SOURCE: "The Wealth of Nations," in Adam Smith, St. Martin's Press, 1982, pp. 168–85.

In the following essay on The Wealth of Nations, Campbell and Skinner provide a comprehensive analysis of Smith's economic system, explaining and discussing the interrelationship among his theories of production, labor, wages, price and distribution, profits, savings and investment, interest rates, and capital accumulation. The authors also comment on Smith's policy recommendations concerning government regulation of the economy.

The first edition of the Wealth of Nations was published on 9 March 1776 by Strahan and Cadell. It appeared in two volumes, at a cost of one pound and sixteen shillings. The second edition appeared in 1778 and the third six years later. The fourth edition is dated 1786, and the fifth and final version to be published in Smith's lifetime appeared in 1789, the year of the French Revolution.

The work has become one of the most influential to be published...