Wealth of Nations, Book 1

Adam Smith was born in Scotland in 1723 and died in 1790. A professor of moral philosophy in Glasgow, he was a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment and a friend of David Hume. His first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, explored how people form moral judgements. His second, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, was published on 9 March 1776 and became his masterpiece.

The work is widely regarded as the first modern account of political economy. It appeared at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and it set out to explain how a society grows richer and what policies help or hinder that growth. Smith argued against many of the trade restrictions of his time, and he proposed that individual freedom, within a framework of justice, could serve the common good. His famous image of the invisible hand has been quoted and debated ever since, though it appears only briefly in the text.

The LibriVox recording presents Book One, which covers the causes of improvement in productive powers and the order in which the product is distributed. It has twenty-five sections and runs for about nine and a half hours. It is read by one volunteer. For anyone who has wondered where modern economic ideas came from, listening to the original is a revelation: it is far more varied, humane and vivid than its reputation suggests.

You will find the text more approachable than you might expect. Smith explains his points with homely examples, such as the pin-maker, the butcher and the brewer, and he often pauses to describe how people actually live. Listening in portions of one or two sections is a comfortable way to take in the argument, and the ideas reward reflection long after you have finished.