An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

But, as Andrew Skinner reveals in his introduction to this edition, the real sophistication of The Wealth of Nations lies less in individual areas of economic analysis than in its overall picture of a vast analytical system--a capitalist economy--in which all the parts can be seen simultaneously interacting with each other. In addition, Smith's view of society was not merely an economic one. The Wealth of Nations is far from being an apologia for unregulated business enterprise: Smith was at pains to point out that economic advance can have undesirable social consequences, and that labour which is economically unproductive can be beneficial to society at large.