On the 250th anniversary of its publication, we revisit one of the most consequential books ever written: Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. Published on 9th March 1776 — the same year as the American Declaration of Independence — Smith’s masterwork laid the intellectual foundations for modern economics, free trade, and the idea that individual freedom, properly channelled through law and competition, can transform entire nations from poverty to prosperity.
Daniel Freeman is joined by Dr Mark Skousen, presidential fellow at Chapman University and author of The Making of Modern Economics and the new IEA paper The Genius of Adam Smith. Together they explore why Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher with no economics department to his name, produced ideas that still define debates about wealth, inequality, and the role of government today. From the invisible hand to the system of natural liberty, Skousen unpacks why Smith’s three grand principles — justice, freedom, and competition — remain as radical and relevant as ever.
They also take stock of the state of the Adam Smith model in 2026, asking whether his vision of peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice is advancing or retreating in the face of rising protectionism, trade wars, and renewed enthusiasm for state intervention. With Smith’s ideas increasingly under pressure from all sides of the political spectrum, this conversation is a timely reminder of what is at stake — and why, 250 years on, the debate Smith started is far from over.
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