The Wealth of Nations: Book 4, Introduction Summary & Analysis

Smith’s explanation of political economy may confuse 21st-century readers, as this discipline has largely given way to political science and economics today. But to do Smith’s work justice, it is essential to keep in mind that he was a philosophy professor who saw himself as developing the particular branch of moral philosophy called political economy. He did not think of the economy and the government as two separate entities, but rather as a unified, intertwined system. Before diving into the following chapters, readers should also know that the vast majority of Book IV deals with mercantilism, which was the dominant approach to political economy in Smith’s time. The agricultural system will only get one short chapter, and it is essentially a footnote in Smith’s theory and modern legacy. But this is only because Smith made the agricultural system irrelevant. He did so by incorporating the agricultural thinkers’ most valuable insights into his own theory, which quickly overtook theirs in popularity.