ABSTRACT
The first edition of The Wealth of Nations was published on 9 March 1776 by William Strahan and Thomas Cadell. The Wealth of Nations was not only an intellectual achievement of the greatest magnitude, embracing as it does the explanation of complex social relations on the basis of a few principles, but also a work which provided practical prescriptions for the problems of the day. Adam Smith recognised in examining economic phenomena, that he was concerned with only one aspect of the activities of man in society, and that the analysis must depend upon some prior judgement as to the nature of the social bond. One of the most striking features of the economic system, in Smith's eyes, was that individuals in pursuing their own interest unwittingly contribute to ends which they did not originally intend to promote whether reference is made to the working of the allocative mechanism or the process of economic growth.
