Choosing America's Economic Future

More than one person has remarked upon the providential character of one of the most important books ever written, “The Wealth of Nations”, being published the same year as that most consequential of modern political statements: the Declaration of Independence. The book’s author, Adam Smith, widely regarded as the father of modern economics and the first great theorist of how a modern capitalist economy and commercial society should work, paid attention to what was transpiring in Britain’s North American colonies. He even ventured that giving the colonies their independence might ensure that the tensions between them and Britain around the issues of taxation, trade, and sovereignty did not spill over into outright war.