ABSTRACT
In the ‘Introduction and Plan of the Book’ of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith does not mention anything pertaining to the question of value. The first four brief paragraphs explain the nature or the purpose of the book, which is to establish that the true nature of the wealth of a nation lies in its per capita real income and that it depends largely upon two things: (i) the productivity of its labour, and (ii) its division of total labour into productive employment and unproductive employment. Of the two, the first is much more important than the second. The rest of the five paragraphs are devoted to explaining the division of the work into five ‘books’. The first book deals with the causes of improvement in labour productivity and the distribution of the total product among different classes. The second deals with the nature of capital and its investment in employing productive and unproductive labour. The third deals with the natural course of development of a nation and the various government policies that in one way or another favour one sector over others and thus interfere with the natural course of development. The fourth is a critique of two great economic doctrines: Mercantilism and Physiocracy. And the fifth and last book deals with the issues of public finance in great detail.
