Division of Labour,& quot; opens with the oft-cited claim that the foundation of modern political economy is the human " propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another."1

- This formulation plays both an analytical and normative role. It offers an anthropological microfoundation for Smith's understanding of how modern commercial societies function as social organizations, which, in turn, provide a venue for the expression and operation of these human proclivities.

- Together with the equally famous concept of the invisible hand, this sentence defines the central axis of a new science of political economy.
- Additionally, with this emphasis on spontaneous coordination, Smith pointed to the possibility of a social order in which people live in harmony together with a minimum need of a central, coercive apparatus. He captured the central intuition of classical economists according to which modern commercial society, notwithstanding its conflicts, obeys a kind of pre-established order, and enjoys the advantage of a mechanism, the market, which maintains equilibria by continually adjusting competing interests.

- Over time, this powerful theoretical proposition has become a legitimating cornerstone for the robust defense of market capitalism, a particular ensemble of political institutions, and a specific line of justification for liberal ideas and values. Though manifestly plausible as an accurate reading of Smith when Wealth of Nations is read on its own, even on these terms, this interpretation, is limited and partial.

- Astonishingly, and disappointingly, most readers of Wealth of Nations fail to attend the very next sentence that follows Smith's seemingly transhistorical, objectivist theory of human dispositions, mindful of Mandeville's classical representation of human egoism.

- Smith immediately probed more deeply by asking "Whether this propensity be one of those original principles in human nature of which no further account can be given.

- The classic statement of economic liberalism, the policy of laissez-faire, was written during a ten-year period by Adam Smith, a Scottish professor of moral philosophy. It were useful in encouraging the rise of new business enterprise in Europe, but the ideas could not have taken hold so readily had it not been for the scope of Smith’s work and the effectiveness of his style. As a philosopher, Smith was interested in finding intellectual justification for certain economic principles that he came to believe, but as an economist and writer, he was interested in making his ideas prevail in the world of business. He was reacting against oppressive.

- Smith’s economic theories met the desire for economic change that would benefit the individual. However, mercantilism, which stimulated economic nationalism and encouraged government intervention in every aspect of trade, was the major economic system in the still primarily agricultural economy of late eighteenth century Britain.

- The publication of The Wealth of Nations, the first comprehensive system of political economy, in 1776 marks the birth of economics as a separate discipline. The central theme is the growth of national wealth, which Smith, the moral and social philosopher, saw as the nation’s annual production of goods and services among the three classes: laborers, landlords, and manufacturers. Smith theorized that the liberty to trade unhindered by government intervention would result in increased abundance and wealth for all involved.

- Deeply opposed to mercantilist practices, which encouraged government intervention in every aspect of trade, Smith’s policy of free-trade economic liberalism, otherwise known as laissez-faire (“Let it be, let it go”) led to extraordinary economic growth, particularly in Britain and the United States. In his immensely popular and wide-ranging The Wealth of Nations, Smith provides an elaborate analysis of how economic systems function and develop over time, outlining the four main revolutionary economic stages that motivate society.