Book 1 is about the advantages of the divisions of labor along with a history of money an exposition on prices, wages, profits, interest, and rent on land. followed by a history of inflation.
Book 2 is about national income accounting and theory of capital accumulation. this includes an early model of what some call the circular flow, the two way circulation of money and goods.
Book 3 is a history of Europe since the fall of Rome until Smith's time in the late 18th century.
Book 4 presents a long attack on the government attempts to regulate trade to achieve certain ends. He presents an argument in favor of free trade for every different attempt that they made.
Book 5 is a manual of public finance.
The principles put forth in this book basically started a new science, that of economics. it's similar in effect to Aristotle's Physica, Franklin's Electricity, or Darwin's Origin of Species in each of their respective elements.
B for Will - you've told us broadly what the book contains, but not how it is relevant to this book.
ReplyDeleteThe clue is at the end. What does it mean to say that it taught us "to see markets in a certain way. Through bifocals ..."?