IASS & The World in 1776/2026: The Wealth of Nations at 250: Conference

The Wealth of Nations is one of the most influential, yet misunderstood, books in human history. It is known today mostly as a work of economics, when it was much more. Adam Smith’s analysis of the new form of freedom that was emerging during the Enlightenment has shaped the way we think about morality and politics, as well as the economy. It was written against the backdrop of a revolutionary age, in which the emergence of empires transformed the global economy and new Enlightenment ideas sowed the seeds of representative government. Writing on the eve of the American Revolution, Smith used his expertise in political economy to argue against the imperial policies of the time, including slavery, as inconsistent with Enlightenment values. He critiqued the power of large corporations and accused them of corrupting the British government and undermining the free market.

The debates Smith engaged are still with us: How should we regulate business? How can we protect workers from exploitation? How can we address inequality? What economic and political relations should countries have with one another? In this workshop we will use Smith’s answers to these questions as a springboard to generate new answers for our time.

This panel will cover Smith’s radical critique of the Atlantic slave trade, the East India Company, and British imperialism in India and Africa; and the way Smith’s ideas fit into Enlightenment debates on empire; and the relevance of Smith’s critique for contemporary debates on the legacies of slavery and empire.

This panel will cover Smith’s analysis of the politics and economics of British rule in the American colonies, and situate his prescient critique on the eve of the American Revolution at the midpoint of a revolutionary century that saw uprisings from France to Haiti to Venezuela.

This will cover Smith’s critique of corporations and their role in both state capture and the oppression of workers, but from a contemporary perspective, considering what Smith’s ideas contribute to our understanding of the power of Amazon or Exxon Mobil, or the conditions of workers in global supply chains.

This panel will examine Smith as a moral theorist, drawing on his account of sympathy (empathy), and the economic as a relational and social domain to comment on contemporary issues like wealth inequality, generational inequality, climate change and climate justice.

Info: Panellists include: Glory Liu, Sandra Peart, Spyridon Tegos, Erin Lockwood & Erik Peinart

Info: Panellists include: Jim Otteson & Eoin McLaughlin

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Host or Publisher College of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow