Wealth+of+Nations+Historical+Background

//An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations// is an analysis and rhetorical piece on the nature of political economy in the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and midway through the Enlightenment. It was published in 1776 and written by moral-philosopher and economist Adam Smith.

It took him ten years to write //The Wealth of Nations// and it was pieced together mostly from his lecture notes, which he had given publicly in Edinburgh.

Born in Scotland in the village of Kirkcaldy, Smith was raised in a single parent family, his father of the same name having died six months before his birth. At the age of fourteen, Adam entered the University of Glasgow on scholarship. He later attended Balliol College at Oxford from 1740 to 1746, where he commenced the History of Astronomy in 1744. After his time at Oxford, he returned home where he began lecturing at the University of Glasgow. He was eventually rewarded for his efforts with a position as the Chair of Logic in 1751, and later a position as the Chair of Moral Philosophy the following year.

Smith ended his time as a professor in 1764 when he was hired as a tutor for the upcoming Duke of Buccleuch. He attended the Duke for more than two years on his travels through France and Switzerland. On his travels Smith ran into many fellow philosophers such as Voltaire, Jean-Jaques Rousseau, and Francois Quesnay. With the pension he received from the Duke of Buccleuch, Smith retired to his home in Kirkcaldy, where he wrote The Wealth of Nations. In 1778 he was appointed the Commissioner of Commerce and died in Edinburgh in 1790.



The Scottish Enlightenment is an integral facet regarding //The Wealth of Nations//, as Adam Smith was a central figure in its progression. It took place in Scotland around 1740 to 1790. The main question asked by Scotch philosophers concerned how the backwards and poor Scottish economy would fare when forced into the over-arching and developed market of England. Professors and academics lead this enlightenment, contrary to France's Enlightenment individuals who philosophized outside of academia and with a broader purpose.

Adam Smith's work categorizes and analyzes the reasons and processes associated with the past and current economies of that period, and attempts to give the foundation of information necessary to solve the question of Scotland's dilemma.