The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Part I. Of the Propriety of Action; Part II. Of Merit and Demerit; or of the Objects of Reward and Punishment; Part III. Of the Foundation of our Judgments Concerning our Own Sentiments and Conduct, and of the Sense of Duty; Part IV. Of the Effect of Utility upon the Sentiment of Approbation; Part V. Of the Influence of Custom and Fashion upon the Sentiments of Moral Approbation and Disapprobation; Part VI. Of the Character of Virtue; Part VII. Of Systems of Moral Philosophy.

Adam Smith FRSE (baptised June 5, 1723 O.S. / June 16 N.S. - July 17, 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneering political economist. He is also the founder of economics. One of the key figures of the intellectual movement known as the Scottish Enlightenment, he is known primarily as the author of two treatises: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter was one of the earliest attempts to systematically study the historical development of industry and commerce in Europe, as well as a sustained attack on the doctrines of mercantilism. Smith's work helped to create the modern academic discipline of economics and provided one of the best-known intellectual rationales for free trade, capitalism, and libertarianism. Adam Smith is now depicted on the back of the Bank of England £20 note.
The productivity of free exchange:
Smith showed that this vast 'mercantilist' edifice was folly. He argued that in a free exchange, both sides became better off. Quite simply, nobody would trade if they expected to lose from it. The buyer profits, just as the seller does. Imports are just as valuable to us as our exports are to others. Because trade benefits both sides, said Smith, it increases our prosperity just as surely as do agriculture or manufacture. A nation's wealth is not the quantity of gold and silver in its vaults, but the total of its production and commerce - what today we would call gross national product. The Wealth of Nations deeply influenced the politicians of the time and provided the intellectual foundation of the great nineteenth-century era of free trade and economic expansion. Even today the common sense of free trade is accepted worldwide, whatever the practical difficulties of achieving it.

Social order based on freedom:
Smith had a radical, fresh understanding of how human societies actually work. He realised that social harmony would emerge naturally as human