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"It is in Books IV and V of The Wealth of Nations that Adam Smith offers his considered response to the French Physiocrats, perhaps the first great school of economic theorists, and assesses the nature of the mercantile system, particularly the colonial relationship with America, whose achievements could have been even more spectacular if conditions of free trade and economic union had existed. Even on the eve of the Declaration of Independence, Smith famously predicted that America ""will be one of the foremost nations of the world."" It is also here that he develops the case for a limited state role in economic planning, notably to combat market failure and induce efficiency in areas such as education, public works, justice, and defense. His pioneering analysis still provides many subtle and penetrating insights into one of today's most vital and controversial policy debates."

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Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. It earned him an enormous reputation and would become one of the most influential works on economics ever published. Smith is widely cited as the father of modern economics and capitalism. Smith studied social philosophy at the University of Glasgow and the University of Oxford. After graduating, he delivered a successful series of public lectures at Edinburgh, leading him to collaborate with David Hume during the Scottish Enlightenment. Smith obtained a professorship at Glasgow teaching moral philosophy, and during this time he wrote and published The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In his later life, he took a tutoring position that allowed him to travel throughout Europe, where he met other intellectual leaders of his day. Smith returned home and spent the next ten years writing The Wealth of Nations, publishing it in 1776. He died in 1790.

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