Adam Smith

Adam Smith (1723–1790) was a Scottish philosopher and economist widely recognized as the pioneer of modern political economy. Educated at the University of Glasgow and Balliol College, Oxford, he later held the chair of moral philosophy at Glasgow, where he published The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759 CE), establishing his foundational ideas on human empathy and social ethics. In 1776 CE, Smith published his seminal work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which conceptualized the foundational principles of classical economics. Within this text, he argued that rational self-interest and competition could lead to economic prosperity through a self-regulating mechanism he famously termed the 'invisible hand'. His analysis of the division of labour, the critique of mercantilism, and the advocacy for free markets systematically transformed contemporary economic policy and laid the intellectual framework for global capitalism.