Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations

“With an unsurpassed mastery of Adam Smith’s work Daniel Diatkine has written an important revisionist interpretation. By a determined concentration on the problems Smith himself saw and tried to solve, rather than the problems we may have wanted him to see and solve, Diatkine is able to set aside a good deal of the anachronism that still distorts our understanding of the Scottish thinker. Here a striking contribution is Diatkine’s focus on class as an important factor in Smith’s analysis of the detrimental role of the people who wielded capital.”

 --Prof. Knud Haakonssen, University of Saint Andrews, U.K.

 “This powerful and lucid book frees Smith's thought from common misrepresentations and revives his original intent.”

 --Prof. Laurent Jaffro, Panthéon-Sorbonne University, France.

 “Diatkine’s impressive work addresses multiple Adam Smith problems: how Smith’s  impartial spectatorand our love of system and order, transformed Aristotle’s  chrematistic concerns into the beneficial desire to accumulate capital;  solved Hume’s puzzlement why we obey political (and economic) contracts; both ultimately generating economic wealth but under the oppressive mercantilist system; necessitating its replacement with Smith’s alternative system of natural liberty – thereby generating new theoretical and practical problems. Here is a true tour de force.”

 --Prof. Spencer J. Pack, Connecticut College, USA


 “Diatkine combines intelligent textual analysis and deep knowledge of the historical and cultural context to offer new perspectives on the most famous economic work of all time.”


--Prof Annalisa Rosselli, Università degli studi di Roma « Tor Vergata », Italy
This book examines Smith’s criticism of the mercantile system, the political dimension of capitalism. Through insights into Smith’s analysis ofthe political threats of capital accumulation and the growth of inequality, the point at which he discovered capitalism is highlighted.


This book aims to explore Smith’s belief set out in The Wealth of Nations that the mercantile system was a viable, if politically dangerous, economic model. It is relevant to students and researchers interested in the history of economic thought.

Daniel Diatkine is Emeritus Professor for economics at the University of Paris-Saclay/University of Évry.