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The Wealth of Nations
Smith's 1776 Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations — the founding text of modern political economy, whose first chapter on the division of labour remains the canonical framing for every analysis of technology-driven productivity.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, is the founding text of modern political economy. Its opening chapter on the division of labour, its third book on the natural progress of opulence, its fourth book's critique of mercantilism, and its fifth book on the proper role of the sovereign — these have shaped economic thought continuously for two and a half centuries. The book has been read as a libertarian manifesto, a progressive critique of concentrated wealth, a technical treatise, and a work of moral philosophy. It is all of these, in varying proportions, depending on which passages one emphasizes.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The book's relevance to the AI moment is more specific than the general relevance of foundational economics. Smith was writing at a moment when the pin factory was a new and startling example of what