The Wealth of Nations It is a treatise on economics in which timeless and ageless topics are addressed. Smith attacks problems that still keep us up at night today: from why some nations are more prosperous than others to the role of the sovereign in economic matters. Smith talks to us about as lively issues in economic science such as the nature of capital and its relationship with work, and the reason why some people earn more income than others.

It's very rare to find an author from the 19th century who deals with economic or social issues and doesn't claim to be either a follower or critic of Adam Smith. The Scottish author's authority was constantly invoked among the intellectual circles of the Victorian era. For instance, in the heated monetary debates that occupied the entirety of the 19th century in Great Britain, all authors cited Adam Smith as a source of authority.

Ultimately, studying Smith is to look at the soul of economists. Even those economists who have never read Smith have received the legacy of a discipline that the brilliant Scottish author created. There's nothing better than going back to the origins of a discipline to understand its present. Therefore, studying Smith is a great starting point to begin studying economics.

Adam Smith was more than just an economist, I know how Adam Smith is. Adam Smith's comprehensive vision of the world allowed him to be a pioneer in the field of economics. Smith started a path that no one had taken before him and many took after him. He is usually known as the first economist in history or the first great systematizer of the economy. Being this true (with permission from the lesser-known author Richard Cantillon), Smith was more than just a simple systematizer.

Despite being remembered in history as a champion of "unbridled capitalism" and without limits, the celebrated Scottish author first became interested in describing the moral principles that guide human beings. His ideas on this matter were expressed in his Moral Sentiment Theory"published in the year 1759, 17 years before the publication of her famous work" The Wealth of NationsSmith would never have been in favor of the colorful and biased characterization of the market as a system where the big fish eats the small fish.

The intellectual concerns of Adam Smith were even broader. Smith was one of the most prominent authors of the Scottish Enlightenment (alongside authors like David Hume or Adam Ferguson). The Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, unlike their continental counterparts, believed that human reason was far from all-powerful, so knowledge about what works and what doesn't, embedded in social institutions such as morality or law, is just as important if not more so than reason when establishing the foundations upon which to order a society.

Adam Smith would go down in history for his famous economic systematization contained in The Wealth of Nations,A work written in the year 1776. Interestingly, also in 1776, the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America was published. It seems that 1776 was a good year for freedom ideas.

It is evident that Adam Smith does not receive the title of being the first economist because he was the first to theorize about economic issues. We can find texts addressing economic matters since ancient Greece. Adam Smith earns the honor of being considered the first economist for being a pioneer in specifically addressing economic issues in a comprehensive treatise (although Richard Cantillon may have preceded him by several years in achieving this feat).

So, Smith is a great starting point, but it's a bad ending destination. Therefore, this reading course The Wealth of Nations It's up to you if you think

• Not everything new is better than what's old.
• There's no simple answer to complex problems.
• The mastery of any subject requires constant learning.

Imparted by

Daniel Fernandezdoctor of economics from the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, will be in charge of giving this seminar. Daniel aspires to be a polymath like Adam Smith or Frederick Hayek. As Mises recalled, being an economist means being able to dominate many subjects that are not strictly economic but that delimit the object of study of economics itself. Currently, he is a professor at the Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala and at the University of the Hespérides in Spain. Additionally, Daniel has his own YouTube channel as a disseminator of content related to classical liberalism.