Adam Smith

1776 is a rather special year, if we avoid using wired. When China started to take a bow in the stage that she had been leading for thousands of years, the western world was just equally experiencing a huge transformation. Here, I would not talk about the birth of a great county, neither the death of the discoverer of atom. In this year, we human turned our page of economics by celebrating the appearance of "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” or more popularly, "The Wealth of Nations" . The author, also hero of this debut of my blog, is the famous economist Adam SMITH! (Hurray!!!!!!!!!!)

Should we look into the biography of this giant in economics, we could surely find millions of notes in any search engine. In brief, he, a Scottish who had lost his father before his birth, received his junior education mostly in Scotland. Then, he spent 6 years in Oxford where he failed to find what could possibly interest him. Afterwards, he began delivering lectures and in 1751 he became chair of logic and chair of moral philosophy one year later which took quite a part of his passion and career. As time passed by, Adam suited himself more in economic issues. On returning from a long journey with his student (he was thus well-paid), he devoted 10 years to his magnum opus as mentioned above. As to his personality, he was a nice person or benevolent one not only because he dedicated a considerable part of he wealth to the charity organization but also he gained his fame in his time for a book called "The theory of moral sentiments", in which he differed himself from others on base of sympathy.

His works is more than fundamental to the whole economic world. He had, in his book, studied the form of price with a correlative regards to land, labor and capital. He proclaimed that the market, appearing to be in a chaos, was actually manipulated by an "invisible hand". Three key questions that direct the market: what to produce, how to produce and for whom to produce can be reasonably answered by his invisible hand! He also pointed out that the characteristic of the efficiency of market whereas the social economic benefits mainly due to the sum of the individual profit hunting.

Two anecdotes about him:

1， When he was at his early age, Adam was once kidnapped by a band of Gypsies. If it's not because of his brave uncle, he would have been struggling for living as a clown down the street!

2, Even though he was such a great man, he had no wife nor children.

To end my first blog, I would like my dear readers to share with me some quote from Adam Smith:

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It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.

As every individual, therefore, endeavours 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 value of society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, 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 other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it.

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