Wealth of nations Do you know Adam Smith? His ideas have made great Influence on alle the political leaders and the way we do business now. In 1776 this men has published a book called "Wealth of Nations". In this book Smith came up with three major modern ideas: division of labor, self interest and free trade. Smith used an example of pin making to emplain the first idea. At that time, the process of pin making involved just only one men oder women and they finished the work alone from start to end. Smith suggested instead that the work be divided between 5 people so that everyone completed just a small part of that. He calculated that the productivity would be improved about 240 times. This idea ist really the precursor to the modern "mass production" and assembly lines, that are considerably used nowadays. The second idea is the persuit of self interest, Smith believed it to be a powerful economic force. To illustate it Smith writes of a butcher, a baker and a brewer. The butcher sells meat to the baker and brewer, so he makes profit and spends in turn some of these money in the shop of baker and brewer. It's as if, althrough working for themselves, they are benefiting the society around them. Smith believed that due in part to "self interest", prices would regulate themselves. To see it in this way, if the butcher overcharged the meat, the baker and brewer wouldn't come back again, so it's his self interest that make him charge a fair price for his product. Therefore, Smith called the price an "invisible hand" that controlled the markt. This led to the third idea, that of free trade. Smith believed that a free markt, let alone from the government, would benefit everyone. In other words, it was when the government started to make rules to controll trade, that trade suffered. There were also critics of free markt. People argue that if people du buiness in a world with no rules, their self interest encourages them act unwisely and dishonestly, that may lead to a markt crush, such as that of 2008. One thing through, is clear ,since the publiction of Smith's Wealth of Nations, it has proved to be an accurate prediction of the way we du business in the modern world.