Abstract

ABSTRACT It has long been recognised that Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776) advances a ‘system of natural liberty’ in seeking to account for the ‘nature and causes of the wealth of nations.’ This is not however a theme that is explored or explained in the early sections of the book; in fact, not until Book IV, Ch. ix does Smith give his most expansive account of what he might mean by this term. This paper examines this chapter in detail to determine the limits of his critique in that chapter of the ‘agricultural system’ (of Physiocracy), and why it might be that Smith is so parsimonious in offering a clear account of his central idea.