Which economist wrote The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776?

Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776.

Smith’s full work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, examined how specialization, exchange, competition, and institutions influence economic prosperity. Its publication made Smith one of the foundational thinkers associated with classical economics, although economic analysis existed long before him.

The book famously used a pin factory to illustrate division of labor: workers specializing in separate tasks could produce far more than one person working alone. Smith also discussed prices, wages, profits, international trade, and the role of government. The phrase “invisible hand” appears only once in the book and should not be treated as a complete summary of Smith’s views.

Smith was also a professor of moral philosophy and had published The Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759. Therefore, he was not exclusively an economist in the modern professional sense.