Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

Below is an excerpt from The Wealth of Nations discussing one of Smith’s most well-known ideas: the invisible hand. The invisible hand argues that an economy will function without intervention if people operate based on their own self interest. The Wealth of Nations and the invisible hand have heavily influenced the free-market approach taken by the United States in regards to the economy.

As every individual, therefore, endeavors as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. . .

He intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many ot